What one million AI searches tell us about media relations
Analysing more than one million citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, Muck Rack's recent study found that 82% of AI citations come from earned media, while 99% come from non-paid sources. Press releases, meanwhile, accounted for less than 1% of citations.
So, if anyone still thinks AI search will reduce the importance of earned media, the data tells a very different story.
Muck Rack’s research reinforces many of the patterns we’ve been seeing in our own review of how tech brands appear in AI search. And over the past year, we’ve been helping our clients understand what Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) means in practice.
As we explain in our guide, (Almost) Everything You Need to Know About GEO in PR, improving visibility in AI search isn’t about finding shortcuts or learning an entirely new discipline. It’s about building authority, creating genuinely useful content, and making sure that content is easy to discover.
How does earned media influence AI search?
PR has always been — and still is — about influencing people. Increasingly, though, we also need to consider AI as another gateway to those people, and how it shapes the information it draws on when answering users' questions.
When ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini respond to a prompt, they rarely rely on a single source. Instead, these tools build an answer using information from across the web, drawing on trusted editorial coverage alongside owned content and industry expertise. Muck Rack’s research found that earned media makes up the overwhelming majority of those citations (82%).
So, earned coverage is valuable not just because someone reads an article today, but also because it will become part of the information AI draws on tomorrow.
The report also found that specialist publications such as T3 and TechRadar were cited more consistently by ChatGPT than many national newspaper titles. While these examples focus on consumer tech, the broader lesson for PR and comms teams is that recognised subject-matter expertise appears to carry more weight than broad reach. That reinforces the value of securing coverage in trusted specialist and industry publications, not just the biggest media brands.
To complement the point above, AI can only reference content it is actually allowed to access. At the risk of sounding a bit obvious, publications that allow AI crawlers received significantly more citations than those that block them. The Guardian, for example, was cited far more frequently than The Times and The Telegraph, both of which restrict major AI crawlers. Even the best coverage can only influence AI if it’s accessible in the first place.
AI search isn’t rewriting the PR rulebook
Muck Rack’s research shows us that many of the fundamentals of digital visibility still apply. Like Google with SEO, AI platforms favour trusted sources, specialist expertise, and content they can easily access.
These are the same principles that have underpinned search visibility for years. As we detailed in our recent GEO guide, GEO isn’t replacing SEO with an entirely new set of tactics. Instead, we see GEO as building on SEO. It’s just that the objective has shifted from ranking a single webpage to building enough authority that AI systems choose to cite your brand in their answers.
Where SEO has focused on helping your own website rank higher, GEO considers your wider digital presence. Of course your website still matters, but so do the trusted third-party sources that AI uses to validate information, such as earned media, analyst reports, industry publications, and government websites.
What should tech brands do?
The good news is that you don’t need to rethink your entire comms strategy.
Prioritise relevance over reach. Rather than chasing the biggest names, focus on securing coverage in the publications that are relevant to your audience and industry. These will reach your target audience with greater precision and are also more likely to be quoted by AI.
Make sure AI can access your content. Whether it’s your own website or the publications covering you, AI platforms can only cite content they can crawl.
Take a joined-up approach to PR, SEO, and content. AI doesn’t distinguish between earned, owned, and shared media in the way marketing teams often do. It builds answers from signals across the web, making it more important than ever that these disciplines work together to build authority and trust.
Don’t optimise for a single AI platform. Muck Rack’s research found that Gemini was more likely to cite UK organisations, ChatGPT favoured consumer and tech publications, while Claude relied more heavily on authoritative reference sources. Different models surface information in different ways, so chasing one platform is unlikely to deliver long-term results.
Focus on building authority, not gaming algorithms. As with SEO, there are no lasting shortcuts to win quickly with GEO. Brands that consistently publish useful and relevant content, earn credible third-party coverage, and establish themselves as trusted sources are likely to be the ones AI systems cite the most.
For tech brands, the implication is clear: earning high-quality editorial coverage in trusted publications is becoming increasingly important not just for reaching target audiences directly, but for influencing how AI answers questions about your products, services, and brand.
FAQs
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Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of improving your brand’s visibility in AI-generated responses. It combines SEO, PR, and content strategy to help AI systems find, understand, and trust information about your business.
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Yes, but it builds on many of the same principles, and they should not replace each other. While SEO focuses on improving your visibility in traditional search engines, GEO also considers how AI models use trusted third-party sources, earned media, and other signals from across the web.
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Yes. Muck Rack’s research found that 82% of AI citations come from earned media, reinforcing the growing role of authoritative editorial coverage in shaping AI responses.
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Not individually. Each model cites different sources, so the better approach is to build authority across trusted publications, create useful owned content, and ensure your website is technically accessible.
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There isn’t a single ranking factor. The strongest signals are the same ones that underpin good SEO and PR: authoritative content, trusted third-party coverage, technical accessibility, and a consistent digital presence.
