AI Search Is Rewriting Your Reputation. Here's How to Make Sure It Gets the Story Right.
Updated: 3 days ago
ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode and other answer engines now tell people what to think about your business, school, town or firm, often before anyone visits your website. Here's what shapes those answers, what can go wrong, and what to do about it.
By Caron Communications Staff
Key Takeaways
AI is becoming the first impression. About half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots, and 60% say they read the AI summaries at the top of search results, according to Pew Research Center.
Fewer people click through. In Pew's analysis, Google users clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one.
AI leans on what others say about you. Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million AI-cited links found roughly 27% were journalism and only 0.3% were paid content.
AI makes mistakes. A major international study of AI assistants found 45% of answers about news had at least one significant issue, and outdated information was among the most common problems.
The fix is old-fashioned PR, done consistently: credible coverage, clear facts on your own website and one message everywhere.
Not long ago, managing your reputation online meant one thing: page one of Google. Today, many people never see page one. They type a question into ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Mode, read a few confident paragraphs, and move on.
The scale is striking. In late September 2026, OpenAI said ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people every week. In May, Google said AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users and began letting searchers flow from an AI Overview straight into an AI Mode conversation.
So here's the question every organization should be asking: when someone asks AI about you, what does it say, and where did it learn that?
How AI Search Is Changing Public Relations
AI search tools don't just list links. They read sources, summarize them and deliver a verdict. That puts them in the role a trusted reporter or well-connected neighbor used to play.
Adoption is moving fast. Pew Research Center's 2026 survey on Americans and AI found 49% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots, up from 33% in 2024 (Pew notes the question wording changed slightly). About four in ten use them to search for information, and 60% say they read the AI summaries at the top of search results.
For public relations, that changes the job. Being findable isn't enough. You need to be accurately described by machines synthesizing everything written about you.
Zero-Click Search: Why Your Website Gets Fewer Visits
Zero-click search means the question gets answered on the results page, so the searcher never visits your site. It isn't new, but AI summaries have accelerated it.
Pew analyzed the real browsing data of 900 U.S. adults in March 2025. When a Google AI summary appeared, users clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there was no summary. They clicked a link inside the summary on just 1% of visits.
Ahrefs, an SEO software company, re-ran its own study of 300,000 keywords and found that the presence of an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower average click-through rate for the top-ranking page in December 2025.
The picture isn't all bleak. Seer Interactive's 2026 update found click-through rates on queries with AI Overviews bounced back somewhat in early 2026, and that brands cited inside an AI Overview earned about 120% more organic clicks per impression than brands that weren't cited on the same results pages for informational searches. Seer cautions that it can't prove cause and effect, since stronger brands are also more likely to be cited. Google, for its part, says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews tend to be "higher quality."
The takeaway: the impression you make before anyone clicks matters more than ever.
Why Earned Media Matters More Than Ever
Earned media is coverage you don't pay for: news stories, interviews, trade-press mentions and third-party reviews. It appears to carry real weight with AI, which is why media relations matters more than ever.
Muck Rack, a PR software company that also sells AI-visibility tools, has been tracking what AI models cite. Its May 2026 What Is AI Reading? report, based on more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, found:
About 27% of cited links came from journalism, a share that has held between 20% and 30% across its studies.
Roughly 84% fell into what Muck Rack calls earned media, a broad category that includes journalism, research, government sources, Wikipedia, social platforms and third-party content.
Paid and advertorial content made up just 0.3%.
Among journalism citations with known dates, 57% were published in the past 12 months.
Two details matter for Connecticut organizations. AI cited journalism from more than 20,000 distinct outlets, including a "long tail" of trade press and local news, so credible local coverage counts. And recency matters: a great story from 2019 is fading from the record.
Paid content barely registers in AI citations. Credibility has to be earned, and kept current.
Every newsroom veteran knows this: a credible third party vouching for you is worth more than anything you say about yourself. AI models seem to have learned the same lesson.
What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the practice of making your organization easy for AI tools to find, understand, trust and cite accurately. Think of it as SEO's newer cousin, with a heavy dose of PR.
Be wary of anyone selling GEO as a technical trick, and invest in solid content and strategy instead. Google's own guidance on AI features says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode and no special schema or "AI text files" required. The fundamentals still win: pages Google can crawl and index, helpful people-first content, important information in plain text, structured data that matches what's on the page, and an up-to-date Business Profile.
In practice, good GEO rests on three pillars:
Credible third-party coverage that AI can cite when people ask about your sector.
Strong owned content (your website, FAQs, leadership bios and fact pages) that answers direct questions about you. Muck Rack's December 2025 findings suggest owned content is most influential when users ask fact-based questions about a specific brand.
Consistent messaging so that your name, services, leaders and key facts read the same everywhere AI looks.
Original audio and video can help too; our guide on what it takes to become a content creator is a good place to start.
Not sure what AI is saying about your organization? Our team can help you review how you appear in AI answers and build a plan to strengthen your coverage, content and messaging. Book a free consultation and we'll walk through it together.
The Risks: When AI Gets Your Story Wrong
AI tools can be confidently wrong, and that's a reputation risk you can't ignore.
In October 2025, the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC published News Integrity in AI Assistants, in which journalists from 22 public broadcasters in 18 countries evaluated 2,709 answers from free versions of ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini. They found 45% of responses had at least one significant issue, and 20% had significant accuracy problems. One of the most common failures was outdated information: several assistants still named Pope Francis as pope weeks after his death.
Now imagine that error is about your superintendent, your town's trash schedule or your firm's practice areas.
When an error like that spreads, speed and a clear public record matter; that's where experienced crisis communications support helps.
Practical Steps by Sector
Small businesses and startups
Keep your Google Business Profile complete and current; Google's guidance specifically mentions it, and Muck Rack found ChatGPT routinely cites Google Maps results for "best of" questions about local services. Encourage honest reviews, keep your name, address and hours identical everywhere, and pitch local outlets when you have real news.
Schools and districts
Muck Rack found education questions cite journalism less than most sectors, with AI often leaning on ranking platforms and Wikipedia instead. Check what those profiles say, keep your district website current with leadership, calendars and policies in plain text, and share good-news stories with local reporters.
Municipalities
Pew found government websites made up 6% of sources linked in Google's AI summaries, versus 2% in standard results. Outdated meeting schedules, departed officials and old fee tables on your town website can end up in AI answers. Audit it regularly.
Nonprofits
State your mission, programs and impact plainly on your site, and earn coverage that documents your work. If there's a Wikipedia article about you, follow Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guideline, which strongly discourages editing your own entry; propose corrections on the article's talk page instead.
Law firms and attorneys
Accurate attorney bios and practice-area pages help AI answer direct questions about your firm, and commentary in legal and local news builds third-party credibility. Keep every claim within your state's attorney advertising rules.
How to Audit What AI Says About You
Start with a simple monthly check:
Ask the questions your audience asks ("Is [organization] reputable?" "Who runs [town] schools?") in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot.
Log the answers and sources cited, noting errors, outdated facts and gaps.
Fix the source, not the symptom. Update your website, correct directory listings and earn fresh coverage that sets the record straight.
Track mentions and impressions, not just clicks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my business to show up in AI search?
Earn credible third-party coverage, publish clear and current facts on your website, keep your Google Business Profile accurate and use consistent messaging everywhere. Google says no special AI optimization is required; SEO fundamentals and helpful, people-first content still apply.
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
GEO is the practice of making your organization easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode to find, understand, trust and cite accurately. It combines earned media, owned content and consistent messaging.
Does earned media affect what ChatGPT says about my brand?
Research suggests it matters. Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million AI-cited links found about 27% came from journalism and only 0.3% from paid content. More than half of the journalism citations with known dates were less than a year old.
What should I do if AI says something wrong about my organization?
Document the error, correct the underlying sources (your website, listings and any inaccurate coverage), publish a clear factual statement and use the platform's feedback tools. If it's spreading or causing harm, bring in communications and legal counsel quickly.
Will AI search reduce traffic to my website?
It may. Pew found Google users clicked traditional results about half as often when an AI summary appeared. That makes how AI describes you, and whether it cites you, increasingly important.
Make Sure AI Tells Your Story Accurately
AI search rewards the same things good journalism always has: credible sources, clear facts and consistency. The organizations that show up well will invest in real coverage, keep their information current and speak with one voice.
That's the work we do every day. We bring more than 20 years of experience, rooted in the newsroom, to public relations, media relations and content strategy, all 100% in-house, locally owned and operated in Wethersfield. Learn more about our story, read our frequently asked questions, or browse more Caron Communications Insights.
Ready to take control of how AI describes you? Schedule your free consultation, email matt@caroncommunications.com or call 860.800.2023. We offer retainer and project options, 24/7 on-call support and access to our entire team.
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