Who owns your organization’s reputation?
For years, that question had a relatively straightforward answer. Communications managed the messaging. Marketing built the brand. Government affairs shaped policy conversations. Each team had its lane.
Artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t recognize those lanes.
A year or so ago, a friend told me that the traditional model of keeping communications, marketing, and government affairs in those separate lanes was beginning to break down. As state and federal politics have become more closely tied to consumer behavior, business operations, and executive positioning, these teams have had to work together or risk serious public relations failures.
Modern-day politics may have kickstarted this shift, but AI is accelerating it. Today, organizations are grappling with the best way to adapt.
A recent Axios article captured this challenge well, reporting that 73% of communications professionals say GEO (Generative Engine Optimization, or the process of making your content visible and citable in AI-generated answers) is at least somewhat important to their communications strategy, yet 29% say no one at their organization owns GEO.
At first glance, that feels like an ownership problem waiting to be solved. I think it’s bigger than that.
Technical expertise absolutely matters. Organizations need people who understand how large language models (LLMs) work and how content is optimized for AI.
But technical expertise isn’t strategy.
Who’s deciding which messages matter most? Who’s making sure those priorities are reflected consistently across earned, owned, and paid media? Who’s ensuring your customers, policymakers, members, and stakeholders are receiving the right version of your story?
AI won’t separate your message to these audiences the way you intend. It pulls information from across communications, marketing, government affairs, and other functions, then combines it into a single understanding of who you are – but this understanding will adapt to fit the question being asked.
If customers receive accurate AI-generated information about your organization, but policymakers encounter outdated or incorrect information that negatively influences regulation decisions, have you really succeeded? Strong visibility with one audience does not make up for misinformation with another.
The organizations moving fastest on their AI strategy are not necessarily the ones with the largest AI or technical teams. They are the ones with someone willing to step forward on AI visibility and GEO, set a direction, and build a roadmap everyone else can follow.
You do not have to do the work alone. But you can be the one to get started.
Here’s a process our Signal Labs team has seen work across organizations:
- Create a short internal brief. Describe the problem your teams are trying to solve and why it matters. In many cases, the risk is that LLMs either surface incorrect information about your organization – or perhaps worse, don’t mention you at all. Include any nuances unique to your organization that teams should understand.
- Bring everyone together. Once stakeholders have the brief in hand, convene communications, marketing, government affairs, and other relevant teams to align around short- and long-term priorities.
- Assign ownership. Divide research, partnership requirements, messaging, and execution across teams while ensuring every function has representation. Most importantly, designate a project lead and project manager to keep momentum moving.
- Research your current visibility. Every organization can learn GEO best practices, but the most valuable insights come from understanding your own AI presence. Evaluate how you currently appear in LLM responses for customers, members, policymakers, and other priority audiences.
- Deploy the right experts. Strategy only works when it’s executed well. Ensure your technical specialists, media relations professionals, copywriters, and messaging experts are working toward a shared narrative.
- Measure for success. Regularly evaluate whether your strategy is improving AI visibility. Monthly measurement helps identify emerging narratives and optimize execution, while quarterly reviews provide a broader view of long-term progress.
AI has changed how organizations need to tell their stories, because it has changed how people discover them.
The real question is how your organization will take ownership of your AI visibility & GEO — and who is stepping up to lead the effort so your organization speaks with one voice across every audience AI serves.