PR News | AI Visibility Bolsters Brands Inbound Pipeline – Wed., May 27, 2026 – O'Dwyer's PR

AI visibility is becoming a top priority for corporate executives, leaving CMOs and VP-level marketers to scramble for the right way to ensure that brands stand out in AI-driven search and LLMs.
A new study from Corporate Ink says almost nine out of 10 upper-level communications pros (88 percent) are being asked by company leadership or boards about their brand’ s AI visibility.
The big reason for the high level of interest? According to “The GEO and AI Visibility 2026 Report,” a spike in AI visibility often leads to a corresponding jump in a brand’s inbound pipeline. Four out of 10 of the 150 B2B tech marketing pros surveyed for the study said that AI visibility had resulted in a five to 10 percent inbound pipeline increase for their brand. Almost a fifth (19 percent) said the increase was more than 10 percent.
However, many of the survey respondents seemed unsure about how to spur those increases in AI visibility. Only a third (34 percent) reported that they have a defined AI visibility strategy and are highly prepared to influence generative AI engines. With 43 percent terming themselves “somewhat prepared,” that leaves 20 percent in what the study calls the “earlier stages of their GEO journey.”
Some of that hesitance may result from what the study says are the top hurdles faced by teams working to improve their brand’s AI visibility. Leading that list was “limited GEO knowledge and expertise,” which was cited by 54 percent of respondents. Other major roadblocks included “lack of coordination or knowledge-sharing across content, PR and web teams” (39 percent), “difficulty measuring success and tracking deal flow” (31 percent) and “lack of tools and budget to invest” (28 percent).
In addition, many communicators lack the knowledge to get their content to the top of AI’s radar. Less than half (43 percent) said they know the specific buyer-centric prompts they want to show up for, while even fewer (37 percent) know which channels have the highest influence over LLMs in their market.
“LLMs weight sources differently in every market, and most teams have no idea what those sources are,” said Corporate Ink CEO Greg Hakim. “That’s not a content problem or an SEO problem—it’s an analytics and intelligence problem. You can’t build visibility in a landscape you haven’t mapped.”
So how can PRs firms crack the AI visibility code and make themselves more attractive to potential clients? The study provides a list of key factors that it suggests CMOs look for when they are hunting for an agency partner. They include whether or not the agency tracks AI visibility as a deliverable and if they can show you where and when you brand is and isn’t appearing in AI-generated answers and explain why.
CMOs should also focus on defining their strategy, auditing what AI engines are currently saying about their brand, evaluating their PR agency on GEO, getting the right intelligence and emphasizing earned media, thought leadership and third-party credibility signals.
Corporate Ink’s study was conducted in partnership with online marketing, consumer polling, and market research company Prodedge. Respondents included CMOs, VPs and SVPs of marketing, directors and managers.
More stories from Steve Barnes
Main Category: Artificial Intelligence
Secondary Categories: Branding, Digital PR, Earned Media, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), Marketing Communications, PR Measurement & Analytics

More Artificial Intelligence posts from O’Dwyer’s:

Today’s digital media landscape has reshaped influence and information discovery, which requires PR programs to adapt by changing their approach to perception and brand visibility.
Your buyers are asking AI about you. And what AI says about your brand depends on what you’ve earned.
The traditional press had already lost much of its status as a gatekeeper of information before AI came on the scene—and now its position is even more tenuous. In this brave new world, brands and communicators increasingly need to tell their own stories.
If the work that once built foundational skills—creating content—is automated, where does the next generation of communicators develop judgment about what effective content looks like?
There’s no established playbook for AI in communications yet, but expectations are already changing, and the biggest shift isn’t the tools, it’s what counts as value.
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