The way consumers discover brands, form opinions, and assess reputation is changing. For years, organisations operated in a familiar way, shaping and maintaining their brand narratives through owned channels and trusted media, while managing risks to keep reputation in check.
Today, however, a new version of your brand appears - built from multiple sources, then filtered, compressed and interpreted: the AI version of your brand.
What exists about your brand online shapes how AI understands and represents it. That's why monitoring your online presence has become more important than ever.
With 37% of consumers starting their search using AI, there is a risk that the first impression of your brand might not be the one you are investing your efforts in.
When someone asks AI about your company, the system does not ‘form’ an opinion on its own. It generates one using the available information online, and that summary is not always neutral and is not always based on what you are putting out there about your company.
Knowing what is being said about your brand is crucial in today’s evolving AI landscape. A negative mention in the media, a three-year-old interview, or a forum discussion do not necessarily remain buried in search results. They can resurface and get combined into a single AI-generated response, presented with confidence, diluting the reputation you have worked to build.
Seeing and being seen is the new goal
This change in reputation management urges brands to seek greater clarity into how they are represented online.
Consistent, well-structured coverage reinforces your brand's positioning. Having visibility into what exists online about your brand, actively managing your online presence, and correcting inaccuracies promptly, all help protect your reputation while influencing how your brand is positioned and discovered by AI.
By contrast, a weaker online presence means AI has less information to draw from, making your brand less visible, less accurate, and less competitive. Where your online presence is inconsistent or outdated, AI produces answers that are unclear, incomplete, and harder to rely on, or does not feature you at all.
Research conducted by Agility PR Solutions found that, on average, only 7.5 brands make it into AI answers, meaning brands are now competing for inclusion in the answer itself. Your customer may never visit your website or even consider your product as a choice, if it is not included in an AI-generated answer. And even if it is, the way your brand is represented may not be compelling enough to influence the decision in your favour.
Which leads to the following questions organisations should ask themselves:
- If your potential customer, partner, or hire, asked an AI assistant about your company today, would the answer reflect who you are?
- If someone asked an AI assistant to recommend the product or service you offer, would your brand appear in the recommendations?
This is where the new chapter of reputation management and brand visibility starts. AI is already influencing your reputation and shaping how customers, partners, investors and future employees discover and evaluate your organisation.
Do you know what exists online about your brand, and are you comfortable with the story AI tells based on it?
*by Elena Sokolnikova, Senior Communications Manager, Action 360x, part of Action Global Communications
