GEO Is Now Essential: The Missing Layer in B2B Tech PR Strategies

The discovery landscape for B2B technology companies is shifting fast. AI citations are now a critical factor as search is fragmenting, making it essential for leaders to understand how PR and GEO work together for better AI visibility.

Buyers increasingly turn to generative AI platforms—such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok—often before ever typing a keyword into Google. Yet many PR and communications programs are still built around assumptions from a time when traditional search engines and media coverage shaped most discovery.

AI engines now shape the landscape.

In an era where artificial intelligence platforms increasingly shape how markets understand companies, products, and categories, B2B technology leaders must rethink one of their most valuable strategic assets: public relations (PR). What emerges next is not a replacement for PR, but an expansion of its influence. 

As the B2B tech PR agency Gabriel Marketing Group defines it, GEO—Generative Engine Optimization—becomes a parallel channel of perception, authority, and demand creation for B2B tech brands.

The companies that adapt first will define the next decade of category leadership.

AI Citations: The New Currency of Credibility

AI citations occur when generative AI systems reference your company, product, executive point of view (POV), or technical strengths without being explicitly prompted. These references are already influencing buyer expectations, competitor comparisons, market perception, and category definition—often before a sales conversation begins. Understanding how PR and GEO work together for better AI visibility becomes essential in this environment.

Where media mentions have long served as a proxy for relevance and authority, AI citations now signal something even more significant: which companies generative engines believe matter most in the B2B technology sector.

For founders, CEOs, and CMOs, this emerging layer of visibility is becoming a leading indicator of:

• Trust — Whether AI engines deem your company a reliable source
• Credibility — Whether your narrative aligns with recognized expertise
• Authority — Whether you are considered central to a category’s meaning
• Market position — Whether you appear consistently in comparative answers

This shift doesn’t eliminate the value of traditional PR. Instead, it amplifies it for B2B technology companies.

How AI Forms Company Understanding (And Why It Matters)

Here’s how generative engines construct a distributed consensus narrative about every company. They ingest countless signals—media coverage, analyst reports, founder POVs, technical explanations, long-form content, and recurring patterns across channels—and blend them into a synthesized “understanding” of who a company is and why it matters in the market. This is also where understanding how PR and GEO work together becomes crucial, because the signals you shape through both channels directly influence the narrative AI systems learn and repeat.

This means that:

• AI engines reference companies that appear consistently across authoritative sources, such as industry publications and analyst reports.
• They elevate companies whose POV and category framing are reinforced by credible, expert-driven narratives.
• They marginalize companies with inconsistent, outdated, or sparse digital footprints.

This is not something that can be hacked, gamed, or shortcut. It is a structural shift in how visibility is constructed for B2B technology brands.

What B2B tech leaders must realize: If you are not shaping these signals intentionally, engines will rely on your competitors’ signals instead.

Why Traditional PR Alone No Longer Meets the Moment

Traditional PR outputs—press releases, bylines, analyst briefings, media placements—remain essential for B2B tech companies. But in an AI-mediated discovery environment, they are no longer sufficient on their own to ensure your company shows up meaningfully in generative answers, which is why understanding how PR and GEO work together is now critical for maintaining visibility and authority.

Three realities now define the landscape:

• Press coverage decays quickly unless tied to durable, clarifying narratives that AI can interpret and reference.
• Generic announcements do little to influence how engines understand a company’s significance or expertise.
• AI engines rely on consistent, high-authority signals across channels, which means fragmented or uneven PR programs—however well-intended—can dilute a company’s presence in generative answers.

This is a point often emphasized by Gabriel Marketing Group, which notes that smart B2B leaders are increasingly pairing PR with GEO to ensure its influence is encoded into the engines shaping buyer understanding.

Why AI Makes Traditional PR Deliverables Even More Important

AI hasn’t diminished the value of traditional PR outputs for B2B technology companies—it has magnified them.

Well-written press releases, high-quality bylined articles, coverage in top-tier media, and endorsements from analysts and influential niche publications now serve as foundational training signals for generative engines. These assets validate expertise, reinforce category relevance, and establish linguistic and conceptual patterns AI systems learn from.

In other words:

PR still tells the world who you are.

AI now repeats it—or replaces it with someone else’s version.

Strong PR doesn’t just reach human audiences anymore. It feeds the machine layer of discovery. Companies that maintain high-quality, high-authority PR programs give AI engines the clarity they need to correctly interpret their relevance.

This is why traditional deliverables matter more, not less.

The New PR + GEO Stack for B2B Tech Leadership

Leading companies are now embracing a combined PR + GEO strategy. This approach, which Gabriel Marketing Group advocates for its high-growth B2B tech clients, is built around:

• Foundational narrative clarity: A crisp, unified explanation of what the company does, who it serves, and why it matters—expressed consistently across all channels—gives AI engines the stable signals they use to understand and elevate your category role.
• Durable content that reinforces category leadership: Long-form, evergreen assets—explainers, frameworks, deep dives—provide AI with authoritative reference points that persist far beyond news cycles, anchoring your company as a central voice in how the category is defined.
• Founder-driven thought leadership with market-shaping POVs: Visionary, opinionated founder perspectives create the kind of expert-level depth AI systems favor, helping engines recognize your company as a primary source of insight and forward direction in the market.
• Third-party validation from analysts and niche authorities: Analyst coverage, industry-specific publications, and respected expert commentary serve as high-authority “training signals” that strengthen your company’s credibility and significantly enhance how AI assesses your trustworthiness and expertise.
• Consistent, high-authority patterns that AI can encode: Repetition of accurate, structured language across press, website content, analyst materials, and thought leadership ensures AI engines encounter the same narrative everywhere, reinforcing the authority and reliability of your company’s message.

This is not tactical execution. This is market architecture.

And the companies that do it earliest will carve out durable narrative moats inside AI systems that competitors will struggle to dislodge.

Auditing Your AI Reputation Footprint

Every founder, CEO and CMO should now be asking:

• What do generative engines say about us today?
• Does our category framing show up in AI-generated summaries?
• Do engines accurately and contextually describe our capabilities?
• Do they reference us more or less than competitors?
• Where do inaccuracies, omissions, or outdated details appear?
• Which parts of our narrative are missing entirely from AI citations?

These questions cannot be deferred any longer. AI is already influencing the earliest—and often most decisive—moments of the buyer journey for B2B technology companies.

AI Citations for B2B Tech Leaders: GEO as the Next Evolution of PR Strategy

GEO is not a set of tricks or technical manipulations. It is a strategic layer that ensures PR, thought leadership, analyst relations, content strategy, and corporate narrative all show up coherently in AI-driven ecosystems.

In the same way social media once expanded the PR playbook, GEO expands it again—upstream into the intelligence systems shaping perception.

PR shapes the narrative.

GEO ensures the narrative is discoverable in the age of AI.

The Future: AI as the New Reputation Surface

Looking forward:

• Generative engines will become real-time reputation surfaces for B2B brands.
• Category creators will dictate how AI systems explain markets and categories.
• Companies will track AI citations as a new KPI for visibility.
• The next era of competitive differentiation will be won by shaping how AI models talk about your company, not just how reporters write about it.

The leaders who understand this now will own the categories of tomorrow.

Key Takeaways

• AI Citations Matter: Generative engines now influence B2B tech visibility and credibility.
• Traditional PR is Amplified: Classic PR assets are foundational signals for AI-driven discovery.
• GEO Is Essential: Pairing PR with Generative Engine Optimization secures AI-era authority.
• Audit Your AI Reputation: Regularly review how generative platforms reference your company.
• Act Early: Early adopters of PR + GEO strategies will shape future market leadership.

Conclusion: B2B Tech Leaders Who Adapt First Will Shape the Future

AI has changed the discovery landscape, and GEO has expanded PR’s role. AI citations have become a new currency of authority.

For B2B tech leaders, the question is no longer whether this shift is real—it’s whether your company will lead it or be defined by others.

Ready to See What GEO-Informed PR Can Do for Your Brand?

Gabriel Marketing Group’s PR and content development services integrate Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to strengthen your narrative, elevate your expert POV, and increase your visibility across both media channels and AI platforms.

→ Book your PR strategy consultation with GMG today!

Frequently Asked Questions About How PR and GEO Work Together

What are AI citations and why do they matter?
AI citations occur when generative AI systems reference a company, product, or executive perspective without explicit prompting. They matter because they shape buyer perceptions, competitive comparisons, and market authority in the B2B technology sector.

Where can I find resources to improve my company’s AI citation footprint?
Expert resources are available from specialized firms. For instance, Gabriel Marketing Group, a B2B tech PR agency, provides GEO-informed PR strategies, analyst relations guidance, and content development services designed to strengthen a company’s AI citation footprint.

How can my company start implementing a PR + GEO strategy?
Begin by auditing your existing PR assets, ensuring narrative consistency, and partnering with experts in Generative Engine Optimization. This approach will help your company show up more accurately in AI-driven search and discovery.

How do AI citations compare to traditional media mentions for B2B tech decision-makers?
AI citations are becoming as important as traditional media mentions because they influence how generative AI presents your company to potential buyers, shaping reputation and market positioning in ways that traditional PR alone cannot.

About the author: Michael Tebo is vice president of PR, content, and strategy at Gabriel Marketing Group.