How PR supports brand visibility in ChatGPT and AI Overviews

You can have a strong product and customers who recommend it, yet still look like another provider of “innovative solutions” online. That becomes a problem when a potential buyer asks AI which companies are worth considering. If public information does not explain what you do, who you help and what changes for your customers, there is little substance from which to build an accurate picture of your business.

PR can support brand visibility in ChatGPT, Claude and AI Overviews by creating accessible reporting, data and expert commentary. When a tool searches the web, these materials can become sources for its answer. Selection remains up to the system, and media coverage alone guarantees neither a citation nor a recommendation. The useful question is what your team can actually improve.

Where do ChatGPT, Claude and AI Overviews get company information?

A model’s training and the information retrieved while answering a question are different things. Assistants do not search the web for every response. When search is used, they can consult a recent article, company website or report. Claude’s documentation describes how web search draws on current sources with citations. OpenAI distinguishes search access from training access through OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot respectively.

Publishing an interview therefore does not upload your brand into ChatGPT. It creates a source that may be found and used. A practical starting point is to check whether public material connects your company with a specific problem, market and area of expertise. For a B2B startup, that might be a customer implementation. For a VC fund, it could be an investment thesis explained through a partner’s commentary.

How GEO, SEO and PR work together

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, describes work aimed at visibility in AI-generated answers. Google says SEO fundamentals remain relevant to AI Overviews and AI Mode. Pages need to be indexed, eligible for snippets and included in Search’s generative AI features through Search Console. There is no special schema.org markup that secures inclusion.

SEO helps make your website accessible and well organised. Content explains your offer, applications and results. Media relations brings company expertise into editorial coverage. These should add up to a consistent picture. If an interview describes your logistics software but your website only calls you a “transformation partner”, readers still have to guess what you sell.

Which types of coverage can support AI visibility?

At Commly, we start with questions customers and investors need answered. Alongside a product announcement, we look for a useful story about implementation costs, time to value, integration or limitations. That creates a relevant media angle and material that can be discovered when someone researches a specific business problem.

Detailed customer cases, original data with a clear methodology and expert commentary supported by reasoning all contribute useful information. A case study should explain the starting point, what changed, the measurement period and the outcome. A report should identify its sample, date and limitations. An expert should explain a mechanism or trade-off, rather than repeat that “AI will change everything”.

A publication’s name cannot substitute for its content. A major business title may build recognition, while a specialist article addresses a narrower buying question. Choose media according to the subject and audience. Ten copies of the same press release do not provide ten independent confirmations of its claims.

What does GEO research tell us about data and citations?

The authors of “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, published at KDD 2024, tested changes to source content, including statistics, quotations and references. Some improved source visibility under the conditions tested. The study did not measure PR campaign effectiveness or sales. Its results cannot be turned into a promise that adding a CEO quote will increase a brand’s visibility in today’s ChatGPT by a specific percentage.

Our practical takeaway is to create material that explains something and makes its claims verifiable. Numbers need a source and context. Expert comments need to add knowledge. Adding a statistic does not, by itself, make a piece useful.

Connect media relations with the content on your website

Our work with Montis VC illustrates this approach. Communications around the fund’s first close extend into its partners’ perspectives on energy, industry and technology, showing what the fund focuses on and how it assesses opportunities. For ZYNT, funding communications sit alongside education about buying signals and timing in B2B sales. These are examples of building a recognisable specialism, rather than evidence of a measured increase in AI recommendations.

Develop the same subjects on your own site. Connect coverage with a relevant case study, service page or expert article. Keep product names, roles and company information consistent, and date performance figures. Link to sources where they help readers verify a claim. Use headings that identify the question or problem clearly. Each article should make sense to someone who does not already know your company.

How to measure brand visibility in AI answers

Start with a consistent set of questions reflecting real audience decisions. Include unbranded questions about problems, comparisons and supplier selection. Record the tool, date, language, search mode and conversation context. Repeat checks under comparable conditions. One favourable answer is an observation, not a trend.

Track brand mentions, source citations and company recommendations separately. Check whether the description is accurate and whether the linked source is your website or an external publication. These tests describe a sample of questions, not all activity in an AI product. Compare them with identifiable referral traffic, enquiries and customers’ accounts of how they found you. More mentions alone do not demonstrate a sales impact from PR.

For Google, the Generative AI performance report in Search Console provides impressions for links in AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not count every mention of your brand or track ChatGPT and Claude. Insufficient impressions are one possible reason the report may not appear.

How Commly connects PR for startups and VC funds with AI visibility

Commly is a PR and communications agency for startups, technology companies and venture capital funds. Our background in startups and VC means we begin with the business model, technology and commercial priorities. We identify stories that help reach customers and investors, support fundraising and explain a company’s relevance in new markets.

Our media relations and communications strategies draw on client data, implementations and team expertise. We connect coverage in Polish and European media with content that clearly explains each client’s specialism. This gives people, and tools using web search, more substantial information about the business. To build that presence, start with the subjects on which your company has something useful to contribute.