There’s a shift happening right now that most businesses haven’t fully caught up with. AI is no longer just something people are experimenting with. It’s increasingly being used to understand markets, compare companies and form early views on who is credible, established and worth shortlisting.

That means a large part of how your business is being understood is now being shaped before you’re even part of the conversation.

If someone asked an AI tool today to compare companies in your category, what would it actually say about yours, and would that reflect the business you’ve actually built? It’s a simple question, but one that most leadership teams haven’t really stopped to consider.

In many cases, before a founder gets on a call with an investor, before a sales team speaks to a prospective client, or before a partnership conversation even begins, there is already a view being formed. That shift is subtle, but commercially significant.

What AI is actually using to form that view

There’s a lot of noise around AI, but when you step back, the behaviour is relatively straightforward. These systems prioritise information they can trust, which typically means credible third party sources, expert commentary and content supported by data or independent validation.

Analysis of more than a million AI-cited links shows that the overwhelming majority come from non-paid sources, with earned media and editorial content forming the bulk of what is referenced. Owned content, press releases and sponsored placements make up only a small proportion, reinforcing a simple point: AI isn’t rewarding volume, it’s rewarding credibility.

We’re starting to see this play out in real time. In one case, a B2B company we worked with saw a meaningful portion of inbound leads come through AI-driven search queries, directly aligning with the publications they had been featured in. By the time those prospects engaged, they had already formed a view of the business and were coming in far more informed.

Where strong businesses are getting caught out

The gap is rarely capability. More often, it’s external validation.

Many of the businesses we speak to are doing the right things internally. They’re building strong products, growing revenue and investing in marketing. But externally, most of what exists about them sits within their own channels, which becomes a problem in this environment.

When AI, or the people using it, try to form a view, there is limited independent information to draw from. The business may be strong, but it’s harder to verify, compare and ultimately trust.

We see this often with high growth and PE-backed businesses stepping into enterprise or investor conversations, where they feel further along than how they are being perceived. Once there is consistent, credible coverage in the market, that gap closes quickly and conversations move with far less friction.

Why this is now directly impacting commercial outcomes

This is where it becomes more than a marketing consideration.

When a prospective customer, investor or partner arrives having already formed a view of your business, the conversation starts in a very different place. Less time is spent explaining what you do and more time is spent progressing the opportunity.

We’ve seen businesses with strong fundamentals struggle to convert at the level they should, simply because they are not well understood externally. Once that narrative is established and reinforced through credible sources, the difference is immediate, from stronger inbound through to shorter sales cycles and more confident investor engagement.

At the other end, we’ve worked with founders who, within 6 to 12 months of consistent media presence and commentary, have gone from being relatively unknown to being recognised voices in their category. That shift doesn’t just increase visibility, it materially changes the quality and speed of the opportunities coming to them.

The opportunity most businesses are underestimating

What’s interesting is that none of this is new in principle. Businesses have always benefited from strong external credibility.

What’s changed is the environment it’s operating in.

AI is accelerating how that credibility is surfaced, interpreted and used. It’s compressing the time it takes for someone to form a view and increasing the weight placed on what exists beyond your own channels. The businesses that consistently build credible, external presence are not just improving perception, they are building a body of information that compounds over time.

And importantly, that becomes harder for competitors to replicate quickly.

What this means in practice

Public relations has often been viewed as a way to build awareness or support brands.

What we’re seeing now is a shift towards something more fundamental. As AI becomes more embedded in how businesses are researched and compared, the external signals that shape credibility carry more weight, and earned media sits at the centre of that.

Not as a tactic, but as a way of ensuring there is enough credible, external information for your business to be clearly understood.

For leadership teams, the question isn’t whether PR can generate visibility. It’s whether there is enough being said about your business, in the right places, for it to be recognised for what it actually is, before you even enter the conversation.

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