PR used to be defined by a fairly familiar set of activities: calling journalists, securing national and trade coverage, uploading press releases and, from time to time, posting on LinkedIn for clients.

Today, information is consumed through countless channels. It's no longer just LinkedIn and newspapers. It's YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, newspaper newsletters and so many other platforms competing for attention.

Arguably, the job hasn't changed. We still need to ensure a business's core messaging travels consistently and seamlessly across all of these platforms. There are simply more channels to consider.

This speaks to one of the biggest shifts in communications over the past five years - the fragmentation of audiences and the rise of language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Claude. They are rapidly becoming, if not already, the go to way for people to discover, evaluate and interpret information and ultimately form opinions. According to Reuters Institute, weekly use of generative AI almost doubled from 18% in 2024 to 34% in 2025, with information-seeking emerging as its most common use.

LLMs generate answers by drawing information from multiple sources - media coverage, company websites, social media, reports, public databases and other content available online. They synthesise vast amounts of information from across the internet to produce a response.

So why does this matter and, more importantly, how should communicators and businesses respond?

The more evidence and touchpoints an LLM can use to verify a fact, statistic or message, the more likely it is to surface that information. That means media coverage is most powerful when it is reinforced across trade press, company websites, LinkedIn and other owned channels. Consistent messaging across multiple platforms creates a stronger, more credible digital footprint, giving AI greater confidence in the information it finds and surfaces.
Accuracy now matters more than ever. Many organisations have accumulated years of content across websites, press releases, corporate reports, media articles and third-party platforms. Inevitably, some of that information becomes outdated, inconsistent or no longer reflects the business as it exists today. Communications teams should be regularly reviewing webpages, archiving obsolete content, updating important proof points and ensuring messaging is aligned across channels. Maintaining an accurate digital footprint can no longer be treated as an occasional housekeeping exercise. It needs to become a deliberate part of communications planning.
Finally, crisis communications needs to account for LLMs. During a crisis, people want answers instantly and are increasingly turning to the likes of ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews for explanations. Clear, factual and concise statements are more likely to be reflected accurately, while consistent updates across multiple platforms increase the likelihood of key messages being found and reinforced. Having a strong, up-to-date digital footprint before a crisis hits can also make all the difference when scrutiny intensifies. And while I now run the risk of sounding cliché, it's worth remembering that LLMs can aggregate information at scale, but they cannot replace judgement, relationships or instinct. Those skills remain crucial in the day job but especially during a crisis.

So where do we go from here?

If you are not sure where to start, put your organisation into ChatGPT, Claude or another LLM and see what comes back. Look at the sources being cited. Which publications appear consistently? Which messages are coming through clearly? What's inaccurate? Which points are missing altogether?

Then review your own digital footprint. What's on your website? What's on LinkedIn? What information exists elsewhere online that you may have forgotten about?

Ultimately, the challenge isn't learning an entirely new discipline. It's about applying the communications fundamentals we already know and practise, while recognising that LLMs are becoming another audience in their own right, one that increasingly shapes how people discover and understand information. The task for communicators is to make it as easy as possible for these platforms to find accurate, consistent and credible information so they tell the right story.

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