Brandi AI CEO: AI Search Will Shift Marketing Investment and Make Public Relations Influence More Measurable by 2030

Leah Nurik urges marketing leaders to establish AI visibility baselines, connect communications activity to changes in AI-generated answers, and build credible public evidence that influences brand recommendations

Key Takeaways

• AI search will reshape marketing budgets. Investment will shift toward strategies that improve brand visibility and recommendations in AI-generated answers.
• AI will make PR influence more measurable. Companies can track how earned media and other communications affect AI visibility, sentiment, and brand recommendations within a Brand Intelligence and AEO/GEO platform like Brandi AI.
• More buying decisions will happen inside AI platforms. Buyers will use AI to research categories, compare providers, assess risks, and build shortlists.
• AI visibility requires more than brand mentions. Companies must measure sentiment, competitive position, associated attributes, and recommendation context.
• Companies should establish an AI visibility baseline now. Key metrics include brand inclusion, sentiment, share of voice, competitor performance, and influential sources.

MCLEAN, Va., July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Brandi AI, the leading platform for enterprise Brand Intelligence, AI visibility, and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), today announced a new forecast from CEO Leah Nurik predicting that AI search will redirect marketing investment and make PR influence more measurable by 2030. The forecast, detailed in a newly published article, explains how AI-generated answers create a more observable connection between public reputation and commercial outcomes. As buyers increasingly use AI platforms to research categories and compare providers, companies that establish AI visibility baselines can better demonstrate how communications activity drives brand recommendations and revenue.

The stakes are already substantial. OpenAI reported that ChatGPT surpassed 900 million weekly active users in February 2026, while Google said AI Overviews had reached more than 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories by July 2025. McKinsey found that half of surveyed consumers were already using AI-powered search and estimated that AI search could influence $750 billion in revenue by 2028.

In her article, The Trillion-Dollar Marketing Flip: How AI Search Is Closing the PR Attribution Gap and Reshaping Marketing Budgets, Nurik argues that AI-generated answers are creating a more observable connection between public reputation and commercial outcomes. Nurik anticipates that GEO, also referred to as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) — the practice of strengthening and structuring content so AI systems can more readily understand, cite, and summarize it — will become a standard marketing discipline, while investment shifts toward teams that build authoritative narratives and credible public evidence.

"The growth of AI-mediated discovery is going to transform how companies allocate marketing budgets and evaluate the business impact of public relations," Nurik said. "As buyers increasingly use AI platforms to research categories, compare providers, assess reputations, and develop shortlists, companies will have new ways to measure whether earned media, executive commentary, customer evidence, and other communications activity change how AI systems describe and recommend their brands in platforms like Brandi AI."

AI Search Will Create a New Measurement Layer for Public Relations

Performance marketing has historically attracted more investment because teams could connect spending with clicks, conversions, and purchases. Public relations could demonstrate influence, but its path to revenue was harder to observe.

AI-generated answers are narrowing that gap. Companies can now assess whether media coverage, executive commentary, analyst mentions, and customer reviews affect how AI systems describe and recommend a brand.

Marketing teams will increasingly compare communications activity with changes in brand inclusion, sentiment, competitive position, and recommendation frequency, then connect those shifts with sales and pipeline activity.

"Public relations will no longer be viewed solely as a supporting cost center. It will become a measurable driver of discovery, reputation, and growth," Nurik said.

Although attribution will not always be linear, answer-level visibility will make PR's contribution more observable and measurable.

"PR leaders will have stronger evidence showing how communications activity contributes to discovery, consideration, and revenue," Nurik said. "CMOs that foster collaboration between all marketing disciplines, including digital, product marketing, content, and public relations, will experience the largest positive effects."

The Marketing Funnel Will Increasingly Operate Inside AI Answers

Nurik forecasts that AI assistants will handle several stages of the buying journey in a single conversation. Buyers can define a category, compare providers, assess risks, and develop a shortlist before visiting a website or contacting sales.

The competitive issue is not merely whether a brand appears. Frequent mentions can still portray a company as expensive, outdated, risky, or inferior.

"Visibility without context creates false confidence," Nurik said. "A company may appear frequently while AI systems position it as an inferior alternative, a risky choice, or a provider associated with outdated capabilities. Presence alone does not reveal whether the brand is winning."

Nurik advises companies to measure inclusion alongside sentiment, competitive position, associated attributes, and the sources that shape those conclusions in GEO and Brand Intelligence platforms such as Brandi AI.

"The next generation of brand intelligence will measure not only presence, but meaning," Nurik said.

AI Visibility Depends on the Broader Public Evidence Ecosystem

Nurik rejects the idea that AI visibility is simply an extension of conventional Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Technical accessibility and structured content matter, but AI systems also draw from media coverage, analyst commentary, customer stories, reviews, user-generated content, industry publications, and comparisons.

"AI visibility is not merely a ranking problem. It is a brand intelligence problem," Nurik said.

Webpage optimization alone cannot establish authority. Companies need credible public evidence that validates expertise, supports claims, and reinforces a consistent market position.

"The winners will not produce the most content. The winners will produce the clearest, most credible, most defensible, and most useful content," Nurik said.

Marketing Leaders Should Establish an AI Visibility Baseline Now

Nurik recommends establishing an AI visibility baseline using a platform like Brandi AI, comparing communications activity with changes in AI-generated answers, and coordinating efforts across the marketing and communications organization.

The baseline should show whether the brand appears, how it is positioned, which attributes are associated with it, how it compares with competitors, and which sources influence those conclusions.

"The central question is no longer which department owns AI search. It is how every marketing and communications function influences the answers AI models generate," Nurik said.

By 2030, Nurik expects executives to track AI brand inclusion, AI answer sentiment, share of voice, competitive gains, and influential sources as measures of brand strength. Investment will increasingly favor teams that can demonstrate direct measurement and influence over those outcomes.

"The trillion-dollar marketing flip will not happen because public relations suddenly becomes more creative or persuasive," Nurik said. "It will happen because AI-generated answers are creating a new and more observable way to measure how reputation influences discovery, consideration, and growth."

To read the full article, visit https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/trillion-dollar-marketing-flip-how-ai-search-closing-pr-nurik-wilue.

Frequently Asked Questions About AI Visibility, Brand Authority and Marketing Strategy

Who should be responsible for AI visibility within a company's marketing organization?
Brandi AI views AI visibility as an organization-wide responsibility that requires teams to work together across the full marketing and communications function. Brandi AI also recommends appointing a centralized leader to establish measurement standards, coordinate priorities, and ensure every function reinforces a consistent brand position in AI-generated answers.

How should companies decide which marketing activities deserve more investment as AI search grows?
Brandi AI recommends prioritizing activities that produce sustained improvements in AI visibility, sentiment, competitive positioning, and citation quality. Expect investment to increasingly favor earned media, executive expertise, customer proof, original research, and authoritative owned content because those activities create the credible public evidence AI systems use to evaluate and recommend brands.

What business risks do companies face if they do not monitor how AI platforms describe their brands?
Companies risk allowing inaccurate, outdated, or unfavorable narratives to influence buyers without their knowledge. Brandi AI cautions that brands may lose visibility to competitors, remain associated with outdated capabilities, or be excluded from AI-generated shortlists when the public evidence supporting their current position is weak, inconsistent, or difficult to find.

Can companies control what AI platforms say about their brands?
Companies cannot directly control AI-generated answers, but they can influence the information environment that shapes them. Brandi AI maintains that clear positioning, authoritative, human-generated content, reputable media coverage, customer validation, and credible third-party commentary provide AI systems with stronger evidence to describe a brand accurately and favorably.

About Brandi AI
Brandi AI^™ is the leading platform for enterprise Brand Intelligence, AI visibility and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Built on a powerful intelligence layer, Brandi helps organizations stay visible as online discovery shifts from search engines to AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, revealing where brands stand in this new landscape. Brandi tracks the high-intent questions buyers ask AI and shows whether — and how — a brand is mentioned or cited in AI-generated answers. With this foundation, Brandi AI provides data-driven guidance and optimization tools to help marketers refine existing web content and create new AI-ready content designed to earn brand mentions and citations in AI answer engines. Used by Fortune 500s, global agencies and mid-market brands across B2C and B2B industries, Brandi AI supports CMOs and product marketers in defining category strategy and content, and PR, SEO, and digital marketing teams in driving visibility. For more information, visit mybrandi.ai.

Media contact:
Michael Tebo
Gabriel Marketing Group (for Brandi)
Phone: 571-835-8775
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Brandi AI