Reputation is critical in today’s business environment. Businesses that are proactive in creating and growing their brand have a leg up on the road to success. In the modern, AI-infused world, a solid brand reputation strategy, whether for the company or its executives, is crucial.
For years, many marketing budgets favored digital advertising, de-emphasizing traditional earned media’s prominence as a marketing strategy. The rise of AI means that strategy is no longer as effective as it was.
People are increasingly relying on AI summaries of search results rather than looking at the results themselves. This means one of the best opportunities to grow visibility and reputation today is to align your marketing strategy with AI-generated search summaries. To do that, it’s important to understand what information AI considers credible enough to use in its summaries.
Earning Your Way Into AI Search Results
Studies show as much as 94% of the links AI uses for its search results are to non-paid sources, a quarter of which—the largest segment—are journalistic. The takeaway here is clear: You cannot buy your way into AI search results, but you can earn it.
Appearing in earned news stories can help increase your visibility to AI search engines and, therefore, customers and stakeholders. This is critical not only to enhance your reputation and drive awareness of your company, but also to shield you from the impacts of bad press and negative reviews.
Think about what’s probably the most infamous reputational disaster of 2025: The Astronomer scandal. Before the company’s CEO and director of HR, both married to other people, were caught embracing on the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert, few had ever heard of Astronomer.
The company had done almost nothing to build its reputation or establish its brand beyond its core customers. That meant that, when the scandal hit, the only impression most people had of Astronomer was of its execs’ extra-curricular activities. The execs quickly deleted their social media profiles, so online searches were solely focused on the unfolding scandal.
Had Astronomer made the effort to build its brand through cultivated earned media interviews, press releases, regular posts on social media, blog posts and other reputation-enhancing techniques, the impact of the Coldplay incident may not have been as damaging. Those searching for information on the company after the news broke would have found more than just references to the scandal, and the company wouldn’t have had to hire a celebrity, produce a video and invest significant resources in an effort to rebuild its reputation.
Positioning Your Brand For Success
So, how do you position yourself so AI can find and cite you? There are several key things to focus on when developing your strategy:
1. Publish frequently.
AI has a recency bias: Anything more than three years old is much less likely to be cited, and 50% of citations come from pieces published within the past 11 months.
When I published my book, Flip Your Script: Own your story & unlock the positive power of social media, AI search was citing details from our press release and earned media and added “author” to my title within just a couple of weeks. The fact that AI search had up-to-date professional information about me was thanks to our robust earned media strategy and consistent messaging around the book’s launch.
2. Cite 'high-authority' outlets.
These outlets are excellent targets for your earned media strategy. Top outlets to cite include CNBC, Reuters, the Guardian and Forbes.
Our team customizes a media relations strategy for each of our clients, targeting outlets and journalists based on the news and stories we’re sharing. While not every pitch is worth a top-tier outlet, we’ve had clients from large nonprofits to global medtech companies secure national interviews that quickly made an impact in AI search.
3. Don’t avoid the more focused outlets.
Industry-specific searches often return results from niche publications. Smaller or niche publications, podcasts and outlets allow executives to be interviewed so they can go more in-depth about their perspectives, initiatives, new product features and expertise. One of our clients is a large national law firm that is frequently interviewed in industry publications, and these earned media interviews have made a big impact on the firm’s reputation in AI search.
It’s also important to consider that potential employees likely respect and are highly influenced by industry-specific outlets. In a tight labor market, the results of an AI search about a business could be the differentiating factor in the fight for talent.
4. Keep local media on your list.
Appearing on a local affiliate TV station or in the newspaper is an excellent way to get noticed by AI. Be sure to also leverage your executive’s thought leadership on social media.
One industry segment we specialize in is financial services firms. Our team secures thousands of news interviews each year, and our clients across the United States regularly tell us that local news interviews are a key component of their client acquisition strategy. My favorite story is of a financial advisor who returned to his office after a TV interview to find a woman already in his lobby, ready to schedule a meeting.
5. Don't forget about press releases.
Press releases are becoming more important by the month; they’re cited five times more often today than they were in July of 2025.
While a press release alone won’t secure the kind of impactful earned media your brand needs, when used strategically, we have seen how they benefit our clients in AI search results. For most businesses, a press release isn’t for the purpose of securing press; it’s for the purpose of sharing key information that can be leveraged, and it now has the added value of influencing search results.
Catching The Attention Of AI
Every business requires humans to make decisions. Savvy brands should understand the importance of leveraging AI to provide humans with valuable, strategic and authentic information so they can make decisions that benefit the brand and stakeholders. Earned media, once again, has become a reliable source that influences AI and, therefore, influences human behavior.
Kristi’s article was originally posted in Forbes on February 23, 2026.