Publicity alone is no longer enough. PR is shifting from generating attention to managing reputation: the overall picture that both people and machines form of your organization.
This requires a different way of thinking about PR. Publicity creates peaks: a press release here, an article there, a campaign that may last a few weeks. Reputation, in contrast, is the sum of all activities over time. It is formed through consistent messaging, coherent narratives, and repeated exposure across channels. A stakeholders’ perception of a brand doesn’t come from isolated communications but from the totality of interactions over time.
The impact of GEO
This shift is further reinforced by Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO. It refers to the process by which AI systems, such as generative search engines and language models, provide answers based on existing online information. Unlike traditional search results, AI delivers summaries or direct answers, evaluating patterns: Which topics recur consistently? Which sources are authoritative? How coherent are the key messages?
This means that inconsistencies, contradictory signals, or missing information automatically shape the AI’s understanding of a brand. On the other hand, a coherent and consistent narrative strengthens recognition and credibility, both with algorithms and with human audiences.
Online vulnerabilities
At the same time, reputations are increasingly fragile. Disinformation, deep fakes, and rapid content circulation can amplify small incidents quickly. Warren Buffet famously said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Today, those “five minutes” can be even shorter: incidents can go viral in seconds, and AI can almost immediately generate a summary of a brand’s online presence.
This shows that reputation is not a byproduct of publicity. It is the product of consistently communicated messages that are clear and recognizable to both people and AI.
Consistency as core principle
Reputation is built by consistently conveying a clear and coherent vision. Internal and external communications must align, core messages should be reinforced across all channels, and contradictory signals avoided. Organizations that achieve this build a recognizable, trustworthy profile that stakeholders remember and that AI algorithms reflect accurately in summaries. Those that fail risk a fragmented or unclear perception, regardless of the volume of publicity.
The core message is clear: PR is becoming less about visibility and short-term peaks, and increasingly about reputation as the sum of all activities, communications, and key messages. Now that AI generates answers in a split second and misinformation spreads rapidly, it is no longer a single press release or campaign that determines how an organization is perceived, but the consistency and coherence of its communication over time. Because of AI’s growing influence, the field is shifting from Public Relations toward ‘Public Reputation’: the structured building, safeguarding, and strengthening of the overall perception that exists around an organization. Those who focus on reputation rather than isolated moments of publicity create an image that both people and systems can understand, remember, and trust.
Tessa Bron
Tessa Bron is Senior PR Consultant at Progress Communications, an AI-native PR and marketing agency in the Benelux focused on tech companies. With 9 years of experience in the agency, Tessa has worked with global technology leaders including Intel, Accenture, SAS Institute, Samsung and Kaspersky on both PR and marketing projects.