Welcome to the era where your reputation writes your rankings.
When Google’s VP of Product admits that public mentions can influence which businesses AI recommends, the subtext is clear:
AI doesn’t “crawl” the web anymore. It reads it like a human.
That means Digital PR is no longer a branding exercise, it’s an algorithmic one.
AI Thinks Like a Human, That’s the Point
In a recent podcast, Robby Stein, Google’s VP of Product for Search, made a quiet but game-changing statement:
“If you’re a business mentioned in top lists or public articles that people find, those kinds of things become useful for the AI to find.”
That’s not a ranking factor in the old SEO sense.
It’s something bigger.
What Stein is saying, without saying it directly, is that AI recommendations mirror human research behavior.
When you ask an AI, “What are the best marketing agencies in Bhubaneswar?” it does what a person would:
1) It searches multiple queries,
2) Cross-references top results,
3) Reads lists, reviews, and editorial mentions,
4) And then generates a reasoned answer, often echoing what credible sources already say.
AI trusts what people already trust.
Mentions Are the New Backlinks
For two decades, SEO worshipped at the altar of backlinks. Links built authority. Authority built rankings.
That equation just changed.
In the generative era, brand mentions, especially from high-authority, editorially earned sources are the connective tissue between PR and AI visibility.
Because when AI “reads the web,” it isn’t parsing anchor text or PageRank flow, it’s scanning semantic consensus.
If multiple independent sources mention your brand positively, the AI’s confidence score increases.
That’s not a traditional link graph.
That’s a credibility graph.
Digital PR Is the New Technical SEO
When Stein agreed that PR investments can help brands show up in AI recommendations, he validated what many of us in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) already knew:
PR isn’t just about awareness anymore.
It’s infrastructure.
A strong digital PR strategy now functions as:
1) A discovery signal (you appear in lists and news coverage AI models index)
2) A validation layer (AI treats consistent third-party mentions as proof)
3) A visibility amplifier (those mentions propagate across answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews)
The next time someone says PR is “top of funnel,” remind them that in AI’s world, it’s the entire funnel.
Clarity Beats Cleverness
Stein also offered a blunt truth for content creators:
“Think of an AI doing that search now, when it renders a response and provides all of these links for you to go deeper, that website’s more likely to show up.”
AI reads for clarity, not creativity.
Helpful, structured, easy-to-understand content is more likely to be summarized, cited, or surfaced in AI-generated answers.
That’s not “content marketing.” That’s content engineering, where tone, format and semantic precision matter more than word count or keyword density.
The same principles that make content helpful for humans now make it discoverable for machines.
AI Optimization ≠ SEO 2.0
When asked if optimizing for AI is just SEO by another name, Stein clarified:
“There’s a lot of overlap. But the kinds of questions people ask AI are increasingly complicated.”
That single line rewrites the playbook.
Traditional SEO optimizes for keywords.
AI optimization (GEO) optimizes for complex, conversational intent, the questions behind the questions.
For example:
SEO: “best running shoes India”
GEO: “I’m training for my first marathon, which running shoes are best for long-distance beginners?”
AI doesn’t match phrases. It matches context.
If your content and brand presence don’t align with those deeper contexts, including mentions in discussions, reviews and community Q&As you’re invisible.
Multimodal Discovery Is the Next Frontier
Stein also hinted at something easy to miss but crucial: Search is going multimodal.
That means queries aren’t just typed, they’re spoken, shown, or uploaded. Images, voice, and video are now query types.
So the question becomes:
Can AI recognize your brand across all modalities?
Does your content, imagery, and metadata help machines understand what you sell and who you serve, even without words?
This is where structured data, AI-ready visuals and brand consistency converge.
AI doesn’t just see; it interprets.
What This Means for Marketers
If AI behaves like a human researcher, your marketing strategy needs to behave like a trust strategy.
Here’s how to adapt:
1) Invest in digital PR that earns genuine mentions.
Get cited by credible industry media, thought leaders, or data-backed reports. Each mention strengthens your AI trust graph.
2) Build clarity-first content ecosystems.
Every page, blog, or guide should pass the “AI comprehension test”, would a model cite this as clear, accurate, and relevant?
3) Map conversational intent, not keywords.
Identify the natural-language prompts that reflect your customers’ real questions. Use those to shape topics, FAQs, and product content.
4) Monitor AI visibility as a new KPI.
Track when and how your brand appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. These are your new SERPs.
Key Takeaways
Mentions are the new backlinks. Generative engines rank by credibility, not links.
PR equals visibility. Consistent brand mentions in reputable publications boost your AI discoverability.
Helpful content still wins. Clarity and authority make you easier to cite, summarize, and recommend, by both people and machines.
The Future of Visibility: From Ranking to Recommendation
SEO was about visibility through optimization. GEO is about visibility through validation.
AI doesn’t just show who’s loudest, it recommends who’s most trusted.
And trust isn’t something you can code into metadata.
It’s earned, through every mention, every quote, every clear piece of content that proves your brand deserves to be part of the conversation.
So, yes in 2025, digital PR is finally measurable. It’s not just building brand awareness.
It’s building algorithmic trust.
