Too many business leaders still neglect public relations (PR) or reduce them to a simple lever for institutional brand awareness.
Yet, in the age of artificial intelligence, their role is expanding. An interview, a piece of opinion, or an article in a specialised media outlet can help reassure a buyer, promote expertise, and make a company more visible in the sources consulted by AI search engines.
PR can therefore support sales long before the first sales meeting. However, it is still necessary to understand what is changing and how to leverage it.
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Your Future Clients Are Still Searching. But They Don’t Necessarily Click Anymore.
AI is transforming information search, both for the general public and for B2B decision-makers and buyers. Google’s traditional « blue links » now share the landscape with AI Overviews and conversational assistants like ChatGPT or Claude.
Users can ask their questions, compare solutions, and get a synthetic answer without necessarily visiting the relevant sites. This is the zero-click phenomenon.
Part of the discovery and evaluation of offers can thus take place in conversation with the assistant. When the buyer arrives on your site, they may already have an idea of your company, its capabilities, and available alternatives.
This research phase often escapes the attention of sales teams. I detail it in my article on the hidden B2B buyer’s journey and the new habits of decision-makers (in French).
Fewer clicks therefore do not necessarily mean fewer opportunities. But better conversion does not automatically compensate for a drop in traffic. One must look at what visits produce: relevant inquiries, appointments, and then sales.
This is the question I explore in my analysis of AI traffic and what new e-commerce conversions teach us for B2B (in French).
One question remains: does your company appear in the answers that prepare your future clients’ decisions?
For AIs to Talk About You, They Must Be Able to Find You Elsewhere
AI assistants do not all construct their answers in the same way. Depending on the tool and the question, they can draw on knowledge acquired during their training or rely on a web search.
When a search occurs, your site is just one possible source among others. Press articles, interviews, studies, or professional publications can also provide information about your company.
Your site presents your offer. External sources can provide context and credibility.
An article in a specialised media outlet can explain the applications of your technology. An interview can shed light on your market vision. A case study can make your skills more concrete.
These publications give buyers, and potentially AI search tools, more material to understand your activity. However, they guarantee neither a citation nor a recommendation: this depends notably on the question asked and the sources selected.
This is where public relations take on a new dimension: they help make your expertise visible beyond your own channels.
A Public Statement Has More Influence Than You Might Think
The impact of expert content is not limited to visibility. It can also contribute to influencing buyers’ choices.
The 2024 Edelman–LinkedIn study on B2B thought leadership, conducted among nearly 3,500 professionals in seven countries, provides three insights:
- 52% of decision-makers and 54% of C-Suite executives spend at least one hour per week reading expert content.
- 73% of decision-makers consider this content a more reliable basis for evaluating a company’s capabilities than its marketing materials and product sheets.
- 75% of decision-makers and executives surveyed state that expert content has already led them to inquire about a product or service they had not previously considered.
These results relate to thought leadership in the broad sense: analysis, studies, videos, or public statements that provide expertise and a useful point of view. They measure reported behaviours, not sales directly generated by a public relations campaign.
But they shed light on the value of PR: an interview or an opinion piece can contribute to the work of building trust, provided it offers genuine value to the reader.
What your prospects read from you, or about you, can thus prepare their decision even before the first exchange with your sales team.
Meaningful Visibility Isn’t Only About Accumulating Citations
Multiplying mentions is not enough to build lasting authority. These mentions must also say something useful about your company.
A vague citation in a general article does not provide the same information as a detailed interview in a media outlet read by your clients. The choice of subject, the relevance of the medium, and the precision of the statements matter as much as the presence of your company’s name.
It would also be excessive to claim that AIs systematically detect and discard all artificial content. The relevance and quality of sources remain variable. Basing one’s strategy on their supposed ability to automatically distinguish truth from falsehood would be a bad bet.
For a company, the goal remains to build a credible presence: ascertainable facts, concrete examples, consistent public statements, and legitimate mentions.
This work is a long-term endeavour. It gradually helps your future clients understand what you do, for whom you do it, and why your expertise deserves their attention.
Your Best Spokesperson May Already Be at the Head of the Company
In this approach, the leader can play a central role. They embody the company’s skills, convictions, and choices.
It’s not about multiplying flattering portraits. It’s about making expertise concrete through targeted and useful public statements.
A leader who explains a market evolution, shares an experience, or clarifies a difficulty encountered by their clients gives reality to their company’s expertise.
They no longer merely state that their company knows its subject: they demonstrate it.
Technical experts, business managers, and field teams can also contribute to this demonstration. A company’s credibility benefits from relying on multiple voices, each legitimate in its subject area.
But what can you talk about on a regular basis without going round in circles? Ideas often already exist within the company’s experiences, questions, and expertise. Here’s where to find original content to fuel your communication.
An Interview Can Keep on Working for you After its Publication
A publication is not limited to its first-day audience.
An interview accessible online can be found by a prospect, shared among colleagues, or used by a salesperson to inform a discussion. It can also be cited by other publications or appear among the sources of an AI-generated answer.
Its value then lies in its ability to provide lasting answers to an important question for your clients.
This is where the strategic role of a PR agency comes in: identifying expertise worth sharing, suggesting relevant angles to journalists, and building a consistent media presence that matter for your market.
The challenge is to associate your company with the topics for which your clients are seeking answers. And to give them concrete reasons to consider you when a need arises.
When a Buyer Queries an AI, What Position Will You Have in the Answer?
Public relations can contribute to your visibility, credibility, and the preparation of purchasing decisions.
In the era of GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, they thus find a place in a broader approach: making the company identifiable and understandable, both on its own site and in external sources.
They complement work on content quality, site accessibility, and offer clarity. To dive deeper into this approach, find my provisional guide to GEO for B2B (in French).
For companies and their leaders, the challenge is commercial as much as editorial: to become a reference that is found, understood, and considered for consultation.
This position is built long before your next prospect asks their first question.
Statistics source: Edelman–LinkedIn, 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, pages 7 to 9. Survey of 3,484 professionals in seven countries, conducted from November 30 to December 14, 2023.
No Need to Lead a Large Group to Be Heard
This public speaking is not reserved for the heads of large companies.
In France, Jean-François Létard, President and Founder of OliKrom, appears on radio and television to explain the applications of smart materials developed by his company. An SME with about twenty employees can thus attract national media attention when it provides concrete insights. His appearance on Radio Classique provides an example.
In the United Kingdom, Rowan Crozier, CEO of Brandauer, speaks in podcasts and interviews on innovation, export, and industrial skills. With approximately 65 employees, this manufacturer of precision metal components shows that a subcontractor can also have a story and expertise to share. Discover more in The West Midlands Business Podcast.
Another French example: Julien Blanchard, co-founder of Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies, contributes to the professional press on cement decarbonisation and reindustrialisation. His company had 60 employees at the end of 2025. His discussions with Le Journal des Entreprises illustrate this way of connecting expertise to a market challenge.
The common point among these leaders? They provide the media with material that goes beyond a simple presentation of their company: uses, experiences, and a perspective on the transformations in their sector.
