Jessica Sharp 
If you’re in a business where being found online is important for driving new business, we need to talk about what’s happening with search.
Recent studies show that when Google’s AI Overviews appear in search results, click-through rates to traditional websites have dropped by as much as 34.5%. Some publishers have seen even more dramatic declines. Mail Online reported a 56% decrease in clicks when AI Overviews appeared for their top-ranking keywords. We’re also seeing a massive increase in “zero-click searches” – where 60% of all global searches now end without the user clicking on a link. If you think back to the last search you did on Google, it’s likely that you read information that was curated for you and never clicked a link.
What this means is that the traditional playbook for online visibility is changing dramatically. It also means that public relations practices have been uniquely positioned for this shift all along.
Understanding the Shift from Organic to AI Search
Here’s a quick background on what’s happening with search.
Traditional organic search, what we’ve all done for the past two decades, works by ranking web pages based on keywords, backlinks, and dozens of other factors. When someone searches for “best public relations firms in Philadelphia,” Google shows a ranked list of websites, and people click through to explore their options.
AI search works differently. Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot don’t just point you to websites, they synthesize information from multiple sources and provide direct answers. Instead of clicking through ten blue links, users get a comprehensive response right there in the search interface. Sometimes those responses include citations to sources; sometimes they don’t. But either way, the user often never leaves the AI platform.
This shift is significant. According to Gartner’s predictions, by 2028, brands’ organic search traffic will decrease by 50% or more as consumers embrace AI-powered search.
The news industry has been the canary in the coal mine here. Publishers have experienced sharp declines in referral traffic from traditional search engines, particularly as Google has expanded its AI Overviews feature. CNN’s website traffic has dropped about 30% from a year ago, while HuffPost’s sites saw traffic plunges around 40% in the same period.
What makes this particularly relevant for companies who implement thought leadership practices is what the journalism industry is learning: AI search platforms cannot do what human experts do—chatbots cannot report, and that’s something professionals can do that robots cannot. This is exactly where thought leadership becomes invaluable.
PR’s Unique Advantage in the AI Search Era
Here’s where it gets interesting for those of us in public relations. The strategies we’ve been using for years to position thought leaders are precisely what AI platforms prioritize.
Recent analysis of over 680 million citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity reveals that these platforms favor authoritative, well-structured content from established sources. They’re looking for:
- Original insights and expert perspectives
- Content published in recognized industry publications
- Well-structured articles with clear hierarchies
- Authoritative voices with demonstrated expertise
- Fresh, regularly updated content
If you work in PR or closely with a PR firm, this probably sounds familiar. This is precisely what thought leadership PR has always delivered.
Here’s a recent example from a Maven client. We’ve been working closely with an attorney who specializes in legal counsel for family-owned businesses. We recently pitched and placed an article written by him on business divorce in Family Business Magazine, an identified authoritative publication with AI. A few weeks after the article was published, a business owner searching for guidance on this exact issue found the article through an AI search platform, not through traditional Google search, and reached out directly to the attorney author.
What’s remarkable about this isn’t just that it worked, it’s that we weren’t doing anything different from our standard thought leadership positioning. We were simply securing placement in a strategic, authoritative industry publication for expertly written content. The AI platform recognized the value and authority of both the publication and the insights, and surfaced it when someone needed exactly that expertise.
How AI Platforms Decide What to Cite
Understanding which sources AI platforms favor helps clarify why PR is so valuable in this new landscape.
Wikipedia dominates citations across all three major platforms, with ChatGPT citing it 16.3% of the time. But beyond Wikipedia, the patterns get interesting.
ChatGPT heavily favors established sources with structured data, including Forbes, industry publications, and authoritative websites. Research analyzing 6.8 million AI citations shows that 86% of citations come from sources brands already control, such as their own websites and business listings.
What this means practically: getting your thought leaders published in respected industry publications, maintaining an authoritative website with well-structured content, and building a presence across multiple credible platforms all increase the likelihood that AI will cite your expertise.
Optimizing Your Brand for AI Search: The PR Approach
So how do you actually optimize your professional services firm for AI search? The answer looks remarkably similar to what good PR has always done, but with some additional considerations.
The first step is to publish in authoritative industry publications. This has always been a cornerstone of thought leadership, but it’s become even more critical. AI platforms preferentially cite content from well-structured, authoritative publications because they provide trustworthy, expert perspectives. Focus on the publications where your target clients turn for insights.
Next, it’s extremely important to ensure that your content is original and provides real value. The most effective strategy isn’t to outproduce competitors with AI-generated content (we’ve all noticed brands that are doing this), it’s to create content so genuinely valuable and original that AI platforms naturally elevate it. AI can spot the difference between authentic expertise and generic content, and audiences increasingly value insights from real experts over machine-generated text, which has become extremely prevalent.
To that end, it’s also important to structure your content for citation. AI platforms favor content that’s easy to parse and cite. This means having a clear, hierarchical structure with descriptive headlines (see this blog post); content with data tables, statistics or original research, when possible; concrete takeaways; and specific, actionable information rather than vague generalities.
Diversifying your presence across platforms is also important. While traditional SEO often focused on a few high-authority sites, AI draws from a broader range of sources, creating multiple touchpoints for discovery. As a thought leader, your presence should span your own website, LinkedIn, industry publications, podcasts, and even speaking engagements. Each touchpoint increases the likelihood that an AI platform will encounter and cite your expertise.
Finally, make sure you’re also maintaining your website as an authoritative source. For thought leaders in particular industries such as professional services, websites make up a significant portion of AI citations for unbranded queries. Practically, this means ensuring that your website is full of well-structured content, is regularly updated with thought leader pieces (blogs, whitepapers, articles, etc.), and each piece of content includes an author with attribution.
So, What Now?
The good news is, if you’ve been investing in authentic thought leadership, you’re already doing much of what’s needed for AI search visibility. You don’t need to tear down your strategy and start over.
Small firms with strong thought leadership can now compete against larger competitors in AI search, because budget matters less than the originality of insights shared. For now, AI is rewarding genuine expertise over marketing spend.
If this type of thought leadership hasn’t been so front and center for you, now’s the time. Here are just a few elements to consider:
- Fresh content is extremely important right now. AI platforms, particularly ChatGPT, favor newer content, with publications updated within the past 30 days getting significantly more citations. This doesn’t mean older content is irrelevant, but it does mean maintaining an active presence matters. Consider giving older content a quick update to keep it relevant, including a new title and subheads.
- Rather than write surface-level or “clickbait” content, put more of a focus on depth and specificity. Go deep on the areas where your expertise truly shines. Well-researched, evidence-backed analysis, especially if it challenges industry assumptions, is more likely to get cited by AI platforms.
- Keeping your own website and blog up to date is important, but don’t rely solely on your own platforms. Building authority means being recognized beyond your own website. Third-party validation through authoritative publications, media interviews, and speaking engagements also signals credibility to both humans and AI.
- Despite all of this, traditional SEO still matters. It’s still the case that sites ranking in Google’s top 10 are significantly more likely to be cited by AI platforms. So don’t drop the SEO strategy all together, just enjoy the new tool in your search toolbox.
Final Thoughts
What I find most encouraging with the advent of AI search is that the fundamentals of what makes good PR haven’t changed. The PR industry has always focused on authentic expertise, strategic positioning, and third-party validation. We’ve always prioritized substance, quality, and genuine value in thought leadership.
Those principles matter more than ever in an AI-driven world. As organizations respond to AI by churning out massive amounts of AI-generated content, this approach is not only brand-damaging but also stands to backfire against findability since it lacks actual thought leadership.
Companies that will thrive aren’t those that game the system or produce the highest volume of content. They’re the ones that commit to genuine expertise, share valuable insights generously, and build authority over time through consistent, high-quality thought leadership.
Which, it turns out, is exactly what good PR has been doing all along.
If you’re ready to position your company for success in the AI search era, we’re here to help you develop a thought leadership strategy that works across both traditional and AI-driven platforms. Get in touch with us to start the conversation.
Posted In Thought Leadership