How to Build a Founder’s Personal Brand That Stands Out in AI Search

Why Personal Branding Matters in the Age of AI

The rise of AI search means personal branding has transformed from CEO marketing into an essential strategy for everyone. Potential customers and partners want to discover the best experts to work with, buy from and invite to speak at their events. Increasingly, they’re turning to AI tools to get their recommendations. 

Building your own personal brand in the right way ensures you are showing up as the answer to questions your audience is asking. It gives you and your company a competitive edge. 

1. The shift from traditional marketing to personal branding

Traditional marketing relies on one-way communication but personal branding can create two-way dialogues that foster deeper connections. This shift is happening for good reason. Studies show that professionals using personal branding through social selling are 51% more likely to meet their sales targets. 

2. How AI is changing content and visibility

Companies use AI to produce content, personalise marketing campaigns and to handle customer interactions. The technology is also transforming search. AI tools customise results based on the way people consume information in every format. With AI assisting in both how content is created and how users search for it, we’re seeing a shift towards LEO (Language Engine Optimisation), also known as GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). 

3. Why human connection is your competitive edge

Although AI excels at automation, it lacks what makes us uniquely human. Above all, authenticity builds trust - 90% of market researchers believe AI will significantly impact their industry within five years, but only 30% know what that will look like. One thing you can guarantee is that your authentic voice becomes your competitive advantage in a world full of robots.

What Builds Founder Visibility? 

In LEOPRD’s new report - Reputation to Revenue: Building Trust, Authority and Visibility in an AI Era - we demonstrate how LLMs (Large Language Models) reward different visibility strategies for scaling vs unicorn founders. Larger companies benefit from a history of media coverage. Thanks to AI search engines, and the way they use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), to source more recent and up-to-date content to fuel their recommendations, emerging founders can close the visibility gap through strategic media exposure without the need for years of media saturation. 

Our data surprisingly shows that ChatGPT gives scaling brands more editorial authority than unicorns. Perplexity also favours user-driven signals, such as reviews or customer sentiment, in the absence of media coverage. 

This all shows that with a targeted earned media strategy, scaling brands can propel their founder’s visibility and authority while leapfrogging unicorn competitors. 

The Quiet Expert Problem ‍

Without maintaining a public profile, many Australian Unicorn founders struggle to be cited by AI platforms. Third-party mentions are key for increasing visibility.  Founders can’t just rely on owned media like self-published bios, LinkedIn or company websites.  

Anaita Sarkar of Hero Packaging says trying to succeed without a figurehead is becoming more difficult; “...in the age of AI, where brand elements start looking the same, a human can create uniqueness and connection with audiences. People become the differentiator.” 

How To Be Recognised and Cited in AI Search

1. Understand How AI Discovery Works

LEO  ensures you are visible to AI tools. You need to focus on crafting conversational, well-structured content so you are cited and trusted by ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot (for instance). Adding H2/H3 headings, bullet points, Q&A formats and FAQ elements, as well as structured data via tools such as schema.org all contribute to increasing your visibility.

2. Find Out Where You (and Your Competitors) Already Feature

You can use monitoring tools like Ahrefs’ Brand Radar to research where and for which queries your brand appears in AI overviews. SEMRush even has a tool that monitors how LLMs mention your brand - both can also be used to compare against your competitors. 

3. Build Authority Signals and Third-Party Mentions

AI tools prefer original insights, so articles and mentions including these tend to be more frequently cited. Focusing on quotes, proprietary data and citations will reinforce your standing as an authority on a topic in the AI era. LEOPRD helps founders and leaders raise their profile through reactive and proactive media opportunities, media mentions and thought leadership content to improve visibility across search AI outputs and industry influence. 

4. Write for Humans and Robots

While there is huge value in ensuring your content is structured to be more visible to AI tools, it’s still important to remain authentic. Leveraging ChatGPT or Claude to build the foundations of your content can create efficiency, but you need to sound like yourself to drive genuine engagement.  It’s very clear on LinkedIn who’s using AI to write content and who isn’t. Ask yourself, which content do you find most compelling? 

Personal Brand Can Be Your Fastest-Growing Channel

If you're a founder at the helm of a smaller company or an ambitious startup, you may feel like the spotlight is reserved for unicorns, celebrity CEOs, and billion-dollar valuations. But that’s no longer true. People with strong personal brands are sharing their voice, and you should too. Start by defining your brand around your expertise and what your audience is looking for. Refresh your LinkedIn profile, share insights or unique perspectives on trending news, and look for upcoming events where you can contribute or participate.

Visibility is no longer just about budget- it’s about strategy. AI doesn’t care how big your company is. It cares how clearly and consistently you can express expertise across owned and earned media. 

By taking control of your personal brand and showing up where AI looks - structured content, trusted platforms, semantic clarity - you make it easier for potential customers, partners, investors, and even media to discover, trust and amplify you.

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, but in a world full of robots the most powerful thing you can be is yourself.

Find out how to leverage AI to make you and your personal brand more discoverable in LEOPRD’s Reputation to Revenue report.