With most B2B buyers starting research in an AI chatbot, PR is becoming a tool to shape what AI recommends. Generative engine optimisation rewards consistent messaging and credible third-party validation.
Earned authority is becoming the currency of AI search. The brands the models trust are the brands they recommend.
A growing body of advice is pushing B2B marketers to treat PR as a tool for shaping what AI recommends, not just for managing reputation. The logic is blunt. Buyers increasingly start their research with an AI query, and large language models pull from owned content, search visibility, social presence and third-party validation like PR and analyst commentary when they decide which brands to name.
The discipline has a name now, generative engine optimisation, the practice of earning citations and recommendations inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. Unlike traditional SEO, which fights for a ranked list of links, this targets how models retrieve and reference brands in a conversational answer.
One practical warning stands out. Inconsistent language across your website, your spokespeople and your sales materials confuses the models. If your own messaging does not agree with itself, an AI has no clear signal to repeat.
Why it matters
For Australian B2B businesses, this reframes both PR and content. If more than half of buyers begin with an AI query, being absent or muddled in AI answers means being left off the shortlist before a human ever sees you. The brands that get cited are the ones with consistent messaging and credible third-party coverage backing it up.
It also changes how you measure PR. Coverage was always hard to tie to revenue. Now there is a sharper test. Does the coverage make the AI more likely to name you when a buyer asks?
71% of B2B software buyers now use AI chatbots to research vendors, and more than half start with an AI query (G2).
What to do about it
Make your messaging consistent everywhere. Website, spokespeople and sales decks should tell the model the same story.
Earn third-party validation. PR, analyst mentions and credible commentary are signals the models weigh.
Test what the AIs say about you. Ask the major models how they describe your category and check whether you are named.
Refresh on a cycle. AI visibility shifts, so audit and update your presence quarterly rather than once a year.
Being invisible in AI answers is the new being invisible on page two. The B2B brands that build authority now will own the shortlist later. Start treating AI visibility as a quarterly discipline now, while most of your competitors still think of it as someone else's problem.