Why PR is Experiencing a Renaissance and How it Influences AI Search Results

Signup Write New Story Why PR is Experiencing a Renaissance and How it Influences AI Search Results by Vera Voron by Vera Voron | @ veravoron Founder & CEO at Creators Agency Founder & CEO, Creators Agency — PR for B2B & tech companies going global. Ex-media owner: built 5M users tech media group

Founder & CEO, Creators Agency — PR for B2B & tech companies going global. Ex-media owner: built 5M users tech media group

PR has always been the problem child of the marketing mix. The reason is that you cannot measure it. No one can count how many leads the PR department brought in, or how many became sales. The performance marketer comes in with the cost per lead, the paid-ads professional shows conversion rates, and the PR specialist brings a folder full of press cuttings and talks about reputation.

The industry admits this, too. Two in five communications specialists say that their main success metrics are the number of publications and reach. It means they measure how much work gets done, but not what it actually achieves.

So, it’s hardly surprising that PR budgets are often the first to be cut in a crisis. Let’s be honest — PR isn’t seen as having a direct impact on sales.

In 2026, PR is having a renaissance worldwide, and the reason is AI. It all comes down to where language models source their data for responses. In May 2026, Muck Rack — one of the world’s largest platforms for PR professionals — analysed more than 25 million links that ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini cited across 17 sectors. Third-party platforms supplied 84 percent of all citations, and a brand’s own content just around 14 percent.

Much of that comes from the media. Journalism makes up 27 percent of all citations, steady across three editions of the study now. Still, not all publications make it into the responses. But a few kinds of content earn far more citations than the rest, and if you want to show up regularly, these are where to focus your efforts:

Expert articles. Language models link a person to a topic when they comment on it again and again across different platforms. As Search Atlas explains, when the same expert comments on topic X time and time again, AI starts to treat them as an expert, and cites them far more readily. Furthermore, AI systems cite content with the named author and clear expertise more often than anonymous content.

That’s how your company appears in AI answers when users ask about your field. Language models cite sources — often by name. If your specialist writes columns, gives quotes and joins podcasts on the same topic, the model ties their name to it. When a user asks, the AI may refer specifically to your expert.

Articles featuring round-ups and top-10 lists. AI models love structure. When a text contains a numbered list, the models can easily extract it. A study by Evertune shows that, out of nearly 400 million citations across six models, 63 percent point to list pages, and 71-86 percent of those are numbered rankings like ‘the best X for Y’.

And the higher your company ranks on the list, the better its chances of appearing in the answer.

Another study by Peec AI, based on 5.7 million data points across eight models, found that brands at the top of lists are 13-16 percent likelier to appear in an AI answer. Consistently topping the lists in your field cements a company’s place in AI recommendations.

Publishing your own research. Original data is the bread and butter of language models. A peer-reviewed study by Princeton University and Georgia Tech tested nine content optimisation techniques across 10,000 queries. Adding original statistics increased visibility in AI answers by 41 percent, and that was the biggest gain of all those tested.

But if you quote someone else’s figures, the model may refer to the original source. When the data is your own, as Similarweb explains, the model has nowhere else to turn and has to cite you. And for PR it is a ready-made news hook, as fresh data is news, and journalists are keen to publish it.

If you want language models to cite your company regularly, invest in two areas:

Your PR department. Expert columns, being featured in round-ups, publishing your own research — all of this is the PR department’s job. PR is what builds the brand’s presence on the platforms language models trust.

What’s more, for the first time, PR professionals now have tools that show concrete results. In 2026, a whole new category of platforms emerged that track how language models mention brands. The largest of these, Profound, is already valued at a billion dollars. PR professionals no longer turn up with a folder full of press cuttings and talk about reputation. They can show your brand’s share of voice in AI answers.

AI training for your PR team — focused on the tools that shape how visible your brand is in AI answers. Today, PR professionals need to understand how models select sources to cite and how to track a brand’s presence in AI answers. Muck Rack finds 76 percent of PR professionals already use generative AI, but mostly for writing and research. Few know how to shape the way a brand appears in AI answers. Only 43 percent of companies train their PR teams on AI — though this is twice as many as in 2024.

In 2026, it is not the time for cutting PR budgets. Of all the marketing tools, PR answers the question every business is now asking. And that is how to secure its place in an era where AI shapes more and more of what people choose. At our agency, we see this as one of the key values of our profession today.

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