PR for LLMs: How to Boost Brand Visibility in AI-Powered Search

Public relations has always been about influencing perception through third parties.

Traditionally, that meant persuading people (i.e., reporters, editors, customers, and communities), but today, PR has another audience to win over: machines.

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are no longer fringe tools; they’re quickly becoming the default way people search, summarize, and discover brands. We at COHN have been using LLMs for a few years now to varying degrees, and it’s incredible how integrated these tools are now at agency life.

These platforms work differently from search engines. They do more than just pull up your website; they actually generate answers you’re looking for. And if your brand isn’t part of their data diet, you’re invisible.

This shift requires an entirely new PR playbook—a public relations strategy that aligns with AI search optimization.

At COHN Marketing, we’re helping clients move beyond legacy PR tactics to strategies designed for both human engagement and machine recognition. Think of it as the evolution of earned media, expanding its impact from influencing journalists to influencing algorithms.

This blog and guide breaks down why AI search visibility matters, what most PR teams miss, and how to adapt your PR strategy to ensure your brand shows up where it counts.

Why AI Search Visibility Now Matters in PR

Let’s start by conceding that AI-powered discovery has fundamentally changed the rules in marketing. Traditional search engines rank websites; LLMs synthesize context. That’s an entirely different (and better) product all together. Instead of serving a list of links, they produce conversational answers, shaped by the credibility and clarity of the content they’ve been trained on.

That means your next big story may not be a front-page article. It could be a mention in a chatbot’s answer when someone asks about your industry.

Consider this: 89% of B2B buyers are already using generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity at every stage of their buying journey. That means the answers these tools deliver are doing more than shaping awareness—they’re actually influencing purchase decisions.

This isn’t just about traditional SEO. Public relations and AI search now overlap directly, and PR for LLMs is one of the most effective ways to increase brand visibility in AI platforms and search-driven conversations.

Here’s what we know: AI systems prioritize credibility signals like executive bios, consistent brand messaging, authoritative media citations. In many ways, they apply the same logic as Google’s E-E-A-T framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). PR is uniquely positioned to feed those signals into the system.

At COHN, we’ve already seen it happen with some of our clients, and the risk of inaction is just as clear. If your brand isn’t represented in the content LLMs train on (that is, if your messaging is inconsistent across platforms), you may not appear at all.

The Gap: What Most PR Strategies Still Miss

Many communications teams still see success through the old lens: did a reporter pick up our release, did we get the byline, did subscribers open the email?

Those metrics matter, but they miss a crucial layer: how machines interpret and repackage that work.

Here are a few common blind spots we see:

• Unstructured content: Press releases without schema markup or structured data will get automatically buried.
• Attribution gaps: Quotes spread across platforms without clear author attribution weaken credibility.
• Inconsistent bios: An executive’s LinkedIn profile doesn’t match the bio on the corporate site, leaving AI to guess at authority.
• Outdated messaging: Legacy content with stale language still floats around online, and LLMs don’t always know the difference.

Worse, if you don’t manage your brand’s digital PR footprint, machines may lean on unverified or outdated third-party sources. That’s how misrepresentation creeps in… an old fact or unchecked blog post gets repeated until it becomes your AI identity.

PR professionals often overlook that effective PR and AI search visibility require structured, machine-readable formats. Without adapting PR workflows for LLMs, brands risk being invisible in AI-driven discovery.

The Role of Trust and Authority in Machine Visibility

To understand how PR impacts machine visibility, it helps to know the signals LLMs look for. According to our own experience (and some research by other LLMs!), here’s what we can say about visibility and impact.

1. Experience & Expertise: Make sure to have verified bios, credentials, and consistent executive visibility. Don’t forget third-party validation through coverage in respected outlets.

2. Brand Consistency: Maintained unified messaging across websites, social channels, press releases, and thought leadership.

3. High-Authority Sources: Obtain coverage from .org, .gov, or well-established media outlets carries more weight in training data.

4. Semantic Relevance: LLMs don’t just keyword-match; they understand clusters of related topics. Clear, contextual positioning makes your brand easier to surface.

Here’s the best part: PR directly influences all four. That’s why we tell clients: every quote, every placement, every byline isn’t just publicity—it’s machine-readable authority.

In practice, this means PR teams must think about how every byline, press release, and quote can influence AI. Well-placed content in authoritative sources, supported by consistent digital marketing, doesn’t just improve SEO—it strengthens brand reputation across AI platforms.

Two Core PR Tactics That Drive AI Visibility

1. Earned Media = Credibility + Context

When a journalist covers your story, it’s not just about reach. That article becomes a high-authority data point for AI. Media coverage (especially from domain-relevant publications) permits LLMs to surface your brand in future answers. That’s why domain authority and backlinks still matter. They don’t just help with SEO; they’re signals of trust for AI.

2. Thought Leadership = Machine-Readable Authority

Thought leadership is no longer optional. Op-eds, executive interviews, and subject matter experts help machines associate your brand with specific topics. For example, a CEO’s quote in Modern Healthcare about rural telehealth doesn’t just reach readers. It also gets ingested by AI systems, making it more likely that your brand will appear in a Gemini or ChatGPT answer on the subject.

Together, earned media and thought leadership form the backbone of PR for LLMs—positioning your brand as both visible and credible in AI search.

Connecting the Dots: Aligning PR with SEO and Content

In the past, PR and SEO often lived in separate silos. One team chased placements, the other chased keywords. But AI rewards integration.

For visibility in LLMs, the future belongs to brands that align PR, SEO, and content marketing. That means:

• Shared KPIs: tracking citations, visibility, and sentiment—not just clicks.
• Shared tactics: using structured press pages, integrated bios, and consistent messaging.
• Shared platforms: publishing owned and earned content in machine-friendly formats.

Blending PR, SEO, and content strategy is what ensures sustainable brand visibility.

Common Missteps That Limit AI Recognition

Too many brands still stumble over preventable mistakes. Outdated language lingers across platforms, press releases go live without schema or structured markup, executive bios remain inconsistent from one site to another, and coverage in high-authority outlets is overlooked. Some even treat AI visibility as a one-time campaign rather than an ongoing discipline.

At COHN, we recommend quarterly audits of machine-readable content to ensure that as LLMs evolve, your brand evolves with them.

How to Get Started: Practical First Steps

Not every organization is ready to overhaul its PR strategy in one go. A phased approach works best:

1. Audit your presence: Review all press mentions, executive bios, and media coverage for accuracy and consistency.
2. Create reusable assets: Build a boilerplate and executive bios that can be deployed across all platforms.
3. Prioritize thought leadership: Submit op-eds or commentary to trusted publications that index well online.
4. Add structure: Use Schema.org markup and structured data testing tools to improve machine readability.
5. Align with SEO: Build AI visibility into your content roadmap, not just your PR plan.
6. Measure new KPIs: Track brand mentions in AI Overviews, Perplexity responses, and Gemini citations.

Think of it as the same discipline PR teams already use, but extended to a new audience of algorithms.

PR for People… and Machines

Look, we aren’t saying that AI is replacing PR, but it’s certainly reshaping it. The most successful communications teams will be those that optimize not just for reporters and readers, but also for machines.

By aligning PR with AI visibility goals, we can ensure your brand doesn’t just show up in headlines, but it also shows up in conversations happening in the tools people use most.

At COHN Marketing, we help organizations prepare for what’s next. From thought leadership strategies to structured content audits, we specialize in PR that builds credibility with both humans and machines.

Ready to align PR with AI visibility? COHN can help integrate PR, SEO, and content into one strategy that earns recognition across every channel.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can PR professionals influence AI platforms?

PR professionals shape AI visibility by creating structured content, securing authoritative media placements, and ensuring consistent messaging across all channels.

2. Why does brand reputation matter in the age of AI?

In the age of AI, brand reputation is judged by both people and machines. AI platforms scan authoritative sources, digital marketing signals, and Google searches to decide which brands to surface.

3. How do content strategy and media placements influence PR for LLMs?

A strong content strategy ensures that every press release, article, and thought leadership piece is machine-readable, while media placements in trusted outlets signal authority to both search engines and AI platforms. Together, these tactics increase your chances of appearing in AI-powered search results and being cited in chatbot responses.