April 1, 2025

Reputation to Revenue: Why AI Visibility Will Make or Break Brands in 2025

PR is no longer about earned attention. It’s about earned findability.

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In an era where AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are the front door to consumer discovery, the brands that show up aren’t the loudest - they’re the most credible.

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At LEOPRD, we’ve spent months analysing what LLMs actually cite when talking about businesses. Off the back of it, we've done some research into how Australia’s leading unicorns and fastest-growing scaleups are (or aren’t) being cited in generative AI platforms and their responses.

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The result is the 2025 LEO Insights Report: Reputation to Revenue: Building Trust, Authority and Visibility in an AI Era - a first-of-its-kind analysis of how brand visibility is being reshaped by AI.

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Here’s a summary of what we found - and why your company’s future depends on it.

Download the Report

AI Has Changed the Rules of Discovery

  • 49% of Australians now use generative AI tools - up from 38% just two years ago (Google/Ipsos, 2025).
  • For the first time in two decades, Google’s market share dipped below 90%.
  • ChatGPT alone saw 566 million users globally in its first year.
  • Discovery has shifted from search results to AI summaries. If you’re not mentioned, you’re invisible.
  • A Google keyword search is 3-4 words but the average prompt length is 23 words (SEMRush)

New Data: AI Platforms Rely on Third-Party Credibility

Editorial exposure is the most influential driver of brand visibility across all LLM platforms.

LLM Platform Avg. Editorial Weighting (Unicorns) Avg. Editorial Weighting (Fast 50)
ChatGPT 4.0 30.0% 32.2%
Perplexity Sonar 35.0% 22.8%
Gemini Flash 2.0 30.0% 22.9%
Copilot 25.0% 22.2%

Scaling brands benefit even more than unicorns from editorial exposure in ChatGPT-surprisingly so and massive competitive gains can be made across other platforms too.

AI Strategy is Now Platform-Specific

Platform Prioritises Strategic Response
ChatGPT 4.0 Editorials, Awards, Reviews Target AFR, Forbes; build trust through media and G2
Perplexity Sonar Real-time, UGC, Thought Leadership Prioritise Reddit, founder commentary, fresh content
Gemini Flash 2.0 Academic Data, Industry Rankings Collaborate with universities, publish industry reports
Copilot Structured, Wikipedia-style content Clean metadata, FAQs, company profiles

Earned vs. Owned Media: Weightings by Source

Source Type ChatGPT 4.0 Perplexity Gemini Copilot Avg. Across LLMs
Editorial Exposure 32.5% 26.9% 26.9% 21.9% 27.1%
Reviews 21.1% 18.1% 26.6% 24.4% 22.6%
Awards 10.3% 13.6% 10.9% 14.2% 12.2%
Owned Media 19.4% 23.3% 20.2% 16.1% 19.8%

Earned media consistently outperforms owned content across platforms.

Founder Visibility: What AI Sees Depends on What You Do

Unicorn Founders gain visibility from:

  • Editorial Exposure (30.1%)
  • Social Media Presence (22.4%)
  • Speaking Engagements (20.4%)

Scaling Business Founders gain visibility from:

  • Thought Leadership (20.7%)
  • Awards (18.3%)
  • Owned Content (14.0%)

Scaling founders gain relatively more value from high-impact content when traditional media is less accessible. While Australia's tech unicorns have built their reputations on a foundation of strategic PR and industry accolades,  startups and scaleups have a golden opportunity to boost their visibility and authority through earned media placements.

What Brands Should Do Now

Most Effective Brand Visibility Activities (Ranked by Influence):

Activity Type Most Effective For Impact Rating
Editorial Exposure Trust, Authority (esp. for all brands) ★★ Very High
Speaking & Thought Leadership Relevance, Credibility (Scaling) ★★ Very High
Awards & Industry Recognition Authority Boost (All) ★★ Very High
Personal Website & Owned Content Credibility (esp. Scaling) ★★ Very High
Social Media Presence Relevance (esp. in Copilot) ★ Medium

Download the Full Report

📥 Download: REPUTATION TO REVENUE
Understand how LLMs recommend your brand - and how to get ahead while everyone else is playing catch-up.
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