News and Insights

Recalibrate Versus Retreat: PR Drives 90%+ Influence on AI Authority

August 6, 2025

Tech PR budgets are getting slashed. That’s a mistake. In the last two decades, we’ve seen dot-com busts, financial crashes, crypto winters and countless hype cycles. But AI’s impact is so unprecedented, Mary Meeker uses that exact word more than 50 times in her May 2025 AI Trends Report.

We’re at a historic inflection point. So much so that even futurists are grasping for straws. 

Faced with uncertainty, many marketers’ instinct is to slash budgets, shrink comms headcount, and cancel PR efforts mid-stream. Hunker down. Ride it out. But that reaction effectively pulls up both the rudder and the keel of their influence on AI authority. They become adrift, while those who lean into the transformation accelerate.

AI Authority Has Dethroned SEO

People are increasingly using generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini as their default search engines. This has massive implications for how we find brands, make decisions, and build trust. 

Behind the scenes, SEO and paid placements are losing ground. Instead, AI prioritizes authority in its answers. And ironically, PR manages almost all of the factors that influence that authority. 

According to Muck Rack’s July 2025 report: 

• 89% of links cited in AI answers come from earned media, such as news articles, blog posts and thought leadership content. 
• Only 5% link to paid coverage.
• When queries seek the “latest” information, 49% of AI-cited links are journalism.

That means if you’re not securing credible editorial content today, you’re not showing up where tomorrow’s customer, investor or new hire is searching. Third-party credibility doesn’t just shape perception anymore, it shapes visibility.

What’s Changed?

AI authority builds trust and awareness differently. Brands that invest in strategic communications today will own AI search tomorrow. 

Just months ago, a well-funded SEO strategy could secure prime Google placement. Now, AI tools pull from an entirely recalibrated rulebook.

They prioritize authoritative sources. They quote execs in Forbes, surface deep dives from TechCrunch and elevate perspectives published in Wired. They amplify media mentions, expert op-eds and credible product launches. In short: they reward the foundation PR has always built. 

A Perilous Pullback

I get it: Tech valuations are soft. IPOs are on hold. CMOs are under pressure. However, cutting comms budgets in survival mode is a pre-AI response. 

It’s also a dangerous one. 

Prioritizing the next quarter over the next era risks vanishing from the conversation. It opens the door for competitors to take your place, and their voices to become the ones that AI repeats, reflects and reinforces.

Recalibrate; Don’t Retreat

PR is more than just “getting coverage.” It’s a core feature of a comms strategy to build a robust, authentic, and multi-channel web of influence to ensure discovery. AI is rewriting search and deciding what content deserves visibility. If your company’s voice isn’t captured today, it may not exist in tomorrow’s digital ecosystem.

What Smart Brands Are Doing

Forward-thinking companies are working with agencies and comms teams to stay visible and authoritative. The tactics may feel familiar, but the stakes are entirely new.

• Create high-quality, credible content: Thought leadership that challenges convention and speaks with authority. Content that journalists want to cite.
• Build strong media and analyst relationships: Being cited in media coverage strengthens your brand’s authority and significantly boosts visibility within AI search outputs.
• Use data to build authority: LLMs favor original research, compelling statistics and expert commentary.
• Own narratives early, especially in emerging or rapidly evolving categories like AI, quantum, cybersecurity and climate tech, where shaping the story today can lead to dominance tomorrow.

Clients making these moves are already seeing results. They’re not just in the news cycle, they’re embedded in the information architecture that AI tools rely on.

A Generational Opportunity

Let me be blunt: If you’re a tech brand hitting pause or scaling back your comms efforts, you’re dying on the vine.

Pulling back on PR may cut costs in the moment, but it also means sliding into the periphery during the most transformative information ecosystem we’ve ever seen.

Now is the time to define your voice and make it heard. Companies that deploy consistent narratives and are regularly cited do more than secure press mentions. They weave their POVs into the LLMs that will shape culture, business decisions and perceptions in the future.

So, if you’re a founder, CMO or comms lead wondering whether PR is “worth it” right now, consider this: When the world starts asking AI questions, whose answers will it give?

Let’s make sure they’re yours with AI authority.