Communicators Must Adjust to the Opportunities and Challenges of a New Search Experience
7/9/25 – – If you’ve searched for something using Google lately, you’ve encountered one of the wonders of generative artificial intelligence. Ahead of the listing of relevant web links you’ve come to expect is a discussion of the topic you’ve queried. These summaries, called “AI Overviews,” have fundamentally changed the nature of web search.
Google, whose search engine processes more than 16 billion searches per day, boasts: “AI Overviews can take the work out of searching.” Does that claim comfort or concern you? It worries Google enough to issue this warning:
“While exciting, this technology is rapidly evolving and improving, and may provide inaccurate or offensive information. AI Overviews can and will make mistakes. Think critically about AI Overview responses.”
Will Convenience Limit Learning?
Like most of the promises of AI, taking the work out of online search comes with plenty of risk.
If people using Google go no further than the overview to get their information, will that limit their exposure to all sides of an issue? How will they discover emerging ideas or be introduced to inspiring new voices?
By making it unnecessary to visit multiple sites and experience the style and substance of different commentators, this shortcut could shrink audiences for news and opinion outlets and stunt the public’s ability to form independent views.
New Opportunities and Challenges for Communicators
Having worked for years to crack the code of search engine algorithms, communicators are now trying to figure out what generative AI is reading to develop overviews.
The PR objective used to be to get links with positive information about your brand or company listed on the first page of Google search results. Specialists in search engine optimization (SEO) incorporated key words and phrases in digital corporate communication to be found by search engines constantly sweeping the internet.
The new challenge is to get your company and its positions included in a positive light in the overviews. SEO has given way to GEO (generative engine optimization).
Deciphering the Reading Habits of Generative Search Engines
So, where is generative AI looking for material to include in overviews? According to the media monitoring and intelligence firm AlphaMetricx, here’s where the attention seems to be directed (percentages are rounded):
- Earned media (coverage in news/feature outlets and publications) 68%
- Owned media (content on websites and other digital platforms controlled by companies) 17%
- Analyst reports (information generated by financial and industry analysts) 5%
- Academic studies (knowledge reported by scholars and academic researchers) 4%
- Social media and online reviews (online discussion and opinions) 3%
AlphaMetricx also points out that generative search engines are prioritizing trust, value, quality and innovation when weighing the relevance of the information they scan.
For Media Relations, It’s Back to the Future
What does this sea change in search mean for companies and communicators?
Assuming the AlphaMetricx numbers are reasonably accurate, generative AI is spending two-thirds of its time reading and prioritizing established media outlets that require companies to “earn” placement in their stories – – news organizations with authority and credibility like The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Financial Times, People, Fast Company, and metro newspapers.
Your visibility and how you’re portrayed on these platforms will have a powerful impact on if and how you’ll show up in AI Overviews.
That doesn’t mean companies should stop creating their own content for the platforms and channels they control or ignore what’s happening on social media. Search is not the only way people get information online.
But the advent of AI Overviews should get the attention of any public relations agency that considers media relations a secondary, old-school function, or company that may be questioning the value of major media coverage in a fractured digital world.
Communication strategies need to adjust to this profound change in online behavior. PR people may even want to start taking reporters and editors to lunch again.
What does this mean for people searching online for information?
Think of AI Overviews as just the start of your search. Discover and learn by reading and viewing other online material. Why should AI have all the fun? Saving time is nice, but making up your own mind is a wonderful part of the human experience.
And take Google’s own suggestion to heart: “Think critically about AI Overview responses.”
UPDATE – – 9/11/25 – – An excellent Muck Rake Research report on “What AI is Reading” confirms the importance of earned media in driving search results.
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