For years, PR has worked to be relevant to journalists, influencers, and other key stakeholders. Today, we must add another decisive audience to that list: artificial intelligence systems. In this new context, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is establishing itself as an essential tool for communication professionals.
AAlthough this category existed in an incipient way before, it began to gain real relevance between the end of 2023 and 2024, when generative artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity started recommending brands, sources, and even experts. From that moment on, answers no longer depend solely on rankings, indexing, or keywords, as traditionally happened with SEO, but also on factors such as authority, semantics, depth, third-party validation, and consistency. This means the game is changing rapidly. It doesn't mean SEO is dead, but rather that it's no longer enough.
As a product or service, GEO is still very new, and this presents several challenges. Clear standards do not yet exist, we don't have widely accepted unique metrics, and many of the current approaches are still strongly tied to PR SEO logic.
However, if we analyze it from a strategic perspective, GEO is not new. What we know today as GEO is actually a natural evolution of the more consolidated PR practices: building authority, building relationships with reliable sources, creating clear, in-depth, and consistent messages, and presence in media as a mechanism to strengthen brand reputation.
And although it's not a new strategy, the concept and its materialization as a product are. This implies that, as PR and communications agencies, we face significant adaptation challenges. Everything indicates that this process must accelerate during 2026 to remain truly competitive. In this regard, the brands that will win share of voice in 2026 will not be those that speak the loudest or most frequently, but rather those that are accurately represented by various artificial intelligence models, consistently with their identity, key messages, and brand positioning.
So, what should our focus be in 2026 as PR agencies?
We must understand how the architecture of the narratives we build for our clients can be structured and verifiable so that artificial intelligence systems can interpret and use them correctly.
It is even more important today to act as authoritative curators. This involves prioritizing content that is more in-depth, clear, and coherent, beyond just volume. New content must incorporate more references, research, and external validators. This is undoubtedly a challenge, as this type of content is not always the most digestible for the media, but it is the most relevant for building long-term trust and being considered a reference for AI systems.
Finally, start managing authority against algorithms. This requires understanding where and how artificial intelligence models are trained and taking on this work as an ongoing process. Just as it was with SEO at the time, models are constantly evolving, and it's highly likely that what we understand and optimize today will become obsolete in less than a year.
In the GEO era, the role of PR is expanding. It's no longer just about managing reputation with human audiences, but about building meaning and trust in an environment where machines are increasingly mediating human decisions.
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