by Molly George
Let’s start with the obvious: AI search is here, and it’s not going anywhere.
Tools like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT are transforming how people seek and find information. Beyond being a mere shift in how we consume content, this is a complete rewrite of the brand visibility playbook.
For brands fighting to stay relevant, that means traditional PR alone simply won’t cut it anymore. It’s no longer enough to show up in a few earned media hits and call it a day. To win in today’s environment, you need to show up consistently, across a diverse range of sources, and in ways that both humans and machines can understand.
Enter: the knowledge landscape.
What is a knowledge landscape, anyway?
Think of the traditional “media landscape” as a map of publications and outlets where your brand might show up: Forbes, TechCrunch, verticalized trade publications, etc. These placements still matter – and they matter a lot! But they’re no longer the whole picture.
The “knowledge landscape” goes broader. Traditional media is a piece of the pie, but the knowledge landscape also includes:
- Podcasts
- Industry newsletters
- Analyst reports
- Video content
- Substacks
- Social media posts
- And more
In short, it’s the full ecosystem of where, how, and why people and algorithms learn about your brand. And if your goal is to be surfaced in AI search responses, where search is more limited and curated than traditional search, your knowledge footprint needs to be strong, credible, and current.
Why does it matter?
AI search works by summarizing and surfacing the most credible, relevant information available, regardless of where it lives. That means you can’t spend all your resources chasing down a feature in your dream publication. You need a strong social media presence. You need blog posts on your own website answering common search queries. You need Substack mentions and your SMEs giving interviews on highly targeted podcasts.
To put it simply, you need to document knowledge about your brand across as many channels as possible, so that LLMs are better equipped to find it.
We have a catchy way of breaking this down at Kickstand. “The three V’s” that influence how well your brand performs in this new world are:
- Volume: Are you showing up often and consistently across a wide range of sources?
- Validation: Are those sources trusted by audience and algorithm alike?
- Value: Are you saying something original – especially with unique data or a distinct point of view?
These three elements work together to create a brand presence that AI can recognize, trust, and elevate. In a world where first impressions are increasingly made by LLMs, your knowledge landscape becomes your competitive edge.
Building a smarter strategy in the age of AI
If all of this sounds overwhelming, don’t freak out! You don’t have to appear on every podcast or go viral on social media to rank in AI search. By prioritizing the channels that matter most, you can curate a highly targeted knowledge landscape.
Where does your ICP seek out answers? Where do they spend their time online? What questions are they asking? Where are those conversations already happening? Which sources do AI tools trust and cite? What matters more – a high UVM, or getting in front of industry heavyweights?
Once you have answers to these questions (we can help – more on that later), build your strategy around showing up in those channels with the right mix of credibility and originality. This requires breaking down the silos between PR, content, research, and social. It means thinking less like a press office and more like a newsroom-meets-SEO team.
When you do it well, your brand becomes both the source and the story: discoverable, trusted, and consistently showing up in early consideration sets.
Let’s get mapping
The rules of PR are shifting, and brands that don’t update their strategies risk fading from the conversation entirely – especially as AI search becomes the norm. The good news? There’s still time to get ahead.
But winning in this new environment requires more than minor tweaks. It demands a mindset shift: from momentary visibility to sustained discoverability; from chasing headlines to engineering real influence. Brands that succeed will be the ones that invest now in creating a strong, searchable, and shareable body of knowledge, for humans and machines.
If you’re ready to start building a smarter, more resilient PR strategy, we’ve outlined it all in our latest guide, PR in the Age of AI: The New Playbook.
And if you’re ready to start mapping your knowledge landscape, contact Kickstand today.
