When AI talks about your brand – and you don’t hear about it

from Joel Viotti

How do language models like ChatGPT actually talk about your brand? What topics are linked to them – and what narratives are created in the background?

For many communications departments, this is an open question. While SEO strategies and traditional media monitoring have long been established, the perception of brands is increasingly shifting into a new, more difficult to control space: AI-supported language models.

The challenge: invisibility in the new information space

For many people, language models are the first port of call when it comes to information about companies, products or industries. However, the narratives that are created there are barely visible to brands – let alone controllable. Unlike traditional media or search engines, there are no easily accessible rankings, keywords or evaluations.

Current studies show how dramatic the development is:

• Up to64% less organic traffic: Depending on the industry, AI overviews from Google can draw between18% and64% of clicks from websites (Moz/Wordstream).
• Zero-click as the new normal: Around60% of all Google searches already end without a click because users receive their answers directly in the search field or through AI summaries (Adapting Social).
• CTR slump even at number1: websites in the top position lose up to79% of their traffic when the answer is displayed in an AI overview (The Guardian).

The risk is considerable:

• Dwindling SEO reach: Those who rely on being found via Google search results often realize too late that users have long since been getting answers from ChatGPT & Co.
• Black box effect: It remains unclear which sources use language models and how images of a brand are formed from them.
• Loss of relevance: Those who do not appear in LLMs (Large Language Models) lose reach, influence and trust – often long before this becomes visible in traditional reporting.

Why waiting is risky

A lack of visibility in AI language models is not just a missed opportunity for reach. It can be actively damaging: If the models pick up on incorrect or outdated information, narratives are created that are difficult to correct. Most critically, these developments often run invisibly in the background until their impact on the market is long felt.

The next step for communication managers

One thing is clear: traditional SEO optimization is no longer enough. If you want to ensure visibility, relevance and trust, you need to understand how language models talk about your brand – and which stories are created there.

At this year’s CommTech Summit this very topic will be discussed. A breakout session will address the question of how brands can be visible and correctly represented in the AI space – and which approaches help to open up the black box of language models.

At the CommTech Summit, Joel Viotti will delve deeper into how AI talks about brands and what opportunities and risks arise from this. He will show how the cuemarc tool helps corporate communications to actively manage the narrative in LLMs by analyzing sources, brand visibility and individually defined watch items. Or as he says: “AI is talking about you. Time to have your say.”