Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of AI citations come from earned media?
According to LEOPRD's Reputation to Revenue report (2025), 62% of AI brand citations come from earned media and third-party signals such as editorial coverage, reviews, and industry awards. This was consistent across four major AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini.
What is AI reading? Takeaways from a report on AI brand visibility published by Muck Rack in 2025 found that more than 95% of links cited in AI-generated answers are non-paid, with 85% from earned media, including 27% from journalistic coverage specifically.
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the industry term used to describe optimising a brand’s presence so it is cited in AI-generated answers from platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
At LEOPRD we refer to this discipline as Language Engine Optimisation (LEO). LEO expands the concept beyond technical optimisation to include the credibility signals AI systems actually trust: earned media, expert commentary, third-party citations, structured brand information, and consistent narrative across the web.
Unlike traditional SEO, AEO/LEO focuses on third-party mentions, authority signals, and consistency across credible sources, which are the core disciplines of PR. See our full comparison: SEO vs LEO: Which Actually Works Better?
Why are PR budgets increasing?
Gartner's Top Predictions to Inform 2026 Comms Strategies predicts PR and earned media budgets will double by 2027, as brands respond to the rapid growth of AI-powered search tools where credibility, not advertising spend, determines visibility.
In late 2024, Gartner already found PR was the top budget priority among CCOs, with 36% planning increases for 2025. This is not a cyclical trend, it’s a structural shift in how digital visibility works.
How quickly is AI search growing?
Between H1 2024 and H1 2025, ChatGPT grew 608% year-over-year and Perplexity grew 262%. In the same period, traditional search engines Google and Bing each declined approximately 1%. The shift from ranking to referencing is already underway.
Brands that wait for this trend to fully mature before acting will already be behind, because LLM authority is built gradually over time through accumulated earned media signals.
What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
Traditional SEO optimises for keywords, backlinks, page rank, and technical site performance. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) optimises for third-party mentions, authority signals, cross-source consistency, and structured credibility. In SEO, the goal is to rank a page; in AEO, the goal is to be referenced inside an AI-generated answer. Both approaches can work together, but earned media is the foundation that AEO requires and that SEO alone cannot manufacture.
How does LEOPRD measure AI brand visibility?
LEOPRD tracks brand presence and share of model across key LLMs, the volume and quality of citations, review sentiment, and the mix of earned versus owned sources being referenced by AI platforms. We also monitor branded and unbranded query coverage and movement in entity associations over time.
To understand how your brand currently performs across AI platforms, request an AI visibility audit.
What should Australian brands do first to improve AI search visibility?
The most impactful starting point is an AI Visibility Audit, which is LEOPRD's diagnostic product. It tells you what AI platforms are currently saying about your brand, which sources they are pulling from, and whether that story is helping you win customers or quietly sending them to competitors.
Because right now, your buyers are not just Googling you. They are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity: 'What is the best option?' If you are not in that answer, or the answer is wrong, you do not exist in the decision.
For a practical guide to each AI platform's specific signals, read: How to Get Your Brand Featured in AI Responses.
Is AI search growing faster than traditional search?
The growth trajectory of AI search tools suggests the shift is already underway. Between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2025:
- ChatGPT usage increased by 608%.
- Perplexity usage grew by 262%.
- Traditional search engines such as Google and Bing declined slightly in usage.
These figures demonstrate a transition from link-based discovery to answer-based discovery. For brands, this means visibility is increasingly determined by whether AI assistants reference them directly.
____________________
The Bottom Line
The machine is already deciding who it trusts. AI-powered answer engines are synthesising the internet into single responses, and they are doing so based on what credible third parties say about your brand, not what your paid campaigns tell them.
For Australian brands, the question is no longer whether to invest in earned media. It's whether you'll be ahead of the shift or catching up to it.
Gartner’s Top Predictions to Inform 2026 Comms Strategies anticipates that PR budgets will double by 2027. LEOPRD's data shows the brands that move deliberately now, building consistent earned media, structured reviews and clear cross-platform positioning, will compound authority quietly while others are still optimising for traffic that no longer converts.
Find Out Where Your Brand Stands in AI-Generated Search
LEOPRD's Reputation to Revenue report is the first Australian study benchmarking brand visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. It identifies which credibility signals AI platforms prioritise, how 18 Australian companies currently perform, and what a focused earned media strategy can achieve in measurable AI citation share.
If your brand is not appearing in AI-generated answers today, it is not because the opportunity does not exist. It is because the signals have not been built yet.
Download the full report.
