The role of AI, LLMs, and earned media in shaping reputation

LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews now sit between you and the stakeholders you want to reach. When someone wants to know whether they can trust a brand or organisation, an AI is often who they ask first.

These tools don’t invent their own opinion of you, but learn from what other sources publish, and repeat whichever version already dominates. For PR and comms professionals, that raises an urgent question: which sources are most likely to influence an LLM’s answer, and how do you make sure it’s the right one?

Using Vuelio Media Monitoring and Lumina AI View, we tracked how UK supermarket brands handled the same crisis, then followed the trail two months later to see exactly what AI tools were citing when describing them, and why.

Inside the report, you’ll discover:

– What really shapes the story when a crisis hits, and why two brands facing identical pressures ended up with starkly different share prices and coverage
– Why earned media, not owned content, is what AI tools trust
– Why AI rewards authority over outrage, and how a strong, ownable narrative outperforms sensationalism in shaping AI sentiment
– How today’s coverage keeps working long after the news cycle moves on, and what that means for the stories you invest in now