AI says a B2B PR agency is now invaluable to business marketing

Written by Simpatico PR

Posted on 2025-10-31

Have you acquired a lead from an LLM yet? If you have, the chances are external information held on third-party websites or channels about your company had something to do with it. In other words, content achieved by PR.

If you haven’t you might want to read this:

Matthew Prince, CEO of cyber security giant Cloudflare recently said in an interview with Amol Rajan on his Radical podcast, AI represents a platform change akin to the arrival of Google and Meta. “But it’s a platform with an opinion”.

Speaking to Digiday, Chris Camacho, CEO at Cheil UK recently said: “We are entering an era where content must serve two audiences simultaneously, humans and machines. That shift requires a very different mindset.”

The interesting thing is that the way AI forms opinions about content seems to be incredibly similar to the way humans rate content. We and AI want credibility and authority. We want to trust what we’re reading.

So, every B2B marketer now needs to know the answers to two key questions:

1. How can a business become more visible in AI searches when a user searches for a service or product that they offer?

2. How can earned media articles about that company be made to be more discoverable, by AI?

The team at Simpatico PR found ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot returned very similar answers. All of them cited placed, authoritative articles in the media as an essential element. Good old-fashioned PR is now essential to effective B2B marketing.

If you want proof – cut ‘n’ paste those two questions above and ask the AI’s yourself.

So, you might want to rethink your B2B marketing plans and budgets for 2026 and ask whether a B2B PR agency might help enhance your visibility in more ways than one.

Social media and events are important in the mix but maybe lower down the pecking order. LinkedIn is a support channel. Speaker platforms and event sponsorship add maximum value only if they are leveraged through PR. For AI recognition, PR and the structure and tone of owned-channel content are critical.

Here’s how two AI’s answer the questions:

Q1. How can a business become more visible in AI searches when a user searches for a service or product that they offer?

Perplexity says:

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Structure content with clear, direct answers to common user questions, making it more likely for AI tools and answer engines to cite your information.

E-E-A-T Signals: Highlight Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust on your pages. This includes showing certifications, using real customer reviews, including expert commentary, and providing accurate data with sources.

Semantic and Human-Friendly Content: Shift from stuffed keywords to semantically rich, easily readable language that explains products, services, and brand attributes in detail.

Structured Data and Facts: Use structured data (schema markup - code added to a website's HTML) and provide facts, figures, and unique terminology relevant to your niche.

Consistent Updates and Freshness: Regularly update content to ensure accuracy and recency, as AI engines prefer up-to-date information.

Generate Genuine Reviews and Recommendations: Encourage satisfied customers and industry partners to publish authentic, positive reviews and testimonials across the web.

Earn and Leverage Authoritative Coverage: Secure earned media—mentions in trusted news, trade, expert blogs since AIs heavily favour these over sponsored or promotional content.

Q2. How can earned media articles about that company be made to be more discoverable, by AI?

ChatGPT says:

Think of AI discoverability as a blend of traditional SEO + PR authority + structured data hygiene. The brands most likely to show up in AI search aren’t just optimizing for keywords — they’re making sure the AI has clean, credible, and repeated “explanations” of what they do across multiple sources.

Reputable publications matter most: If your business is covered in high-authority outlets (trade press, major media, respected blogs), that mention is far more likely to be surfaced by AI.

Context-rich mentions help: If the article doesn’t just name-check your business but actually describes what you do (“Simpatico PR is a UK-based B2B PR agency specialising in thought leadership campaigns for marketing and tech companies”), AI systems are more likely to understand and reuse that description.

Linking and metadata: If the article links back to your site with descriptive anchor text (“B2B PR agency Simpatico PR”), it strengthens the connection.

Amplify discoverability: Share earned media across LinkedIn, Twitter, and your own website. This increases the signals AI systems see.

Encourage structured citations: Guest articles, thought leadership pieces, and bylines where your expertise is spelled out are especially powerful.

There’s a lot sitting behind these basic guides. I’ll be following up with more detail for B2B marketers for both these questions.

Remember this.

Investing in B2B PR in a meaningful, consistent way offers a double win. You are marketing to the machines and to the humans you need to influence, simultaneously. Don’t get left behind.

To find out more about our B2B PR agency approach to thought leadership visit www.simpaticopr.co.uk