Visibility won’t win AI Search. Verifiability will. Here’s how Digital PR becomes your trust engine.
- Sabrina Bulteau
- Nov 5
- 3 min read
By Sabrina Bulteau PingPrime.ai
For years, SEO and PR lived in parallel worlds: SEO was technical. PR was reputational.Everyone said they should talk to each other. Rarely did. AI just forced the merger.
Generative search now behaves less like a ranking machine and more like a decision-making assistant. When users ask “What’s the best accounting software for SMBs?” they don’t get ten blue links; they get a recommendation, a shortlist, a justification.
To earn that position, being relevant isn’t enough. You must be recognized.
And recognition - in Google’s own words - comes from public credibility.
As Robby Stein, VP Product for Google Search, explained:
“If you’re a business and you’re mentioned in top business lists or from a public article that lots of people end up finding, those things become useful for the AI to find.”
AI doesn’t just crawl; it cross-checks reputation.It asks: Do trusted people talk about you? In credible places? In meaningful contexts?
The Data: Mentions behave like a new form of authority signal
A large-scale Ahrefs analysis found a 0.664 correlation between branded mentions and AI Overview inclusion, compared to 0.218 for backlinks.
Backlinks still matter.But the game is shifting from links you build to signals the world gives you.
More importantly, Ahrefs highlights something strategic:Brands in the top quartile for mentions appear up to 10× more often in AI results.
This creates a visibility asymmetry.The rich get algorithmically richer.
AI systems amplify perceived leaders.Which means you don’t just compete for keywords anymore — you compete for authority footprint.
What you need to understand right now
This isn’t about press releases.This isn’t “do more PR.”It’s a reputation architecture problem.
Three truths to internalize:
1) Mentions without substance don’t move AILLMS prioritize clarity, expertise, real usefulness.
“Think of an AI doing the search now. The goal is still to provide helpful, clear information.”
Robby Stein, VP Product for Google Search
PR cannot compensate for weak content.Visibility multiplies value — it doesn’t fabricate it.
2) Volume matters less than relevance & co-occurrenceBeing cited near the right keywords, themes, industries and peer companies matters.Think ecosystem recognition, not exposure.
3) Entity clarity becomes strategicAI needs to understand who you are, what category you belong to, and why you deserve to be surfaced.This requires consistent:
brand identity
narrative
schema / structured data
external validation
So What does “Good” look like now?
A modern visibility strategy aligns three layers:
Layer | Goal | Example |
Content clarity (owned) | Prove expertise | Guides, case studies, explainers |
Authority signals (earned) | Be cited & trusted | Tier-1 mentions, expert quotes |
AI legibility (structured) | Be machine-recognizable | Entities, schema, topical relevancy |
This is not marketing theatre.This is knowledge infrastructure.
Brands who build it become “default picks” in AI interfaces.Brands who don’t risk digital invisibility.
Executive Takeaway
AI has collapsed the funnel.Discovery and recommendation are converging.Users ask questions. AI suggests providers.
In that world, digital PR isn’t only storytelling.It's qualification.
The winners are brands who can say, with evidence:
Experts trust us. The market talks about us. And our content proves we deserve the recommendation.
That is no longer branding.It is a strategic moat in the AI economy.
About Sabrina Bulteau
After more than two decades shaping the digital world - including co-founding Be Connect, one of Belgium’s first social media agencies - Sabrina Bulteau, now co-founder of PingPrime.ai, is diving headfirst into the AI Search Shift, the third wave after mobile and social. She arms brands and leaders with the mindset and strategy to win in a world where visibility is power. No jargon. Just impact.
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