Does this sound familiar? You ask a quick question to a chatbot, a “best of” list is generated in seconds, and a recommendation arrives before you’ve even finished typing.

This is how more and more people are discovering brands right now, not by scrolling a page of blue links, but by asking an AI tool what to book, where to eat, and which brand to trust. ChatGPT alone is now estimated to reach hundreds of millions of weekly users, and the way they’re using it is shifting fast. Bain & Company found that ChatGPT prompt volume grew nearly 70% in the first half of 2025, with shopping-related questions roughly doubling over six months. Nearly 60% of Americans say they’ve already used generative AI for shopping tasks.

Here’s the part most brands haven’t caught up to yet: AI can summarize information, but it still relies on trusted sources to find it. Which means the question every founder and marketing leader should be asking isn’t “How do we rank?” anymore. It’s “When an AI tool talks about our category, does it have any reason to mention us?”

This is part one in our AI Search & Earned Media series, where we unpack how AI-driven discovery is reshaping brand visibility and what to do about it. Let’s start at the foundation: earned media.

What Is Earned Media and Why Does It Look Different Now?

Earned media is the coverage, mentions, and credibility a brand earns rather than buys. Think press coverage, expert commentary, third-party reviews, podcast features, awards, and the organic conversations happening about you online. Unlike paid media (ads you pay to place) or owned media (your website and social channels), earned media carries the weight of an outside endorsement. Someone other than you decided you were worth talking about.

That distinction has always mattered. What’s changed is who or what is paying attention to it now.

“Earned media used to be about reaching the right people through the right outlets,” says Emily Reynolds, R Public Relations founder. “It still is. But today, those same placements are also teaching AI tools who you are and what you’re known for. You’re building credibility with humans and machines at the same time.”

How Is AI Search Changing Brand Visibility?

Traditional search gave you a list and let you choose from it. However, AI search increasingly gives you an answer.

When someone asks an AI tool for the best boutique hotel in a city, the most reliable wellness brand, or a restaurant worth the drive, they often don’t see 10 links to evaluate. They see a short, confident response that names a handful of options, assembled from sources the system considers credible.

That creates a very different visibility game, with a few important consequences:

• Discovery is consolidating. Instead of a page of results, consumers get a curated few. Being “on page one” matters less than being the brand the answer names.
• The source matters more than ever. AI tools assemble answers from material they can corroborate elsewhere, and they’re not impressed by a brand simply asserting it’s the best.
• Visibility is increasingly invisible to you. A brand can be recommended in thousands of AI conversations without a single click and still show up neatly in a traffic report.

None of this means your website or SEO stops mattering; they remain part of the foundation. But it does mean the brands that get surfaced are the ones with a credible footprint beyond their own four walls. 

Why Does Earned Media Matter More in the Age of AI?

Because AI systems are, in a sense, doing what people have always done, only faster and at scale: looking for outside validation before forming an opinion.

When an AI tool answers a question about your category, it leans on sources it can cross-reference and trust, such as third-party publications, expert commentary, reviews, and coverage, far more readily than a brand’s own marketing copy. A brand that exists only on its own website is asking the system to take it at its word. A brand that shows up across trusted, independent sources gives the system something to point to.

In other words, the qualities that have always defined good earned media are now also the qualities that make a brand citable. The brands getting recommended are the ones with a real reputation behind them: coverage, expertise, proof. You can’t shortcut your way into being a trusted source. You have to earn it. 

How Does Earned Media Help Brands Build Trust?

Trust is the entire currency here, for consumers and the AI tools serving them.

The data on this has been remarkably consistent for years. Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising study, which surveyed more than 40,000 consumers worldwide, found that 88% of people trust recommendations from those they know above any other channel, the single most trusted source of all and a textbook form of earned media.

AI-driven discovery doesn’t replace that instinct. It automates it. The systems consumers rely on are built to weigh credibility, and they tend to reward the same third-party signals people have always valued: independent coverage, consistent mentions, expert recognition, and genuine reviews. Earned media builds all of that at once.

The brands that benefit most tend to share a few traits:

• They show up consistently across trusted, relevant outlets, not once, but as a steady presence in their category.
• They’re associated with clear expertise, so both people and AI tools understand exactly what they’re known for.
• They let others vouch for them, accumulating the third-party proof that turns a claim into a credential.

Helping You Build Brand Visibility That Lasts

At RPR, we’ve always believed that the most durable form of visibility is the kind you earn. AI-driven discovery hasn’t changed that belief, but it has made it more urgent.

Our public relations work helps hospitality, lifestyle, wellness, food & beverage, and consumer brands build the kind of presence that both people and AI tools recognize and surface. That means:

• Earning meaningful coverage and expert positioning in the publications your audience and the algorithms already trust.
• Building a consistent, credible footprint across media, reviews, and thought leadership so your brand is clearly associated with what you do best.
• Connecting earned media to your broader strategy search, content, and reputation, so visibility builds on itself over time.

“The brands investing in authority today are the ones that will be discoverable tomorrow,” explains Emily. “This isn’t about chasing a trend. It’s about making sure that when someone or something goes looking for the best in your category, your name is already part of the answer.”

Ready to build visibility that lasts? Schedule a discovery call with RPR to explore how we can help your brand build authority and long-term visibility in the age of AI search.

This is part one in our AI Search & Earned Media series. Want the full framework in one resource? Download the AI Search & Brand Visibility Playbook.

Check out our next blog in the series, Can AI Recommend Your Brand If No One Is Talking About You?