Quick summary:
- 95% of what LLMs quote comes from PR’s core strengths: earned, owned, and shared media
- Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse tool shows brands how AI perceives and recommends them
- The age of GEO — generative engine optimization — has arrived
A few weeks ago, Greg Galant needed a new lightbulb. He didn’t know the size or model, so he snapped a photo, uploaded it to ChatGPT, and got the exact replacement in seconds. No digging through manuals, no clicking past Home Depot ads, no “people also ask” rabbit holes.
That story, shared on “The Disruption Is Now” with host Greg Matusky, captures the moment we’re in. Search doesn’t man sifting through 10 blue links anymore. It’s about direct answers, and those answers are already reshaping consumer behavior in ways marketers and communicators can’t afford to ignore.
As co-founder and CEO of Muck Rack, Galant has built tools that help PR teams measure impact. His latest product, Generative Pulse, tracks how large language models recommend brands — and what influences those recommendations.
Galant and Matusky talk about the changing search landscape, the outsize role of media in influencing AI answers, and the PR renaissance every communicator should take advantage of.
Watch now:
Key takeaways:
AI offers a new way to search
Galant argued we’re witnessing “the biggest and the fastest shift in how people get their information, maybe ever.”
His broken lightbulb story makes the point. “I couldn’t have Googled ‘what’s this light bulb with a weird shape,'” he explains. “I would have probably given up, gone to a hardware shop, or had to ask an electrician.”
This is happening across millions of daily moments, meaning brands are being recommended (or not) in places they don’t even know exist.
Earned media drives AI recommendations
Generative Pulse analyzed over a million AI-generated links and found a clear pattern.
“About 30% is from journalistic content,” Galant explained. “If you add up social, third-party blogs, and other sources like that, that also you’re not paying for, that adds up to about 80%. And if you add in your own content … it’s 95%.”
In other words, AI is citing authentic, published content far more than ads or paid placements.
That makes PR outputs — placements, owned media, and syndication — the fuel that powers AI-generated answers.
Communicators must now influence the machines
Until now, PR pros thought about audiences as people. That’s shifting.
“The challenge for every business, every communicator, every marketer is going to be thinking through like, what’s AI saying about my brand?” Galant said. “Am I coming up in the conversation? Is it saying good or bad things? How am I compared to my competitor?”
He called LLMs “sycophants” when asked directly by brand insiders, which is why tracking unbiased, logged-out queries matters. The new task for communicators is to influence the models that increasingly shape human behavior — and buying decisions.
Authority depends on outlet, journalist, and model
The study also showed that authority isn’t uniform. A front-page feature in a major outlet might matter in one model but vanish in another.
“You could get an amazing story on the front page of the New York Times and have no influence whatsoever on ChatGPT,” Galant said, citing the lawsuit that led OpenAI to block Times content.
By contrast, “we saw they cite Axios very highly.” He noted that “sometimes it might be some light bulb home improvement blog that ChatGPT really looks for.”
Even individual journalists can tip the scale: “You could see like who the journalists are that wrote the articles that influence ChatGPT and add them to your media list.”
PR firms that adopt AI monitoring early gain an edge
For PR agencies, AI search is a chance to lead. Matusky framed it clearly: “This gives real value. This allows us to differentiate ourselves. This allows us to sit at the table and explain what influence means.”
Galant added that while big agencies may invest in their own tech, nimble firms can use platforms like Generative Pulse to get ahead. He compared it to the underappreciated role PR played in SEO:
“Every PR person was getting authoritative links … but the industry undervalued the contribution of PR. I think every PR firm is doing GEO already … but if you’re not tracking the impact, not optimizing it, and not explaining it, the comms profession won’t get credit for it.”
Key moments:
- Why LLMs are bigger than search engines (2:29)
- The “broken lightbulb” story that explains the shift (3:20)
- How AI recommendations could make or break a brand (5:22)
- The surprising stats on earned media in AI search (7:29)
- Why a New York Times front page story may not matter in ChatGPT (9:26)
- How different outlets and journalists vary in AI authority (10:48)
- Why sampling hundreds of AI queries is key for accuracy (12:20)
- How mid-sized PR firms gain a competitive advantage (13:40)
- Why PR deserves more credit for SEO than it ever got (15:08)
- Why earned media storytelling beats SEO “tricks” (17:25)
Q&A with Greg Galant, CEO and co-founder of Muck Rack
Q: Why does AI represent such a major change in how people get information?
A: “For the past 15, 20 years, the big trend has been people search the web… Now, when people want to know something, they’re increasingly going to LLMs or AI-based search. It shifts from just showing them links to actually giving them the answer.”
Q: What does Generative Pulse actually track?
A: “You could set up all your queries … and then Generative Pulse will ask all the LLMs, so across ChatGPT, Claude, and more. It will aggregate that and show you over time how you’re being recommended compared to competitors, and what’s being said about you.”
Q: Why should PR care about this instead of SEO teams?
A: “We found that about 30% is from journalistic content … If you add up social, third party blogs, and other sources, that’s about 80%. And if you add in your own content, it’s 95%. So it’s really communicators doing everything.”
Q: Do the most prestigious outlets always carry the most weight?
A: “Traditional news outlets do have a lot of authority, but it varies a lot… you could get an amazing story on the front page of the New York Times and have no influence whatsoever on ChatGPT.”
Q: What makes this a competitive opportunity for PR firms?
A: “Every PR firm is doing GEO already. Because if you get press, you get earned media, you’re influencing what the LLMs would say. But if you’re not tracking the impact, not optimizing it, and not explaining it, the PR profession won’t get credit for it.”
