Why PR Has Become Existential in the Intelligence Age
Third-party validation now determines whether your brand is trusted — or forgotten.
For years, PR has lived in an interesting spot on the marketing priority list. It wasn’t dismissed — founders and CMOs understood the credibility that comes with being written about in TechCrunch or quoted in the Journal. But for most B2B startups, it often wasn’t a burning priority beyond funding announcements or big product launches.
That calculus has changed.
In the Intelligence Age, large language models are shaping what the market knows about your company. These systems give disproportionate weight to third-party, credible sources like journalism and trade publications. Corporate blogs matter, but they don’t carry the same authority.
Which means: if reporters haven’t covered you, your story risks being invisible — or worse, defined by someone else.
That’s what I unpacked with Emilie Gerber, founder of Six Eastern and longtime comms leader for startups and venture firms. Together, we explored why PR has shifted from supportive to existential — and how CMOs and founders can reimagine their comms strategy for this new era.
Here are the takeaways:
1) LLMs trust third-party sources more than you.
“Overall, the two highest cited content types were corporate blogs and journalism… press releases were only 5%, which shocked me.”
LLMs aren’t listening to your pitch deck. They’re citing the places the market already trusts. Studies confirm that credible journalism and corporate blogs dominate citations, while press releases barely register. Which means the stories being told about you are shaping how both machines and people understand your brand.
I admit that I’m learning in real-time here, but it struck me that founders are already searching for their companies in GPT, and sometimes drawing false conclusions about what “matters.” The reality: what matters is consistent, credible coverage in the sources algorithms actually apply weight to.
Check out my full conversation with Emilie on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
2) Credibility can’t be manufactured.
“PR is never going to be something that’s driving direct leads… but if you have an SDR going out and DM’ing a bunch of prospects, having that third-party validation they can share — not just your own link to a website — goes a really long way.”
PR has always been about legitimacy, not lead-gen. A trusted outlet writing about you creates a level of authority you simply can’t replicate on your own channels. Especially in early-stage B2B, credibility is the difference between being taken seriously or being ignored.
I’ve seen this firsthand with our AudiencePlus launch. When we paired our owned efforts with credible press coverage on Techcrunch, the impact was disproportionate. Prospects didn’t just take meetings — they showed up already trusting us.
3) Reporters want influence, not noise.
“At the end of the day, they care about what’s having the most influence. They’re always going to care the most about the OpenAIs, the Anthropics, the frontier models… but if you can show how your work connects to that, or share a tangible outcome with a real customer, reporters will pay attention.”
In a world flooded with funding announcements and launch news, reporters have to be selective. They prioritize stories that shape the frontier of AI — or that show meaningful, real-world impact. Application-layer startups face an uphill climb unless they can credibly tie their story to the bigger picture or highlight outcomes that move the industry forward.
However you don’t need an imminent funding round to engage media. Emilie explained that strong AI spokespeople, credible technical depth, and appearances on niche podcasts or newsletters can establish thought leadership. Customer stories — if they’re tangible and meaningful — also go a long way.
From my perspective, that was one of the most practical takeaways of the conversation. If you can bring technical credibility, or share authentic lessons on your brand’s transformation to AI, you don’t need to wait for the next term sheet to tell your story.
4) Sorry CFOs, PR is a long game.
“It takes time, it takes effort, it takes relationship building. You’re not going to see wins on day one… but as those relationships get built, the impact compounds.”
Founders often get impatient with PR because results feel slow or hard to measure. That’s the nature of the work. Reporters don’t operate on your deadlines, and credibility doesn’t happen overnight. But when you’ve built the relationships, the returns compound — often exactly when you need them most.
I told Emilie about a dinner we hosted for a client that ended up (somewhat accidentally) including a journalist. The immediate outcome was small. But the downstream impact? That journalist now had context, a relationship with my founder, and perspective that shaped how they covered the industry later.
In PR, patience isn’t passive — it’s an investment.
5) Authenticity is the ultimate differentiator.
“We usually start by pitching a person… their background, what they believe, what makes them compelling. We try to write emails that sound like you’re just sending a note to a friend — super short, super human, no marketing fluff.”
Reporters don’t want hype. They want people. The most effective PR starts with human stories — the struggles, the hard lessons, the authentic perspective. Boilerplate language gets ignored; authenticity cuts through.
In the end, what makes you memorable isn’t your features — it’s your humanity.
People don’t connect with faceless companies or jargon-filled press releases. They connect with people. If your comms strategy doesn’t showcase the human side of your brand — the executives, the lessons, the values — you’re not just missing coverage. You’re missing the opportunity to build trust in the most human way possible.
Closing Thoughts
PR today isn’t about vanity coverage — it’s about survival. LLMs are shaping what the world knows about your company, and they privilege credible third-party voices over anything you say about yourself.
That’s why waiting for a funding round or launch is a mistake. The brands that win will show up consistently, invest in relationships before they need them, and lead with authenticity instead of hype.