Authored by Tina Charpentier, Executive Vice President, Padilla
The next battleground for communications will shift from attention to narrative ownership. As AI interprets categories, weighs issues and recommends organizations, “share of answer” will become as important as share of voice.
Credibility, Consistency and Authority
Brands with credible, consistent and authoritative narratives embedded across the information ecosystem will have an advantage over those who don’t.
AI will also move from answering to acting. Consumers won’t just ask, “What car should I buy?” They’ll ask agents to research options, compare them and schedule a test drive. That means organizations will need more than a clear story. They’ll need differentiation that helps an agent decide, “This is the one.”
Managing Many AI Ecosystems
At the same time, paid visibility will emerge alongside earned AI authority. OpenAI’s introduction of advertising alongside ChatGPT responses points toward a future in which brands need strategies both for earning their way into answers and appearing around them.
And there’s another complication. There won’t be one AI ecosystem to optimize for. There will be many.
There will be no single playbook for AI visibility. Organizations will need a portfolio strategy designed to build narrative, authority and influence across an expanding AI ecosystem.
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