AI is transforming the way many industries function – streamlining processes, uncovering new ways to utilize data and enhancing user experiences.
In journalism, AI tools are shaping the newsgathering process, with Muck Rack’s 2025 State of Journalism report revealing that 77% of surveyed journalists utilize AI tools. On the flip side, the stories produced by journalists help inform search results and prompt future responses generated by AI.
As such technologies grow in popularity across the media landscape, GAVIN™ monitors the potential impact to clients, maintaining focus on how to protect brands from misinformation and sustain accurate media coverage.
The Rise of AI in Storytelling
Journalists are incorporating AI tools into their reporting, writing and editing workflows, which creates numerous implications for brands.
The information a client provides to journalists, or the information journalists find online about a client, can be run through automation tools for streamlined reporting. For example:
- Audio from press conference audio can be transcribed to quickly generate a news article.
- A newswire press release can be summarized by AI for a breaking news update.
- A Google search for a brand may produce an AI-generated summary that informs a reporter’s research.
These changes in the storytelling process pose risks to clients because AI can strip nuance from brand messages, misinterpret information or conflate it with unrelated brands or topics as it generates summaries. Strong PR framing can help defend against these inaccuracies and keep brand messages consistent by providing clarity and control.
GAVIN continuously follows these technology trends to inform and pivot PR strategies. Our team reviews industry news, completes online trainings, attends conferences and participates in workshops to better understand how we can best serve clients in our media relationships. We share our learnings with clients to help them understand how media practices are changing and what we’re doing to realign our approach to ensure consistent outcomes.
Understanding Reputational Risks
The risks for clients extend beyond AI’s use in the initial storytelling process. The information journalists publish online feeds into the Large Language Models (LLMs) that power AI tools. At the 2025 Axios Media Trends Live event, Associated Press CEO Daisy Veerasingham described fact-based journalism as fundamental to the training of AI.
Articles, images and videos have a lasting footprint as they’re scraped for data to support AI-generated summaries. AI calculates the credibility of these information sources as it provides responses to user prompts, which underscores the importance of securing high-quality media placements for brands.
When AI generates inaccurate or decontextualized summaries about a brand, stakeholders may be misled, exposing the brand to potentially negative shifts in perception or reputation, or a crisis.
To avoid such risks, GAVIN tailors media relations strategies to target reputable media placements that positively influence a brand’s online narrative. Our team of strategists prioritize credible outlets – from local and national news sites to podcasts and YouTube channels – so AI systems pull authoritative and trusted content when summarizing a brand. We monitor clients’ media mentions for accuracy and clarity and quickly communicate with reporters to correct misinformation.
Building Clarity and Continuity
Pitching concise yet comprehensive brand narratives creates message continuity around a client’s mission, services, leadership and newsworthy updates.
Quality of coverage is also a key consideration for managing brand reputation amid AI shifts. Landing strategic placements in trustworthy publications supports a brand’s credibility among human audiences, as well as the AI tools that analyze content.
GAVIN helps clients prioritize messages to ensure the developing brand narrative online aligns with their strategic goals while building a sustained media presence. We secure opportunities for clients to be a voice in relevant industry conversations which can lead to better positioning in AI summaries and search results.
We also prep C-suite leaders for interviews and develop talking points as their messaging becomes quotable data AI will reuse. For example, we frame healthcare clients’ narratives around measurable outcomes, such as patient impact, to ensure accuracy, and we tie finance clients’ industry insights to their service offerings to bolster relevance and credibility.
Navigating Future Shifts
As AI tools continue to evolve, their usage in newsrooms will likely rise. Brands that don’t stay proactive risk being defined by AI tools instead of their own strategies.
GAVIN executes consistent media outreach that helps maintain PR momentum while building and controlling a client’s online narrative.
We partner with clients to continuously refine positioning based on newsroom AI adoption trends.
Connect with Us
Tracking developments in AI tools is critical to understanding the dissemination of information online for a brand. GAVIN can be your partner in working through the challenges of a changing media environment.
Talk with us about our brand reputation analysis services. Let’s chat.
