Friday, 12 September, 2025
Remember when you wanted to find something out, you’d Google it and scroll through the links?
These days, more people are asking artificial intelligence (AI). Even Google is serving up AI-powered summaries at the top of its results and writing the answer for us.
How long before pages of blue links disappear altogether?
It’s changing the game for how businesses get seen. Because if an algorithm is rewriting the answer, what happens to your carefully written website copy? Your Google ranking? Your paid ads?
Even ranking number one doesn’t guarantee clicks anymore.
A Guardian Report (July 2025) highlighted that some UK publishers lost up to 79% of their traffic when their links were pushed below Google’s AI-generated summaries.
The Financial Times (August 2025) has warned of sharp declines in publisher traffic, with businesses scrambling to adapt.
For PR, this is a wake-up call. Traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) isn’t enough. Visibility now depends on trust, credibility, and human creativity.
It’s where PR steps in.
AI can crawl the web and deliver information faster than you or I can type. But it doesn’t feel. It doesn’t judge credibility. It doesn’t build a relationship. That’s what people do.
PR brings trust and visibility. When someone sees your story in a respected outlet, hears about you through word of mouth, or connects with your content, they believe in you. That’s something an AI summary can’t replicate.
Search is changing, but it’s not disappearing. People will still dig deeper, still click through, still want proof.
PR adds the credibility signals that matter. Coverage, mentions, backlinks, and reputation. These feed into both traditional SEO and the new AI-driven searches.
AI can point people to you. PR gives them a reason to believe you.
This November, I’ll be back alongside Janet Bebb from Social Progress and Perrin Read from Roth Read Photography for a half-day workshop in Honley.
Three perspectives. PR, photography and social media. All with one goal. Helping businesses tell their stories in a way people connect with.
Because no matter how much search evolves, credibility comes from people. Your story. Your voice. Your presence.
Without trust, all the algorithms in the world can’t convince someone to buy, follow or believe.
So while the tech moves fast, one thing stays the same. PR keeps your business people focused. And with AI summaries flooding search results, that connection has never been more valuable.
The brands that thrive won’t chase algorithms. They’ll lean into human creativity, intuition and storytelling. Things AI cannot touch.