10 ways to get your brand cited by AI

AI has rewritten the rules of brand visibility. These 10 data-driven strategies show PR pros how to turn their newsrooms and other owned media properties into credible sources AI can’t ignore.

Welcome to the age of zero-click discovery, where tools like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT decide who gets quoted… and who gets ghosted.

When 60% of Google searches end without a single click, your brand’s best shot at visibility isn’t a blue link; it’s becoming the answer itself. 

“AI has already rewritten the rules of discoverability,” notes Sarah Evans, PR & Comms Advisor, in a LinkedIn article. “Visibility isn’t about where you rank. It’s about whether machines trust you enough to recommend you.”

Earned media will always be critical, but your own content now plays a key role in shaping machine trust. When your newsroom and other owned channels are optimized for both humans and algorithms, AI systems start to treat your brand as a reliable source of information.

The good news? The same skills you already have (to communicate with clarity, credibility and great storytelling) are precisely what AI is hungry for. You just need to make your comms machine-readable.

What does “getting cited by AI” mean?

When AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Google’s AI Overviews answer a query, they reference a small set of “trusted sources.” These typically include:

• Web pages with clear structure and factual accuracy.

• Content backed by reputable domains.

• Information formatted for easy analysis.

This practice is part of a relatively new discipline known as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): content that’s structured so AI tools can quote it accurately. Our Essential AI Glossary for PR Pros demystifies this term and others.

If your newsroom or press content meets these standards, AI is far more likely to summarize or cite your brand directly in its responses.

But how do you make your brand visible in an AI-driven world where clicks are optional and credibility is everything? It starts with the foundation of your owned media: your newsroom.

1. Build a newsroom that search engines and AI models can read

Your newsroom isn’t just a press hub anymore; it’s your brand’s structured source of truth. Think of it as your company’s Wikipedia page, but designed for both journalists and other human stakeholders, as well as search crawlers and AI systems.

In the age of AI, it’s still best practice to add schema markup (like structured data).

Although Google and AI can easily interpret content using semantic HTML alone, you’ll boost your chances of being cited in AI models when you make that information easy for them to process. Bite-sized, structured data is the way to go.

“Structured data also provides additional meta information about the article that isn’t shown to human readers,” PR.co's CEO, Jeroen Bos, notes. This information might include who the author is, their social media links, the source of the article, who has reviewed it, when the article was last updated, etc.

“AI can only cite what it understands,” Jeroen continues. “Schema markup gives your newsroom a shared language with search engines. This is the bridge between storytelling and machine comprehension.”

2. Write press releases for humans, format them for AI

Press releases that perform well in AI-generated summaries balance storytelling with structure. Think like both a journalist and an algorithm to get this right.

• Lead with the facts. Put key data, quotes and takeaways near the top of your press release. Don’t bury them in the narrative.

• Use a clear hierarchy. Apply logical headings (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>) and short paragraphs so both readers and crawlers can follow the flow.

• Add fact boxes or summaries. Include a short “at-a-glance” section with core stats or highlights.

• Write in plain language. Avoid jargon and overly complex sentences. Clarity makes life easier for both human readers and machines.

• Structure equals intent. Search crawlers and indexing systems use formatting cues to determine whether a piece of content is relevant to a user’s search intent. Double-check that your press release follows a logical structure.

3. Add FAQs that mirror real user questions

When users ask, “How does [Brand X] reduce carbon emissions?”, you want AI tools and search engines to find and understand your answer directly from your newsroom.

Use long-tail, natural phrasing in your FAQ sections and answer in one or two clear sentences. Structured Q&A formats make it easier for search crawlers to index your content and for AI systems to identify and summarize it accurately.

4. Prioritize transparency and credible authorship

AI rewards trust signals: named authors, expert quotes, proprietary research and linked data. Include bylines with LinkedIn profiles or bios, cite credible sources and make your press releases traceable.

AI is trained to spot consistency, credibility and transparency, the same traits journalists look for. The more authentic your voice, the more likely AI is to trust and quote you.

5. Treat owned media as your authority engine

AI search is changing how brands’ stories are discovered, verified and distributed. Your owned media isn’t just a discovery channel; it’s your credibility engine.

AI models prioritize domain-level authority when they decide which sources to cite. This means you should:

• Keep your newsroom active, consistent and interlinked with earned media.

• Ensure every article or mention links back to your newsroom.

• Build a web of trust that helps AI, journalists and other stakeholders recognize it as the definitive source of information.

6. Earn backlinks from credible publications

“AI citations are the new backlinks. They show where trust already lives, and where you can build it next,” explains Evans.

High-authority backlinks still rule. A citation in Reuters carries far more algorithmic weight than dozens of minor mentions. Original research, expert commentary and data-driven storytelling make journalists (and therefore AI systems) more likely to quote you.

Note, also, that Reddit is now a significant data source for both Google’s AI Overviews and OpenAI’s ChatGPT (through official data licensing deals). Visibility and engagement on Reddit can indirectly influence how your brand is represented in AI-generated answers.

Interestingly, unique linking domains also seem to matter more than volume. And image links are more highly correlated to AI mentions than text links, especially in Perplexity and ChatGPT, notes growth advisor Kevin Indig. 

7. Feed AI with structured, factual data

AI summarization models learn from structured, well-labeled information. Make your newsroom content easy to interpret by formatting stats and findings as clear lists, tables or “key figures” callouts.

It’s also important to use HTML tables. “Tabular information attached as an image won’t be picked up as well as an HTML-coded table inserted into the content,” Jeroen says. “It’s a bit more effort to create, especially when it comes to making it look good in your CMS, but it has a bit of pay-off.”

Also, work with your dev team to apply appropriate schema markup (such as Dataset, QuantitativeValue, or Observation) and keep that structure consistent across your newsroom. Search engines use this markup to understand your data, which in turn helps AI systems identify and summarize it accurately.

8. Measure visibility beyond clicks

About 80% of search users rely on AI summaries at least 40% of the time. That means web traffic alone no longer tells the full story of brand visibility.

In the AI search era, you need to look beyond clicks and measure your share of AI mentions: how often your brand appears in summaries, snippets or knowledge panels across platforms like Google and ChatGPT.

“Think of your Generative AI Visibility Score like a credit score for brands, your Answer Share,” says Evans. “It measures how often AI engines trust and recommend you. Every article, byline, backlink or schema update is a trust deposit. Every missing citation is a missed payment.”

To measure your visibility, use tools like Newsmeter, SEOmonitor or manual prompt tracking to capture these mentions over time.

9. Train your team for AI-ready publishing

Train your comms team to think AI-first: prioritize clarity, structure and metadata from the draft stage. 

Before publishing, ensure key facts are visible, author details are complete and metadata is consistent. That’s how every release becomes an AI-optimized asset.

10. Keep your newsroom fresh

AI models retrain frequently, so content that’s out of date risks being dropped from summaries. Schedule regular audits of your newsroom to update facts, quotes and data points.

PR’s shift from amplification to architecture

PR used to be about who you could convince. Now it’s about who, or what, can verify you. AI doesn’t reward claims; it rewards structure, credible sources and consistency.

The next era of communications belongs to brands that build trustworthy, structured ecosystems, not just those who chase clicks.

How PR.co helps brands get cited by AI

PR.co helps communications teams build AI-ready newsrooms that combine superb storytelling with technical excellence.

With our PR platform, you get:

• Automatic structured data: schema markup applied to every press release

• Optimized readability for journalists, search engines and AI-powered discovery

• Centralized author and media assets to strengthen credibility

• Integrated analytics to track newsroom performance and visibility

The bottom line? A PR.co-powered newsroom helps you get cited by AI. Our newsrooms use structured data to make your content machine-readable, credible and easy for AI tools to reference and use. Book a demo to learn more.

FAQs

1. What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

AEO is a content strategy in which you structure and optimize your pages so AI-powered answer systems and search engines can interpret, reference and surface your content when users ask questions. 

It focuses on inclusion in AI responses rather than just ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

2. What is schema markup?

Schema markup (structured data) is code you add to your pages to help search engines label and understand your content and elements such as authors, dates, events, quotes, and product details. 

This clarity supports richer search results and improves the chances your content is indexed in a way AI tools can use.

3. What is zero-click search?

A zero-click search is one where the user gets an answer directly on the search results page (or via an AI summary) and doesn’t click through to a web page.

As AI summaries become more popular, zero-click behavior will no doubt increase.