When communicators first heard about generative AI, many asked: Can we buy our way into it? If AI is writing answers that shape how people think, surely there must be a way to influence those outputs the way we’ve optimized for Google.
The answer, for now, is no. AI can’t be bought. It can’t be gamed with keywords or paid placements, at least not yet. Which raises a bigger question: What is AI actually reading?
That’s the question Muck Rack CEO Greg Galant and Sr. Director of Data Matt Dzugan set out to answer, presenting their findings to Page members on a recent Page Collaboration Hour. By feeding half a million prompts into ChatGPT and studying the millions of links it cited in return, they offered a first-of-its-kind look under the hood of how AI decides what matters.
The Shift Away from Search
The timing couldn’t be more urgent. In late 2024, Google’s market share fell below 90% for the first time in a decade. Meanwhile, AI usage surged by 233% in just six months. More people are bypassing traditional search and asking AI directly.
For communicators, this is the beginning of a new game: not search engine optimization, but AI optimization—understanding how these models “read” and how that translates into what they say.
What the Models Favor
Here’s what the study revealed:
- 95% of citations come from unpaid media (both owned and earned).
- Nearly nine in ten links are earned media.
- Journalism still matters—27% of citations are journalistic. When you ask for recent information, that number jumps to 49%.
And AI likes it fresh. The most common publication date for a cited article was literally the day before the query. That makes timeliness as important as authority.
Authority Still Rules
Members raised the question: are blatant misinformation articles being ranked the same as The New York Times?
The answer is reassuring. While newer LLMs occasionally get fooled by content farms, most models strongly prefer established outlets. Authority matters and so does geography. One thing mentioned in the call was that Baidu’s AI often prioritizes content hosted in Mainland China, with localized domains and licenses.
The Bigger Implication
The takeaway is striking: earned media is the currency AI values most. Paid, shared, and owned may play a role, but when someone asks ChatGPT for an answer, it’s timely, credible, widely recognized journalism that most often shapes the response.
That doesn’t mean communicators should stop investing in other channels. But it does suggest a new center of gravity for influence. If AI is now a stakeholder, then earning its trust, by earning coverage, will be critical to shaping what it generates about our organizations.