For decades, communications professionals tailored strategies around earned media. At the time, there was no need to differentiate between “owned media,” “paid media” and “earned media.” PR was fundamentally about building relationships and influence through third parties. Journalists and media relations were central to the strategy. Owned channels were limited, social media did not exist and digital advertising was still in its infancy.

Over time, the communications landscape evolved dramatically. Brands invested heavily in owned content, digital advertising, social media, SEO, podcasts, video and self-publishing platforms. Earned media became one component of a much larger integrated communications strategy. For many communications professionals, it began to feel like traditional media relations was losing ground to paid digital campaigns with measurable ROI, owned media channels that gave brands full control over messaging and search-driven content strategies designed to improve discoverability and engagement.

But the rise of AI search and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is shifting the landscape again.

Earned media is no longer just a credibility play. It is becoming a foundational driver of AI visibility, digital authority and reputation management.

What Is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, refers to the process of improving how brands appear within AI-generated responses across platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Unlike traditional SEO, which focused heavily on rankings, clicks and keyword positioning, GEO focuses on influence inside AI-generated recommendations and summaries.

Some marketers also refer to this as Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO. While GEO and AEO are often framed as separate concepts, they are increasingly describing the same broader shift: optimizing visibility and influence within AI-generated answers and recommendation engines. GEO tends to focus more broadly on generative AI ecosystems, while AEO originated from optimizing for direct-answer search experiences. In practice, both are centered on how brands appear, are cited and are recommended by AI systems.

Today’s AI search experiences are fundamentally different from traditional search engines. Historically, search engines delivered a list of links for users to evaluate themselves. AI-powered search increasingly delivers synthesized answers, recommendations and conclusions.

A user may no longer search for “top asset management firms” and browse through multiple websites. Instead, they may ask an AI assistant for the best companies in that category and receive a shortlist instantly. That changes the competitive landscape dramatically because brands are no longer competing solely for rankings. They are competing for recommendations.

And the data increasingly supports the growing influence of earned media within AI environments. A recent Muck Rack Generative Pulse study analyzing more than 25 million AI-cited links found that approximately 99% of AI citations came from non-paid sources, while journalism alone accounted for roughly 27% of all citations.

Why Earned Media Matters Even More in the AI Era

AI systems rely heavily on signals of expertise, authority, trust and credibility when generating answers. Earned media coverage in reputable publications helps establish those signals because third-party validation continues to carry more weight than self-published brand claims.

This is where earned media and GEO strategy intersect. Strategic media relations programs are becoming increasingly important in shaping how AI systems interpret expertise, credibility and authority within a category. When respected media outlets, trade publications, podcasts, newsletters, content creators, analysts and industry experts consistently reference a brand, those signals contribute to how AI systems understand authority and relevance.

In many ways, earned media is becoming machine-readable reputation builders.

The Muck Rack study reinforces this shift. Approximately 84% of all AI citations came from earned media sources, including journalism, academic research, government sources, encyclopedic references, social platforms and third-party content.

The research also found that industry trend-related queries were far more likely to cite journalism than transactional or “how-to” searches. That finding matters because it underscores the growing role of thought leadership, trend commentary and strategic media positioning in shaping AI visibility.

For years, organizations focused on building robust owned content ecosystems to improve SEO and discoverability. That strategy still matters. But AI visibility increasingly depends on what credible external sources say about a brand across the broader digital ecosystem. This evolution reinforces the importance of strategic media relations, thought leadership programs, executive visibility, analyst relations, influencer engagement, podcast participation and consistent brand mentions across trusted sources.

Importantly, GEO should not be viewed as replacing traditional PR strategy. It should be additive to it.

The organizations seeing the greatest success are not abandoning core communications fundamentals in favor of AI optimization tactics. Instead, they are recognizing that strong PR, consistent thought leadership, trusted media relationships and authoritative storytelling now have amplified value because they influence both human audiences and AI systems simultaneously.

In the GEO era, earned media does not simply influence human audiences. It influences the AI systems shaping discovery itself.

GEO Is Bigger Than SEO or PR Alone

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding AI visibility is the idea that it can be solved through a single tactic.

AI systems pull information from a broad ecosystem of digital signals spanning communications, SEO, content marketing, paid media, social engagement, reviews and audience interactions. Earned media plays a critical role because it establishes authority and credibility, but GEO performance is also shaped by owned website content, backlink authority, digital advertising visibility, expert-authored content, influencer content, podcasts, newsletters and audience engagement signals.

This shift is forcing organizations to rethink modern communications strategy. GEO represents a convergence of communications, marketing, reputation management and digital strategy. Organizations with integrated communications strategies will be better positioned to influence both human audiences and AI systems.

The brands that succeed in AI-driven discovery will not operate these disciplines in silos. They will integrate them.

Rethinking Media Strategy for AI Search

The rise of GEO is also changing how organizations should think about media strategy itself. Historically, communications teams evaluated media opportunities based on audience reach, publication prestige, circulation numbers, website traffic and target demographics.

Those metrics still matter. 

In addition, AI search introduces a new consideration: influence within AI systems.

Interestingly, the data suggests that influence inside AI systems does not always align with traditional perceptions of media dominance. The Muck Rack study found that AI models collectively cited journalism across more than 20,000 distinct outlets, with citations distributed across trade press, local media and niche vertical publications.

Axios emerged as a notable outlier, appearing in ChatGPT’s top three cited domains across 13 of 17 industries analyzed. That finding reinforces an important point for communications teams: AI authority is increasingly shaped by relevance, consistency and topical expertise, not just legacy prestige.

A niche trade publication, expert newsletter, podcast or Substack with deep topical authority may significantly influence how AI models understand a category, industry trend or company. In some cases, highly specialized sources may carry equal or greater influence than broader mainstream coverage.

That does not diminish the importance of traditional media. Instead, it expands the definition of authority.

Organizations must now evaluate media opportunities through two lenses: human audience influence and AI ecosystem influence. This creates a powerful dynamic where media coverage influences GEO authority, while GEO analysis increasingly helps organizations identify which publications and digital communities carry the strongest influence in AI-generated environments.

The Future of Integrated Communications and GEO

The pace of change surrounding AI search and discovery continues to accelerate. While the GEO landscape is still evolving, one reality is becoming increasingly clear: Generative Engine Optimization is not replacing integrated communications but rather accelerating the need for it.

For years, marketers and communications professionals have discussed breaking down silos between PR, SEO, paid media, content marketing and digital strategy. AI may finally force that convergence into reality.

The brands that succeed will be the ones that consistently build trust, authority and visibility across every channel where audiences and algorithms gather information. Earned media remains a foundational part of that equation, but in the AI era, its impact extends beyond human perception. It now directly shapes how AI systems evaluate credibility, surface recommendations and influence reputation in an increasingly AI-driven search environment.