Each week we’ll gather headlines and tips to keep you current with how generative AI affects PR and the world at large. If you have ideas on how to improve the newsletter, let us know!

What You Should Know

What Muck Rack’s AI Report Tells Us About the Future of PR

A new Muck Rack report confirms what many PR pros have suspected for months: Media coverage is even more valuable as more people turn to generative AI to search for information.

Muck Rack analyzed more than a million links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude across hundreds of thousands of queries and found that more than 95% of AI-cited links are non-paid sources, and more than 27% of them are from journalistic outlets like Reuters, Axios, and The Financial Times. The bots may be artificial, but their trust in news is very real and it’s driving more than citations. Google is still the web traffic king — it sent 191 billion referrals to the top 1,000 websites last month, according to data from Similarweb — but referrals from AI tools grew 357% year over year to more than 1.13 billion.

Traditional media relations has always prized top-tier coverage. That’s still valuable, but AI models are now elevating trade publications, too. In finance, Claude cited unique sources in 90% of its top 10 domains. In health care, Gemini led the pack with 50% of its top citations coming from niche-specific outlets. The industry insiders PR teams have long pitched are now shaping what AI models surface as authoritative.

For comms pros, this shift marks the start of a new playbook. Just as SEO became essential when Google ruled discovery, generative engine optimization (GEO) is emerging as the next staple. The future of media relations is about influencing both human audiences and the algorithms that drive what AI reads, cites, and shares next.

Elsewhere …

• NIH Launches New AI Agent for Analyzing Genomic Data
• Anthropic Unveils New Rate Limits to Curb Claude Code Power Users
• Mrs. Doubtfire Star Matthew Lawrence Wants AI To Revive Robin Williams’ ‘Iconic’ Voice
• JPMorgan, Robeco Quietly Deploy AI in Daily Wall Street Routines

 You’re absolutely right… 

What’s happening: Validation feels great, though it holds a bit less water when it comes from AI. If only humans would tell me “You’re absolutely right” as often as an AI named Claude does. That exact phrase seems to be used every time I provide feedback — even if I’m not right. 

Why it’s happening: AI tools are eager to please. If you ask for feedback on a piece of content, they will mostly point out the positives. Even if you ask where something came from in an AI-generated draft, it will most likely say you’re right to call it out because it’s not in the source material, so maybe it should be removed. Sometimes that information is actually correct though, and just needs to be properly attributed. 

AI tools will sometimes accept falsehoods. If you tell them convincingly that 2+2=5, they might just believe you. 

Try this: Choose your words carefully when asking for feedback or when giving it. If you’re looking for ways to improve a piece of content, ask for constructive criticism and the logic behind it rather than just “How’s this?” 

You can also ask AI tools to think longer before responding and consider your initial objective, like “Does this line actually support our argument?”

While seeing “you’re absolutely right” might put a smile on your face, it’s worth checking to make sure you actually are before you accept outputs from AI tools.

Quote of the Week

“Progress towards a digital future where AI and GenAI permeate every activity in the investment value chain will likely continue. Once these early adopters begin to show some really tangible results — and I think some of them are already doing that — then the others will be tempted to follow very quickly.”

— Amin Rajan, Chief Executive Officer at CREATE-Research, to Bloomberg News

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