The Big Revelation – Gartner’s Top Predictions to Inform 2026 Comms Strategies announces that by 2027, the mass adoption of public large language models (LLMs) as a replacement for traditional search will drive a twofold increase in PR and earned media budgets. This global phenomenon will make marketers now consider doubling for a budget category that many organisations had been quietly trimming for over a decade.
I love it whenever I write about Public Relations as a subject. I keep myself updated on the best works led by the consultancies each year. I keep a track of corporate news and new narratives that are set by PR storytellers with sharp domain acumen. It’s inspiring how PR has been continuously evolving with every changing technology and its repercussions. I also admire the fact that many consultancies are investing heavily on their employee’s L&D with customised programs delivered by the B-schools. But today, this Gartner Report on Communications, LLMs and Consumer’s search behaviour will give the PR Fraternity a strong sense of purpose that was diminishing over the last few years.
I am inspired to write this week’s column because of the Gartner Report, Top Predictions to Inform 2026 Comms Strategies which literally declared that, ‘PR is back with a bang!’ Being a brand-marketer and having spent time on digital, it sometimes felt that the power of PR is losing its sheen prior to the AI global shift. It’s weird as well as deep, how we are now defining timelines as pre-AI and post-AI. Much was being handled by the SEO consultancies instead of PR. They were able to see business conversion through leads.
As the world embraced AI Search, the effort for authenticity just got more prized. The scramble for earned coverage in top-tier media is just about to kick-off. I can imagine the scene where the clairvoyant consultancies must be bringing their best performing teams together to rethink and strategize. Most of the large-size firms have the advantage of working with in-house digital teams so the understanding of the science would be sorted. The boutique ones however may have to stretch a bit extra to prove their worth.
The Gartner report underlines three big shifts: brands that consistently appear in trusted editorial and expert sources are seeing higher visibility in AI-driven answers. We can understand the quantum of change with this fact:
– AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT saw traffic surge 608% year-over-year between the first half of 2024 and 2025, while Perplexity grew 262%. Meanwhile, Google and Bing each slipped 1%, even as they retain volume dominance.
– Gartner shows more than 95% of links referenced in AI-generated answers come from earned, shared, or organic owned content, with 27% originating directly from earned media. Paid placements barely register. Sponsored content is essentially invisible to the AI.
The bottomline is that credibility is becoming as measurable as clicks as AI Search is driving decision making and final purchases and that’s changing budget conversations inside the boardroom.
To understand why, we need to look at how AEO, GEO and SEO actually work in this new landscape. SEO still focuses on making content findable and relevant to user queries using signals like keywords, links and site performance. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) goes a step further by structuring content so AI search and answer engines can confidently quote and summarise it, rewarding clear, high-authority explanations over generic copy. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) aligns brand content with how large language models are trained and updated, prioritising depth, originality, citation in reputable sources, and consistent presence across trusted ecosystems. Together, these algorithms reward brands that are discoverable, quotable and believable.
This is exactly where PR can give rise to authenticity at scale. That shift from self-promotion to externally validated presence is the new competitive moat. This is elementary to industries which serve the GenZs for their high research led buying behaviour, the GCCs which owe a responsibility to both the global stakeholders and their talent pool, the companies with presence in the stock market or the startups which have to showcase their worth to the investors.
It’s reassuring, in fact, energising that AI, PR and Authenticity are nodes of the triangle that resounds success. Today’s consumer, especially the GenZ consumer, is driven by authenticity and trust. The most authentic discipline in marketing is finally being recognised by the most intelligent technology we have ever built. I am genuinely delighted that the foundational principle of Public Relations which is building trust through credible, consistent storytelling is back in action, this time wired directly into the algorithms that shape how the world discovers and believes brands.
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