How Brand Visibility Has Changed in the AI Era

By Catherine Bormann

How brands show up online has fundamentally changed. For years, brand visibility strategies were built around traditional search engines and keyword rankings.

Today, discovery is increasingly happening through AI-powered platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other large language models that generate answers rather than lists of links. These systems synthesize information from what they deem trusted sources to shape brand narratives in real time and influence how audiences understand companies, products and expertise before they ever visit a website – if they click through to a website at all.

This shift has major implications for brand visibility, reputation, and growth, and the data clearly shows the direction of change:

• Consumer behavior is shifting. According to McKinsey, 50% of consumers already use AI-powered search, and the shift could influence $750 billion in revenue by 2028.
  
• Public Relations investment is growing. Research from Gartner predicts the mass adoption of AI search will drive a 2x increase in PR and earned media budgets by 2027 as organizations adapt to how information is surfaced.
  
• Visibility is being reshaped. New data from Muck Rack shows that more than 89% of links cited in AI-generated answers come from earned media sources, not brand websites or paid content.
  

Together, these signals point to a new reality: visibility is no longer driven primarily by keywords or paid placement but by authority. This shift is closely tied to changing user behavior. People of all ages are rapidly changing how they discover brands, turning to AI platforms (if they know it or not in the case of Google’s AI search)  for recommendations on what to buy and who to trust. 

As a result, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is emerging to address how brands are represented in AI-generated responses and which authoritative sources shape those answers. Because these systems pull from multiple trusted sources, visibility now depends on consistent presence across a broad content ecosystem.

As we’ve discussed previously, Why a Surround-Sound Strategy Is Essential for Brand Visibility, brands must build consistent presence across multiple channels to influence perception and discovery. That approach is now even more critical as AI systems pull from a broad ecosystem of trusted sources.

So how can brands understand how they show up in AI-driven search?

We recommend organizations conduct what we call a Generative Visibility Audit, a new type of assessment that evaluates how a brand appears across AI platforms and answer engines. A growing number of free tools provide a strong starting point, offering visibility snapshots that reveal how brands are represented, which sources are cited, and where gaps or inconsistencies exist. This helps communications teams assess accuracy, authority, and narrative control in generative search environments.

Once brands understand how they appear in AI-driven search, the next step is optimizing how they show up.

Keyword strategy still matters, but its role has evolved. Instead of focusing solely on search rankings, PR and marketing teams must understand the questions audiences are asking and how those questions shape AI-generated responses. Tools such as AnswerThePublic and PageAudit, along with other AI visibility and monitoring platforms, provide insight into emerging queries, conversation themes and how brands appear across generative search environments. These tools help organizations align messaging with real audience intent and identify opportunities to strengthen visibility and authority.

With this shift in mind, brands must rethink how they build visibility and authority. A strong content ecosystem is no longer optional – this is what creates the “surround sound” effect. Owned channels such as blogs, newsletters, and websites must work alongside earned media to create credible signals that AI platforms trust. Within earned media, trade and industry coverage plays an especially important role. While it is often seen as less glamorous than mainstream press, it carries stronger authority signals and heavily influences how brands appear in AI-generated results.

If you want to understand how your brand shows up in AI-driven search and learn more about our Generative Visibility Audit, contact the Double Forte team to get started.