PR has traditionally been built around human audiences: journalists, customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders.
But there is now another audience every communications strategy must consider: machines.
Christopher Penn recently highlighted a striking estimate from Cloudflare Radar: around half of US internet traffic is now machine-based. That does not mean half of your customers are robots, or that all automated traffic is generated by AI. It means that algorithms, crawlers and AI systems increasingly determine whether your content reaches the people who matter.
Your PR strategy needs two playbooks: one for humans and one for machines.
What does PR for machines mean?
PR for machines does not mean replacing good writing with robotic, keyword-laden copy. It means making your brand’s expertise, insights and reputation easy for agentic systems to find, understand and trust.
Machines have acted as intermediaries for years. Search engines decide which sources appear first. Social media algorithms select which posts reach an audience. YouTube and other platforms recommend what people watch next.
Generative AI adds another layer. Increasingly, people are asking ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and other platforms questions they would previously have put into Google.
Agentic systems do not simply provide a list of links. They assemble an answer from the information they can access and judge to be relevant.
The PR question is no longer only: “Will a journalist or customer read this?”
It is also: “Will a machine find it, understand it and consider it worth citing?”
Why media relations still matters
This does not make journalists or media coverage less important - indeed, it makes them more valuable.
AI systems look for authoritative, independent sources. A clear point of view published on a company website has value. The same argument reported by the Financial Times, Reuters or a respected sector publication carries additional credibility.
Strong earned media can now influence two audiences. It shapes what people think directly while also contributing to the body of trusted information from which search engines and AI platforms construct their answers.
Human relationships remain central too. Machines can identify content, but they cannot replicate the trust built between an experienced PR adviser and a journalist, or the judgement required to recognise what constitutes a genuinely newsworthy story.
PR for machines should complement PR for people, not replace it.
What makes content useful to machines?
AI platforms need facts, evidence and clarity. Vague claims about being “leading”, “innovative” or “client-centric” provide little useful information.
Communications should instead include:
Clear explanations of who the organisation is and what it does
Specific expertise, sectors, services and geographical markets
Original data, named sources and transparent methodologies
Substantive commentary rather than generic opinion
Consistent facts and terminology across websites and external coverage
Clearly identified authors, publication dates and supporting evidence
Accessible webpages that search engines and legitimate AI crawlers can read
This requires PR, content, digital and SEO teams to work together. Publishing a strong report as a visually impressive but impenetrable PDF may serve human readers while making its insights difficult for machines to retrieve and quote. Gating content also restricts the access for agentic systems.
Why GEO is only part of the answer
Generative engine optimisation is currently receiving considerable attention. But it should not be treated as a fixed new discipline with a permanent checklist.
AI is moving towards agentic systems that actively search for current information rather than relying solely on what was included in a model’s original training data. Today’s optimisation techniques will change as the technology does.
The lasting principle is simpler: produce distinctive, authoritative and accessible information that deserves to become part of an answer.
That is fundamentally a reputation challenge, and therefore a PR challenge.
How Rostrum helps brands communicate with people and machines
Rostrum specialises in communications for financial and professional services businesses operating in complex, competitive and highly regulated markets.
We combine sector expertise, media relationships and high-quality editorial content with search, digital and AI visibility capabilities. This allows us to create communications that engage human decision-makers while also helping search engines and AI platforms understand a brand’s expertise and authority.
The goal is not to game an algorithm. It is to build a body of credible evidence around a brand-and ensure that evidence can be found wherever people now seek information.
Key questions firms should ask about their PR strategy
Are we treating machines as an important route to our human audiences?
Can search engines and AI platforms clearly understand who we are and what we know?
Are our claims supported by original data, credible evidence and independent coverage?
Is our best content accessible and structured for both people and machines?
Are we measuring AI referrals, search visibility and crawler activity?
Does our PR strategy build authority beyond our own website?
The public in public relations remains human. But the route to that public is increasingly controlled by machines.
If your communications strategy addresses only the people at the end of that journey, it may be missing much of what happens along the way.
Sources: Christopher Penn’s “Advice I Would Give to a New PR Practitioner” and Cloudflare Radar’s AI Insights.
