“It always creates buzz and a great opportunity to learn when I speak with Sarah Evans,” Doug Simon says, opening a conversation on AI search and the future of PR. As AI changes how people find, evaluate, and utilize information, communications professionals are being asked to take the lead. While the shift may feel sudden, Sarah Evans, Partner and Head of PR at Zen Media, sees it as part of a familiar cycle. The platforms may be new, but the core responsibility remains the same: understand how your audience searches for information and make sure brands appear in clear and credible ways.

Sarah begins by explaining important terminology. “Generative search. Let's talk about this like it's another Google, but for AI answer engine optimization. This is kind of a trendy SEO rebrand, but modern-day SEO, it combines SEO and generative search. You might also call it GEO. It has a lot of different names right now.” Today, visibility depends not only on ranking in traditional search results, but also on how well content performs on AI-powered platforms. “An incredible number of people are discovering content using AI search,” Doug notes, whether through AI overviews or tools like ChatGPT. Sarah and Doug emphasize that this is a great opportunity for brands. “For at least a large percentage of my career, we were trying to optimize for those ten blue links on Google's homepage,” she says. “So, we're not new to this; this is just a really big moment in time.” For PR professionals, this isn’t about starting over. It’s about adapting strategies like media relations, thought leadership, and brand credibility to thrive in an AI era.

The way people engage with search is changing. “Prompts aren't always questions. Sometimes they're actual long tail phrases people string together. Sometimes they're tasks that you ask a system to do for you,” Sarah says. In many cases, people expect a final answer, recommendation, or action plan. That means content must be structured not only around keywords, but around clear outcomes. Sarah shares a personal example: purchasing wrapping paper directly through ChatGPT. “I made a purchase decision, and I didn't go to Google to verify or look anywhere else. I didn't even go to Etsy.” The story highlights how easily AI can influence the buying journey, possibly removing the comparison between different types of products. That process is called agentic commerce. It's when an AI agent talks to another AI agent, and “there's no human in the middle to make some sort of decision,” she says.

Traditional PR and earned media are still vital. “Traditional PR still has a place, traditional earned media still has a place,” Sarah says. Expectations for PR professionals are expanding. “Some things will happen that will require us to have an additional layer of skills,” she says, including SEO knowledge, stronger owned media, and new technical fluency. It also calls for fluency with data and analytics.

At this stage, success starts with foundational clarity. “What's next is just an understanding of AI visibility and how your brand is being interpreted by AI,” Sarah says. That begins with a simple but critical question: when AI platforms summarize your company, what do they emphasize? Each type of prompt reflects a different intent, and brands must design their content to align with those intents in consistent and effective ways.

View all of the interviews in the “PR's Top Pros Talk” series. Interested in taking part? Contact Doug Simon at [email protected].

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Josh Moed is a Marketing Specialist at D S Simon Media, a leading firm specializing in satellite media tours.