Thought Leadership Archives

In this blog, Maddy Birtles, Senior Account Director at Whiteoaks, explores:

How AI can help PR teams interrogate information and uncover useful signals
Why the strongest stories still depend on original ideas, opinions and creative thinking
Why human judgement and journalist relationships remain essential to effective media relations

AI has given PR professionals powerful new ways to interrogate information. It can analyse large datasets, summarise lengthy reports, accelerate research and help teams find new connections with journalists that may once have taken considerably longer to uncover. All these capabilities are saving huge amounts of time and are no doubt useful, but none of them on their own create a story.

Compelling storytelling depends on more than identifying an interesting statistic or summarising what is already known. It needs an idea. It might challenge an accepted view, connect two seemingly unrelated developments, offer an opinion others are not expressing or find a fresh angle relating to a subject that a journalist has covered before.

That is where the distinction between processing information and creating a story becomes important. AI can help PR teams get to the raw material faster, but people still have to decide what is worth saying.

AI can support story development but it can’t find the story for you

One of AI’s most valuable applications in PR is its ability to work through large quantities of information quickly. If you give it a substantial dataset, a collection of reports or existing coverage, it can identify recurring themes, anomalies and patterns that might spark interest or further investigation. However, this doesn’t automatically create a story.

When analysing research data, for example, AI might identify that one result differs significantly by industry, company size or geography. What it cannot determine with the same level of understanding and human context is whether that finding challenges a widely held assumption in the market, connects to a conversation journalists are already having or gives a spokesperson credible grounds to say something genuinely new. That requires knowledge of the sector, the organisation and the media landscape.

The same is true when responding to the news agenda. Good reactive PR is rarely about simply explaining what has happened. The strongest contributions challenge existing views, identify a consequence others have overlooked, put the development into wider industry-specific context and explain what happens next.

AI can summarise the news, but the real benefit must come from having a unique expert perspective on it.

AI cannot manufacture a meaningful point of view

A strong spokesperson has accumulated experience from multiple customers, projects, conversations and day-to-day decisions. They have seen where conventional thinking does not match reality. They may disagree with the direction their industry is taking or recognise a problem before it becomes widely discussed. Those can be the foundations of interesting thought leadership.

AI can help develop that thinking, but it needs something meaningful to work with in the first place. Give it a clear idea, a strong opinion, first-hand insight or an original observation and it can help interrogate the argument, identify gaps in the evidence or explore its implications. Ask it to create a point of view from nothing, and the result is far more likely to reflect the same familiar and generic narratives already circulating elsewhere.

Effective PR should not be about asking a tool to generate something that sounds authoritative and then treating the output as thought leadership. The thinking has to come first. The role of AI should be to help develop, test or articulate what an organisation genuinely knows, believes or sees differently. PR professionals can then turn that into a story others want to engage with. Ultimately, compelling content still depends on having something worth saying before you start writing it.

Creativity still comes from making unexpected connections

There is also a creative element to PR storytelling that is difficult to reduce to a process. Some of the strongest campaign ideas come from connecting things that do not initially appear related. A piece of proprietary data might suddenly become relevant because of a cultural moment. A technical subject might become interesting when framed through its impact on business or everyday life. An overlooked insight might provide a completely different way into an established industry debate.

AI can generate associations between subjects, but there is a difference between producing possibilities and recognising the idea that will resonate. That judgement is informed by experience through knowing what journalists have already seen, which narratives are becoming tired, what audiences will understand and where there is space to do something different.

It is also why creativity in PR cannot simply mean generating more ideas. The skill lies in identifying the one worth pursuing and developing it into something distinctive, credible and relevant to the organisation behind it.

Relationships provide context AI cannot see

The same principle applies once the story is ready to reach the media. AI-powered tools can help identify journalists who have written about particular topics or analyse patterns in previous coverage. That can make research faster, particularly across specialist sectors and international campaigns.

But media relations is not simply a matching exercise between keywords in a story and keywords in a journalist’s articles. A PR professional may know that a journalist has recently changed focus, is tired of receiving a particular type of story or is increasingly interested in an adjacent issue. They may know when a story warrants a call rather than an email, when an angle needs adapting or when not to pitch at all. Those details come from strong relationships.

As AI-generated content becomes easier to produce, simply creating more of it is not a competitive advantage. Having something original to say is.

With the rise of AI slop – in other words, low-quality, generic content produced at scale with little original thought behind it – the difference is increasingly visible. Audiences are becoming more accustomed to recognising content that says a lot without really saying anything new.

In PR, AI should be used to support human thinking rather than substitute for it, bringing together technology, sector-specific knowledge, creativity, opinion and relationships to find the stories that are actually worth telling.

If you want to turn your expertise into stories that cut through, our media team combines strong storytelling instincts with unrivalled journalist relationships to help B2B tech brands make an impact. Get in touch to discuss how we can support your PR.

In this blog, Natalia Kaczmarek, Whiteoaks’ Digital Content Manager, discusses:

The growing concerns about the volume of AI-generated content on LinkedIn
What LinkedIn’s new feedback feature ‘Seems like AI slop’ is about
How B2B brands can protect the quality of their LinkedIn content

The chatter about AI copywriting on LinkedIn has been going on for quite a while, but what happened on my feed during the final week of July could only be compared to a digital feeding frenzy. Everyone had an opinion and most had the same screenshot.

So what’s this all about?

Well, LinkedIn has started rolling out a new feedback feature with rather blunt wording: ‘Seems like AI slop’ – and it went, dare I say… viral?

Hidden within the three-dot menu on posts, the button allows users to flag content they believe is overly reliant on AI. Given the amount of suspiciously polished ‘thought leadership’ filling the platform, it is easy to see why many fellow LinkedIn users have welcomed it.

After all, LinkedIn wants its feed to prioritise genuine expertise, lived professional experiences and original viewpoints on industry challenges. Let’s be honest, we’ve all been craving that authenticity and uniqueness as LinkedIn over the last year or so has not always delivered that.

Giving people more control over what they see could reduce recycled opinions and automated comments that are saying absolutely nothing. So, on the surface, the new ‘Seems like AI slop’ feature sounds sensible and like the right step forward for the platform.

But there is a ‘but’, or rather a few ‘buts’…

Let’s start with the feature’s name

Call me crazy (reserved for colleagues only :-)) but the name of the feature itself seems totally off-brand for LinkedIn. For a rather corporate-sounding, professionally-minded brand, the name has definitely raised some eyebrows – mine too – because it feels so informal.

Although, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, once you scroll past the original definition involving wet food waste, ‘slop’ can also mean “content on the internet that is of very low quality, especially when it is created by artificial intelligence”. It does come with the caveat that this use is informal.

So, LinkedIn has used the word correctly. It just sounds more like something you would see in the group chat than expect to find within a LinkedIn product menu.

Then, there’s the timing

There is some comic timing involved too because LinkedIn, not so long ago, introduced a tool that could help you rewrite your posts using AI. It is now replacing that feature while asking users to report copy that feels AI-generated.

That has understandably confused parts of the social media community. It appears the platform first handed everyone the robot pen and has now introduced a button for complaining about the handwriting.

Of course, using AI does not automatically result in AI slop. The problem comes when the tool replaces original thinking rather than supporting it.

AI slop is subjective

The bigger issue, though, is that ‘AI slop’ is subjective. A LinkedIn post may have been copied directly from someone’s favourite AI tool, carefully written by a human or created by someone whose natural style happens to be polished and structured.

From my own experience, anyone who learnt English as a foreign language at school may remember being encouraged to use contrastive negations and other complex structures in essays and exams to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their good old English grammar.

Now, some of those structures are regularly presented as tell-tale signs that somebody has used AI. And don’t get me wrong, repeated contrastive negations can be a giveaway, alongside the somehow still ever-present rocket emoji.

However, without clear criteria, people may end up reporting content they dislike rather than content that is genuinely low quality or full of recognisable AI copywriting habits. Human writing could be mistaken for AI, while better-edited AI content could pass unnoticed.

There is also a danger that the conversation becomes too focused on whether AI was involved rather than whether the content is actually useful. A post can be written entirely by a human and still be repetitive, vague or lacking in substance. Equally, AI may have helped someone organise a genuinely original argument, improve their grammar or communicate more confidently in a language that is not their first.

The presence of AI does not automatically make content slop. Equally, the absence of AI does not automatically make content good.

Could it cause unethical practices?

We also cannot ignore the risk of misuse here. Could competitors repeatedly flag a company’s posts in an attempt to damage their reach? Could leaders using English as not their first language be unfairly penalised for using AI to refine their wording? Could perfectly good content be flagged simply because it uses phrases people have started to associate with AI?

At the moment, we simply do not know.

The information available at the time of writing does not explain whether receiving one or more ‘AI slop’ flags will reduce a post’s distribution. It also does not establish whether reports could affect future posts from the same person or company page.

There is currently no evidence that competitors can use the feature to reduce another brand’s reach. I would hope professional ethics would prevent that behaviour. But until LinkedIn provides more information about how the feedback is assessed and what safeguards are in place, these are fair questions to ask.

What should B2B brands do now?

To start with, copying and pasting the first output that ChatGPT gives you into LinkedIn has always been a poor content strategy. Every post should have human oversight, include an original opinion, relevant experience or useful detail and data that could only have come from the person or organisation publishing it.

That does not mean brands and PR professionals should stop using AI. As we have said before at Whiteoaks, AI tools can help with research, ideas and structure and it can give writers or subject matter experts a useful starting point when the blank page is winning.

The audience-facing copy still needs to be checked, shaped and edited by someone who understands the subject, the audience and the tone of voice.

The strongest LinkedIn content starts with a real experience, such as a customer conversation at an industry event, a lesson from a recent project or a clear view on an industry issue. AI can help frame that thinking, but it cannot supply lived professional experience that was never provided in the first place.

That human oversight and editing is so incredibly important right now as the mystery surrounding the new feature continues.

Whatever LinkedIn decides to do with the feedback it receives, the reaction to the new button tells me one thing – that people are tired of generic content.

Our digital and content teams help B2B tech brands turn real expertise into LinkedIn content that sounds like the people behind it and supports wider business goals. Speak to the Whiteoaks team about bringing more human insight into your feed.

In this blog, Alex Eve, Senior Content Creator at Whiteoaks, discusses:

The growing role of AI in content creation
The continued value of human judgement and originality
Why authentic, distinctive content is crucial for B2B brands

AI-generated content has been flooding the internet since ChatGPT’s introduction in November 2022. According to figures by Graphite, the number of AI-generated articles now equals that of human-written content.

But there is a backlash brewing against AI use. A major science publishing platform, arXiv, is taking drastic steps to cut down on ‘AI slop’ by rejecting papers with AI-generated errors. Researchers will be banned from further submissions for a year if their work contains hallucinated citations: references to completely fabricated research.

More businesses are taking note of generative AI’s tendency to simply make things up. Human-led fact-checking against cited sources is therefore likely to remain a necessity in this context. SAGE Publishing has also introduced mandatory disclosure rules, where submitters must state if AI was used in writing or content generation for further evaluation. So with AI resistance growing, where does this leave the humble content writer?

Surfacing in AI-search results

Something interesting has happened in the last year or so. The 50% of AI-generated content that makes up online articles has not increased. Original creations by humans look set to hold steady moving forward.

But why has this plateau occurred? In addition to defiance in the academic world, another reason put forward by a separate Graphite study is that AI-generated content doesn’t perform well in search and answer engines. The articles that rank in Google Search are 86% human-written and 14% AI-generated.

In a strange twist of fate, the very technology that has threatened original writing is also demanding it if businesses want to have a visible presence online. To surface in AI search results, human experience, intuition, storytelling and empathy are going to continue to play a key role. AI might create a solid outline of an article, but heavy human editing is going to make it read-worthy to bots.

Common AI tells

The quality of AI-generated text has improved over the last few years, most likely due to input from humans to help train it. But there are still tells that remain. When ChatGPT was first introduced, some of its go-to phrases were “cornerstone”, “underscoring”, “navigating the complexity” and a personal favourite among the Whiteoaks content team: “beacon of light”.

Later, contrastive negation became a preferred rhetorical structure – “it’s not just X, but Y,” a form of antithesis to highlight a stark contrast between two things. ChatGPT also likes to say that a lot of stuff “matters”.

Of course, lots of stuff does matter, and terms such as “cornerstone” and the use of contrastive negation all have their place in written content when used sparingly. But when those hallmarks appear in every piece of content across the web, we lose the unique style and tone offered by individual human writers.

Everything ends up sounding the same.

In our line of work, a generic style doesn’t wash. The clients we work with have a specific tone of voice that they want to get across, and AI can’t fully replicate those nuances. Overuse of AI can also churn out the same buzzwords across different content pieces. Many solutions are efficient and scalable, but what’s the story behind those benefits?

Resonating with audiences in the B2B world

Copy-and-pasted text from generative AI platforms will do little to give tech brands and their spokespeople a distinctive voice on industry challenges and how best to solve them. Leaders are the face of a business, and their authenticity is key to building a company’s reputation with audiences.

But building that authenticity and an effective personal brand depends on content. Human writers can steer clear of the same well-worn AI phrases, capture the perspectives of thought leaders and create original and captivating copy. An integrated PR campaign can then ensure that content is repurposed for media placements, blogs and posting on both personal and corporate social channels.

Again, AI tools can really help get past a blank page when starting a new piece of content. It’s great for idea generation. But audience-facing content must be shaped and edited by a human specialist to capture the right tone of voice and context.

AI isn’t going anywhere in content creation, but neither are human writers. Speak to our experts about the value of exceptional human-crafted content.

As we come to the end of the year, it feels like the right moment to look ahead at what 2026 might bring for B2B tech and PR. As you might expect, AI does make a few appearances in this year’s predictions, but it’s far from the whole story. We asked a few of our team members to share the trends they think will matter most – and if you fancy seeing how last year’s forecasts held up, you can take a look at them here.

Trend one: Businesses can no longer afford to ignore AI search

Hannah Buckley, Head of Content and Service Development

“2025 has been the year when more and more B2B companies have begun to take notice of AI-driven search,” says Hannah.

“2026 will be the year when they begin to take it seriously.”

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are fundamentally designed for content generation, not information retrieval. However, more and more people are using them for recommendations and to answer everyday questions, sometimes bypassing traditional search engines altogether.

ChatGPT traffic is up 4.9% month-on-month, while Google’s fell 2.8% marking a sustained shift in user discovery habits. Even with a modest 0.24% traffic share, the growth rate signals behavioural change: more people are beginning their searches in AI platforms, especially in content-heavy industries like finance, news and tech.

“AI search isn’t going anywhere, if anything it’s just going to get more and more powerful in the coming years so now’s the opportunity for B2B companies to capitalise on it, waiting another year could be a costly mistake,” says Hannah.

“Businesses can’t afford to ignore the AI-search opportunity, it has completely changed how people access information, both personally and professionally, and failing to embrace this change in search behaviour will mean their competitors will begin appearing in their place.”

The shift won’t kill traditional SEO, but it will fragment it. Audiences are redistributing across Google, Bing and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity – meaning brands must adapt their PR and content to be found across all of them.

LLMs prioritise rich, expert-led sources, making earned media and owned thought leadership essential inputs for AI discoverability. Every credible article or citation now doubles as training data for tomorrow’s AI search.

Finally, Hannah says: “Businesses that fail to factor this into their plans will begin to lose out as decision-makers increasingly turn to ChatGPT, AI Overviews and other LLMs to do the bulk of the due diligence for them.”

Trend two: Visible leaders will drive LLM visibility

Sophie King, Associate Director

As AI search reshapes how information is found and trusted, it’s not just brand content that will matter – but who’s behind it. LLMs will increasingly summarise and surface expert voices, and as a result (and not without irony), credibility will need to be demonstrably human again. The names and profiles of founders, CEOs and senior leaders are now key inputs in how both people and algorithms decide who to believe.

“As LLMs become core to research and product discovery, brands need identifiable human voices to build trust and visibility,” says Sophie.

“This is placing even more importance on executive profiling, positioning founders and senior leaders as credible authorities. Executives are no longer just spokespeople; they’re part of a brand’s discoverability infrastructure across platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.”

To influence both buyers and LLMs, B2B tech brands need to treat their senior leaders as strategic visibility assets. What does that look like in the real world? It means developing media-ready profiles, giving executives clear thought leadership pillars which support commercial priorities and ensuring they are contributing expert commentary to trusted industry outlets.

Brands with leaders who are regularly quoted, searchable and associated with specific areas of expertise will be more discoverable across AI platforms – and will also be more credible to human audiences.

Trend three: Engagement beyond your feed will fuel LinkedIn growth

Natalia Kaczmarek, Digital Content Manager

In 2026, LinkedIn will really put the ‘engage’ back into engagement. Posting consistently used to be the main driver of profile growth, but as the algorithm shifts away from passive signals such as likes and posting frequency, more weight will sit with those who actively participate. For brands, this means thinking beyond what goes on your own feed and developing a clear approach for how you interact with others.

“Thoughtful comments that go beyond polite nods, and reposts that add a clear point of view, will travel further than a simple ‘like’,” says Natalia.

With organic reach from company pages continuing to decline, growth will come from joining key discussions early, whether that’s with customers, partners or recognised industry voices.

“Brands should treat comments as content in their own right, not as housekeeping, and make them useful enough that others want to respond or reference them,” says Natalia.

Natalia explains that a simple daily routine is the most effective way to build consistent visibility. Start by identifying active threads where your expertise can add something useful or constructively provocative. Contribute there first, then publish your own post once you’ve already shown up in the conversation. This creates momentum and gives your posts a better chance of being seen.

Teams should also monitor the metrics LinkedIn now provides for comments, such as impressions and replies sparked, and link these to the profile visits and new followers driven by comment activity.

Meaningful, authentic interaction runs through all of these trends, so it’s no surprise that low-effort or AI-generated responses will be the first to have their reach limited.

Trend four: PR will become the starting point for your strategy

Hayley Goff, Chief Executive Officer

In 2026, PR will become the starting point for all campaigns – shaping the direction, narrative and creative ideas that everything else builds from.

“It’s no longer just about securing coverage, it’s about setting the tone for everything else,” Hayley says.

“PR defines the positioning, shapes the messaging and helps craft the creative ideas that carry across every channel, from media placements to blogs and digital advertising. It’s the glue that holds a campaign together.”

This shift mirrors a theme we’ve explored throughout our Silo Series: campaigns only work when PR, content, SEO, social and creative all move in the same direction. When those disciplines operate separately, the narrative becomes fragmented. When PR leads the thinking, those silos break down. The insight, message and creative direction are aligned from the outset, giving every channel the same foundation to build on.

Around 70% of B2B buyers now engage with video during their purchasing journey, which is why Hayley expects PR to take on a much larger role in multimedia storytelling. As audiences spend more time with video, animation and interactive content, PR will need to shape narratives that work across these formats too.

Trend five: Authentic video will rise above the noise

Mark Wilson, Creative Director

More than half of B2B marketers report that video generates the highest ROI. At the same time, AI-generated content is filling feeds, and viewers are becoming wary of anything which feels too slick. That combination puts real weight behind honest, human-led video.

Whiteoaks Creative Director Mark Wilson says brands shouldn’t worry too much about imperfect lighting or framing – those details can actually signal authenticity. The real opportunity lies in showing what AI can’t replicate: genuine people, unscripted moments and spontaneous, human-led content.

“This shift will increase the need for businesses to create relevant, authentic and real video content, as people still buy from people,” he says. If you prioritise honest, human-led video, you’ll build more trust and stand out in a sea of synthetic content.

What do you make of our team’s predictions? If you’re a B2B tech brand, how do these trends line up with your view of PR and your goals for 2026? If any of them reflect where you want to go next, we’d be happy to talk about how we can help you put them into action.

New eBook!

When PR campaigns begin to stall, budgets get squeezed or goals shift, the answer isn’t “do more”. It’s to pause and reset. A deliberate reset helps clarify what’s working, what isn’t and where to focus so you can move forward with direction, rebuild and kickstart your PR into a high-performing trajectory.

Our new eBook, “Hit the button: The big PR reset”, is a practical guide to resetting and realigning PR with business priorities to deliver measurable results. Bringing together expertise from across our Senior Leadership Team, it covers everything from refreshing strategy and messaging, and resetting KPIs to securing leadership and finance buy-in.

Read the full eBook to:

Diagnose where PR is under-performing and, importantly, why
Learn how to integrate digital PR and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) to build visibility
Turn owned data into stories that resonate
Prove impact with clear KPIs and CFO-friendly reporting

Ready to hit reset? Get in touch for personalised recommendations on how a Performance PR approach can help you align goals, prove impact and deliver lasting results.

In this blog, Tara Williams, HR Director at Whiteoaks, considers:

Where internal comms goes wrong
The consequences for engagement and motivation
Why this is the best time of year to put it right with expert help

Sharp, up-to-date and eye-catching internal communications are vital to motivate your employees, align them with your business aims and nurture the right culture that aids growth.

But are you sure your social media content, welcome packs, newsletters, training videos or handbooks are up to the job? Many communications teams keep putting off the task of updating their employee-focused content and the result is the HR equivalent of stale turkey sandwiches after Christmas.

Out-of-date, tired and repetitive – it may have been snapped up eagerly once but now gives everyone the impression the business is low on energy or lacks strong direction. Employees lose focus and trust drains away.

For many businesses (certainly not for all) the run-up to Christmas can be a period of lower intensity when there is time for HR or comms teams to take a fresh look at the content on all their internal channels.

Research shows internal comms need attention

Why? Well, the Institute of Internal Communication’s 2025 Index, surveyed almost 5,000 UK employees and found only 13% were prepared to award their organisation ten-out-of-ten for the way it communicates with them.

About a quarter (26%) of employees gave responses indicating they were “deeply disconnected” from the organisation and its leadership and 13% “wanted more”, some of them feeling their organisation’s leaders were unspontaneous and always scripted in their communications. The report emphasises the effectiveness of communications when employees feel they are genuinely from the CEO or departmental heads – especially when it comes to explaining strategy.

There is clearly work to be done on workforce engagement. This year’s Gallup State of the Global Workplace report found that only 10% of UK employees regard themselves as “engaged”. Of course, it is easy to find people willing to be negative, but these figures are too low for comfort and lead to poor retention. Three-in-ten UK employees told Gallup they were watching for or actively seeking a new job.

The after-effects of stale internal comms

The fact is – many internal comms materials are under-performing.

Badly-crafted internal coms make it more likely employees will rely on the internal rumour mill and their colleagues for up-to-date information. But there is a more deep-seated problem with loss of trust in everything from the HR department to the leadership. Employees may feel their leaders are ducking the real issues, such as AI and how it will affect their work.

On a purely practical level, out-of-date internal comms also increase business risk when employees are left in the dark about important changes to working practices, regulation or new initiatives.

Why now is the right time to collaborate on new content

The run-up to the festive season is a good time to overhaul internal comms if there is a slight drop-off in intensity, making it easier for comms professionals and HR to get senior leadership attention.

Working with people who are experts in content and know how to join all the dots together right across every channel, teams can start creating training videos that are more relevant. They can use senior executive input to sharpen up internal messaging on strategy. The aim is to craft content that is pin-sharp, up-to-date, captivating and motivating.

Perhaps the entire employee value proposition is overdue a serious refresh. Whatever it is, your internal comms will benefit from external, objective expertise in messaging and design.

Get everyone focused on the right things

With new ideas, the whole organisation will feel fully connected, with everyone working to the same goals and more aware of how they achieve them. If you work in HR, you won’t be scratching your head about why so many employees never seem on-message.

If November and December are quieter times in your business, now is the time to do it. Don’t be left with internal comms materials that are the equivalent of stale turkey sandwiches.

To find out more about how Whiteoaks can help transform your internal communications across social media, video, onboarding packages, HR policy audits, handbooks and the refreshing of your employee value proposition, book a meeting with me or with our creative director Mark Wilson.

In this blog we discuss:

How AI-powered search is changing visibility
Why GEO complements SEO, and how PR builds the credibility, authority and consistency AI systems rely on
Practical ways to measure AI visibility using citations, quality coverage, sentiment and domain authority

“Search engines are dead!”

It’s the kind of bold claim marketers love to throw around whenever something new comes along and shakes things up. But this time, there’s almost certainly a real shift. Since Google’s global rollout of AI Overviews in 2024, users are now getting more instant answers – created by artificial intelligence – in the SERPS than lists of links.

And it’s not just Google’s AI Overviews, other AI-powered engines are also being adopted more widely; ChatGPT now sees around 700 million weekly users, up from 350 million at the start of the year. Google’s AI Overview reaches two billion monthly users and Microsoft Copilot has surpassed 100 million monthly activities.

This matters because AI is changing how people search, discover and make decisions. Instead of browsing pages, users are now increasingly relying on AI-generated answers that pull together information for them. That means fewer clicks through to websites and less visibility for brands focused only on traditional search. To stay visible, brands need to make sure their content and reputation feed the information AI tools use to create those answers.

What determines visibility in AI search?

In the past, the goal was to get your web pages to rank for key phrases. Now, the goal has shifted from ranking to inclusion: being cited or referenced within AI-generated responses. To achieve that, your brand needs to be recognised as a reliable source the AI can draw from when forming its answers. That’s what we call AI visibility – how often your brand, products or content are mentioned or referenced in AI-powered tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity.

SEO vs. GEO

As AI changes how people discover information, the race for rankings is giving way to a new goal – inclusion. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is emerging as the way to help content appear in AI-generated answers and summaries. If you’re a B2B tech brand, you might be thinking: we’ve spent years on SEO – creating content, earning backlinks and targeting keywords – and now we need to learn GEO too? The short answer is yes, but if you’re already investing in PR, especially digital PR, you’re ahead of the curve.

AI systems are trained to identify credible voices and surface reliable sources. Brands featured in reputable publications, backed by expert commentary and linked to by authoritative domains are more likely to be included in AI-generated results. And those are exactly the outcomes strong PR delivers.

Why PR and GEO belong together

So if PR can shape the datasets which AI uses to define authority, then really we shouldn’t be thinking about them as two separate disciplines at all. They’re two parts of the same engine driving how your brand gets seen and trusted online. As we’ve been exploring through the Silo Series, we need to start breaking down barriers between how we think of PR and other channels. In the series we’ve already talked about how PR fuels pipelines and now it’s obvious that we should also be thinking of AI-powered search in the same way.

How your PR engine can power AI visibility

It creates the credible content AI wants to feature: Authoritative, well-placed PR stories make your brand more likely to be cited as a trusted source because AI systems look for these kinds of voices when generating answers. Thought leadership, expert commentary and original research from PR offers that credibility.
PR builds the digital signals AI recognises as authority: Media coverage, podcasts and interviews across respected outlets create the consistent signals AI models use to decide who to trust. The more visible your brand, the more likely AI is to include it.
PR helps your brand’s long-term visibility: As AI search favours evergreen, informative content over fleeting news, any PR which focuses on analysis, advice and insight will be more likely to be included in AI summaries.
Good PR builds trust: Accuracy and transparency are core to PR and essential to AI visibility. Fact-checked stories, reliable messaging and credible coverage help ensure your brand is surfaced in AI results.

The above fundamentals – credibility, authority, consistency and sentiment – sit at the heart of everything PR already does. They also happen to be the same signals AI uses to decide which brands to feature and trust. That means if you’re already investing in PR, you’re going to be in a good position for AI visibility. And as we’ve said throughout the Silo Series, that’s proof that PR, SEO and AI visibility aren’t separate disciplines.

These factors also align closely with Google’s E-E-A-T model – experience, expertise, authority and trust – which still shapes how brands are recognised and represented online. And, just to add, it is thought that backlinks from respected domains remain one of the strongest signals of reliability. So all that SEO work that you’ve done over the years wasn’t in vain!

Measuring AI visibility

So, how do you track and measure your AI visibility in LLMs in a world of endless prompts and AI-generated responses?

Third-party AI visibility platforms are starting to make this possible, promising to help brands track and improve their presence. Most are still in their early stages, and some perform better than others.

Even without these tools, you can measure the signals that build AI visibility. Track where your brand is mentioned, the quality of coverage and the backlinks it earns. Monitor sentiment, message pull-through and domain authority to gauge credibility and trust. Share of voice and engagement show how visible and relevant your brand is across channels. These are the same indicators AI uses to assess authority, so strengthening them through PR already improves your standing in AI search.

If you want your brand to appear where your audiences are searching – in AI-generated overviews and search engines – talk to us about Visibility+. It’s our integrated PR and GEO service for B2B tech brands, designed to align your content with what AI tools and search engines prioritise.

In this blog we discuss:

How silos between PR, content marketing and sales cost leads and revenue
How PR sparks angles which fuel integrated campaigns and drive prospects through the funnel
How to measure PR’s value in engagement, leads and deals

Imagine you are a B2B buyer. You spot a headline that grabs your attention – wow! It really speaks to the challenges you’re facing right now and makes you want to find out more. A sales rep follows up, but the message feels different and it’s thrown you off. By the time an email arrives, it has shifted again.

Each touchpoint is well-intentioned, but instead of reinforcing your interest, the inconsistencies make you wonder: do they really understand my problem? Can I trust what they’re saying? At that point, your attention drifts and you’re already considering another supplier.

This might sound like an extreme example, but it reflects a wider reality. Data shows 52% of sales professionals say misalignment costs revenue, yet only 23% believe their sales and marketing are strongly aligned.

The PR, content and sales silo

But how can PR help with sales? Surely PR is PR, and sales is just sales? It’s going to take more than a headline to nurture interest and bring a lead closer to conversion. The problem is that we tend to think of PR, content marketing and sales as three separate functions, each working in its own silo.

Joining the dots with Performance PR

This is where Performance PR comes in. Unlike traditional PR, Performance PR encompasses not only media relations, but also social media, creative and content marketing. And that’s really interesting because it is often content which is crucial for connecting the spark of a story with the detail of a sales conversation.

In Performance PR, content marketing is built in. The stories created through PR are developed into content, which explore topics in greater depth, then shared through the right channels so it reaches the right people. And rather than being judged solely on coverage as a traditional PR campaign would be, the impact is measured by what really matters to the business: engagement, qualified leads and deals moving through the pipeline.

PR as the spark

PR is often where many of the best ideas begin. The angles and stories it generates can be fed into wider marketing and lead generation campaigns, providing the material which can help engage buyers.

Take our work with cyber security company Bridewell. Together, we spotted a gap in the market; there was no authoritative research into the state of cyber security across critical national infrastructure. So we commissioned and developed their annual report which became a credible, newsworthy story which our media team placed in top-tier media. But it did much more than win headlines. It became a barometer for the industry which could be repurposed, quoted and shared, extending its value far beyond launch day. The report also provided the foundation for a whole range of content, such as blogs and articles, social campaigns and sales materials.

Subsequent to the campaign with Bridewell, research among 600 UK cyber security leaders showed the company had risen from ninth place in 2023 to the top five for unprompted consideration. In plain terms, more buyers thought of the company first, as a result of our work.

How PR helps feed the funnel

In Performance PR, content marketing and campaigns work as one connected effort to move prospects through the funnel, with the angles from media stories as the spark which starts it all.

Top of the funnel: PR creates awareness

A strong piece of research, a news angle or thought leadership in the media puts your brand in front of new audiences. When it appears in respected outlets or speaks to a genuine gap in the conversation, it carries more weight than marketing copy, because the credibility is earned rather than manufactured.

Middle of the funnel: PR themes fuel content marketing

The stories PR generates give marketing teams a foundation to create material which goes deeper into the topics. Imagine the media team commissions research which shows, for example, that ‘70% of finance leaders feel unprepared for upcoming regulatory changes’. That headline lands in the trade press and gets significant eyeballs as well as people talking.

From there, the marketing team can build the topics out into their campaigns. The research becomes a blog post which explains the specific challenges finance leaders face. It develops into a practical guide which explores the implications of non-compliance and eventually into a case study showing how one of your clients successfully navigated the same issue with your support.

This is the middle of the funnel at work. Prospects who were curious when they saw the headline now have the chance to dig deeper, test your expertise and understand more about what you do and why it matters to them.

Across the funnel: PR stories carried through campaigns

The value of that initial PR grows even more when it’s repurposed and delivered directly to target audiences. Coverage and research insights can be turned into nurture emails, promoted LinkedIn posts or the hook for an event. We often support clients in doing exactly this, ensuring each reuse keeps the authority of the original PR story while reinforcing the message through different channels. All the while, it helps prospects move closer to a decision.

By the time a sales conversation starts, the prospect has seen the story in the media, engaged with explanatory content and received campaigns which connect directly to their challenges.

Alignment drives stronger leads and engagement

When there’s alignment between PR, content marketing and sales, prospects already understand the issues you solve and have engaged with credible content along the way.

That depth of interaction shows up in the numbers: longer time spent on your site, higher click-through rates, more relevant email responses. When it comes to onboarding new business, it translates into fewer dead-end conversations and more prospects who are genuinely interested. It also shortens the sales cycle; the groundwork has already been laid, so sales can focus on building the relationship and closing the deal.

Measuring PR’s impact on pipeline

Traditional PR measurement has often stopped at coverage volume or impressions – how many articles appeared and how many people might have seen them. But of course with Performance PR, it’s all connected back to business outcomes, and therein the value lies. So when we want to know how PR and the resulting content has made an impact, helped move prospects down the pipeline and been a contributing factor to sales, this is what we measure:

How much traffic has PR-inspired blogs, guides or case studies driven to websites? How much engagement and action have they inspired on social media?
How many downloads or sign-ups has content generated? That could be from whitepapers, guides, webinars or events.
How many marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) interacted with those assets along their journey?

Where did PR-driven content or coverage play a role in moving a prospect closer to becoming a customer?

The results speak for themselves when you can show the direct link between an earned story and a measurable outcome – a form filled in, a guide downloaded, a meeting booked or a deal closed. Performance PR can help you achieve this, but only if you stop thinking of it, along with content marketing and sales, in a silo. When all work as one, that’s what really feeds the pipeline.

If driving new business is a challenge for your B2B tech brand, learn how we can support your lead generation efforts. Speak to one of our team, or find out more.

In this blog, Richard Peters, Senior Content Creator at Whiteoaks, explores:

How B2B tech firms can take a braver, more strategic approach to communications, even in a cautious economic climate
How generic content is eroding trust and engagement
How thought leadership delivered as part of a Performance PR approach can build visibility and credibility for the brand

Many B2B technology businesses today are feeling the pressure of an economy that is both tight and in flux. In the UK, 44% of CFOs rate external uncertainty as high or very high, and the outlook for capital expenditure, discretionary spending and hiring remains subdued.

This economic backdrop is reshaping how decisions are made. With borrowing costs still elevated, organisations are taking longer to commit and every line of spend is under sharper scrutiny. Securing buy-in from senior stakeholders has become more challenging, as proposals must now demonstrate a clear link to visibility, efficiency or commercial impact.

At the same time, competitive intensity is rising. More vendors are targeting the same audiences, and digital channels are increasingly saturated. Exacerbating the challenge, buyers are increasingly time-poor and expectation-rich. They’re looking for content that speaks directly to their challenges, offers genuine insight and helps them make informed decisions.

The cost of playing it safe

When messaging defaults to vague value propositions or recycled industry jargon, it fails to engage and often also ends up actively eroding trust. That’s a growing problem, with 51% of B2B buyers saying content was too generic and irrelevant in 2024, up from 38% in 2023. This signals a growing disconnect between what businesses are putting out and what their audiences actually need.

To address this problem effectively and ensure they ‘stand out’, firms require not just a differentiated offer but a smarter, more strategic approach to engagement. Organisations are beginning to realise that to raise their brand visibility, they will need to be braver in their communications: more targeted, more nuanced and more reflective of the real-world challenges their audiences face.

How firms can be bold and deliver content that cuts through

To achieve the cut through they are looking for, B2B tech firms should lead with expertise and focus on developing thought leadership that earns attention in busy channels and builds authority and trust with buyers and influencers alike.

That means being willing to reflect the nuance of their audience’s world: addressing real issues and offering meaningful perspectives, even if they challenge conventional thinking.

Against this backdrop, bold thought leadership can provide just that. As part of a performance-led approach, bold thought leadership, supported by strong media relations and consistent, engaging, social builds credibility, sustains depth and allows for measurement against clear KPIs.

As evidence of the impact of bold thought leadership builds through transparent reporting, stakeholder confidence grows and braver positioning becomes easier to back. This approach helps build brand awareness and supports pipeline, helps attract channel and alliance partners and strengthens long-term value.

Being bold doesn’t mean being loud, it means being clear, credible and relevant. For B2B tech firms, that often involves stepping away from generic messaging and leaning into expertise that genuinely helps buyers navigate complexity.

A Performance PR approach can support this shift by tying bold ideas to measurable outcomes, helping build trust and visibility over time.

By reporting transparently and aligning with real audience needs, businesses can gradually build the confidence to communicate with more clarity and conviction, even when budgets are tight.

It helps you win mindshare today and deals tomorrow. Clear, evidence-led stories make it easier for buyers to choose you and for partners to justify joint activity.

Ready to let your expertise do the talking? Speak to the Whiteoaks team today.

In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Finance Director, Adam George shares his insights about how to ensure your PR investments keep your CFO happy, including:

Ensuring campaigns are built around business objectives
Setting out clear performance metrics
Finding a consistent partner

Like many services, PR can often have an intangible quality that is difficult to reconcile for finance leaders. The tendency to lean upon paid marketing where results can be measured and return on investment (ROI) established is a tempting alternative to appeal to the CFO mindset. That’s why if you want your CFO to back your PR spend, you need to position it not as a creative expense, but as the strategic, measurable business investment it is.

Here are some of the ways to make your PR investment CFO-friendly:

Fixed fees for fixed deliverables

It sounds obvious, right? Traditionally, PR has used the retainer model, but this promotes uncertainty and often results in mounting costs without a clearly defined return. Why not seek out an agency offering a fixed cost for clearly defined deliverables? By eliminating the budgetary uncertainty, PR can be factored into annual budgets with certainty, helping your finance leader plan with confidence.

Business-aligned planning

It can sometimes feel difficult to cut through the jargon and waffle associated with marketing and PR. CFOs are driven by the commercial results, not lip-service and hot air. The agency you partner with should build its strategies around your commercial goals – market expansion, growth in share-of-voice, talent acquisition or any other outcomes your business desires. By aligning PR with business strategy, you give your CFO the confidence that every pound spent is tied to measurable commercial objectives – not vanity metrics or vague brand goals.

Clear KPIs and performance reporting

This leads us on to measurement. It’s the bread and butter of any senior finance professional. The inability to measure the success of any spend means it becomes more difficult to justify. With clear KPIs agreed up-front, and concise reporting throughout a campaign, your PR spend ceases to be deemed a money pit from which results are difficult to define. Instead, it becomes a clear, measurable service aligned with your business goals.

Whether it’s share of voice, media coverage, engagement metrics or influence on pipeline, everything is benchmarked and tracked.

ROI accountability – even a money-back guarantee

‘Money back’ is a phrase you will rarely encounter in the PR world. But without this guarantee, value for money and, crucially, accountability, can often be diminished. Contrast this with clear ROI that is reinforced by a money-back guarantee. This gives your CFO peace of mind that their commercial goals are matched by the desire of the agency you engage.

Consistency that protects long-term value

Unlike paid media, your PR agency should be your partner when it comes to building and protecting your brand. PR isn’t a tap you turn on and off. Stop-start campaigns waste money and erode brand equity. If your agency adopts an ‘always-on’ approach, it becomes easier for your CFO to calculate the benefits and long-term growth provided by consistent and long-term partnerships.

PR as something finance can believe in

To keep your CFO happy with your investment, treat PR like a long-term, strategic asset – not a discretionary spend. Build your case around cost-certainty, commercial alignment and measurable impact. When you speak the CFO’s language – outcomes, risk-management, and value – you turn PR into something finance can believe in.

Get in touch to learn more about how we deliver PR campaigns that keep your CFO happy.