Search and Destroy: How AI is Upending Traditional Communications Playbooks

AI search, with its comprehensive capabilities, is a game-changer for everyday use, surpassing traditional search engines. When I tasked ChatGPT with planning a family vacation, it efficiently researched a handful of destinations based on specific parameters, time frames, and evolving preferences. The detailed itinerary it produced saved me hours of traditional search, and I’m confident it led to a better-planned trip.   

For businesses, the question is more urgent: How do you ensure that your information, content, and perspective are consistently processed by the leading AIs when people like me are busy querying on the other side of the context window?  

Unlike traditional SEO, which focused on keywords, links, and manipulating algorithms, AI search values genuine expertise and comprehensive content. When tools like ChatGPT answer industry questions, they seek out authoritative, context-rich sources—not just a list of links. 

AI systems read your entire content ecosystem as a coherent knowledge base. They ask a fundamentally different question: 'What does this organization know, and how confidently can I cite them?' This shift in the question from 'How do I get found?' to 'How do I become a definitive source worth citing?' is a game-changer in content strategy, with implications across every aspect. 

Effective communications planning begins with an understanding of  AI’s processes, which have been trained on human thinking. By recognizing that AI systems prefer information signals in a way similar to their human forebears, you can strategically leverage high-tier, high-credibility media, your company’s own sources, and trusted third parties to enhance your content's visibility and credibility. 

Wikipedia, the stalwart of the internet’s earlier era, has become the de facto knowledge graph for AI, making it even more vital as a source of information about your company or key issues. Owned content remains valuable in the era of AI search; who better to speak about a company than the company itself? Academic partnerships, contributions to industry publications, conference presentations with searchable transcripts, and executive thought leadership all contribute to a web of credibility that AI systems recognize and reward.  

Another way to view the shift to AI search is as a return to fundamental marketing & communication principles: what is the most effective channel, and which content best publicizes our core business? More than in the prior era of internet search, organizations need to become knowledge hubs. These are entities that aggregate, synthesize, and contextualize information within their domains, becoming the go-to sources for comprehensive and reliable information. 

Communicators also need to prioritize how AIs “read.” If a financial services firm publishes a 100-page report on regulatory changes, I’d be annoyed having to scan the entire document for relevant information. Just as I would appreciate a TL;DR at the top, summaries of each section, bolded and bulleted essentials, and easy-to-scan supplemental materials, so do the AIs. Make your expertise easily extractable, and the AIs and audiences at the other end of the search will know what you want them to know. 

Planning my family vacation was a comparative lay-up for AI. It could process lots of information about Lisbon in the late-Spring (the New York Times ran a “36 Hours In...” not so long ago); there are thousands of customer reviews about “best family vacation rentals” on Airbnb and VRBO; and a wealth of writing about the best naval historical sites I asked it to research.  

These are the key sources that informed my query, giving both myself and the AIs confidence in the results. For organizations, the challenge is to become the most trusted, comprehensive source in their field—a necessity as AIs increasingly guide decision-making. Fortunately, the solution is well-worn communications strategy basics: know more, show more, and share more than anyone else in your space. That's where Narrative comes in.