“When the technical playing field is even, your brand, how you show up and what people say about you will be the difference.”
James Roach, Head of Digital PR at Honcho
Google’s shift towards AI-led shopping experiences puts an even greater spotlight on the need for brands to invest in how they show up online. When AI is increasingly responsible for what gets surfaced, compared and ultimately bought, the real question becomes: when the technical playing field is level, why should AI trust your brand enough to recommend it?
In this post, I’ll share what I think will help brands win in this new environment and how Digital PR for brand building fits into the mix.
Start with the basics: feed the AI properly
If AI is recommending products inside Google, your first job is simple: make your products legible, accurate and reliable.
That means getting the technical fundamentals in place:
- structured product data that is accurate and complete
- clean product feeds
- up-to-date stock and availability information
Without this, you may not even enter the conversation, because the system cannot confidently understand what you sell or whether a customer can actually buy it.
Once you and your competitors have this nailed, the playing field starts to level out, and that is when differentiation matters most.
Many teams will be able to optimise for AI product listings, just as many can optimise for search today. But optimisation alone does not guarantee that you outperform competitors. Authority, reputation and brand presence still act as the tie-breakers.
This is also why stronger feed and product data strategy matters so much in an AI-led shopping environment.
Consistent online brand building
When everyone can optimise, trust signals decide who gets surfaced.
A lot of brands will hear “AI shopping” and assume it is a completely new rulebook. In reality, many of the deciding factors will feel familiar.
The brands most likely to be surfaced are often the ones that appear most credible across the wider web:
- relevant, high-authority backlinks
- consistent brand mentions in the right places
- positive sentiment around the brand
- authentic reviews that reinforce real customer experience
PR campaigns still matter because they create narrative moments, attract links and can continue generating value long after the outreach ends. But relying on occasional spikes is risky when AI-driven discovery is always running in the background.
As has always been the case, combining campaigns with an always-on engine such as reactive PR is likely to be the way to win. Consistency matters.
Reactive PR is about:
- monitoring the news cycle
- spotting relevant stories and developments quickly
- contributing commentary, data or a clear brand point of view as events unfold
This creates a steadier cadence of coverage and credibility between campaigns, helping authority compound over time.
For brands trying to strengthen visibility across modern search and AI-led discovery, that makes Digital PR services even more commercially important.
Dare to be different
It has never been easier to create a brand. New ones appear every day. The problem is that many are indistinguishable from one another.
To move from being an internet brand that lasts a couple of years to something people identify with, recommend and come back to, you need a stronger brand presence.
There is no single way to do that, but once you have a product or service people genuinely want, you need to differentiate yourself from the pack.
That could mean:
- having a clear USP over competitors
- developing a strong tone of voice and brand identity
- being brave enough not to blend in
- building a community and long-term loyalty
When a brand has some or all of these qualities, building it through effective Digital PR becomes much easier. As search and PR specialists, we always do our best work with brands that stand for something and are not afraid to say what they mean.
All of this is to say that brands which stand out will perform better through Digital PR efforts, supporting the traditional SEO signals we all know while also feeding the newer AI-led shopping ecosystem. That is why connected ecommerce SEO and PPC strategy still matters alongside off-site authority building.
What to do next
None of us know every factor that will influence which brands win in an AI-assisted shopping world, but it is a fair assumption that the off-site signals influencing traditional SEO will continue to play an important role.
Here is how I would prepare:
- get your product data and stock accuracy right so you are eligible to be recommended
- invest in authority, because mentions, links, sentiment and reviews will differentiate you when everyone else has similar technical foundations
- build always-on PR momentum so credibility compounds rather than arriving in bursts
- stop trying to look like everyone else, because distinctive brands earn attention and hold it
AI may change the interface, but it does not change the underlying reality: trust is earned in public.
Want to go deeper?
For the bigger picture on how Google is reshaping the shopping journey, read From Click to Checkout Inside Google: The Biggest Retail Shift Since Shopping & PMax?.
If you want the technical foundations that help AI systems interpret and act on your product offering, read SEO Readiness for Agentic Commerce: From Discoverability to Actionability.
If you want the paid view on how to use Direct Offers without wasting budget, read Google AI Mode Ads: What Direct Offers Mean for Retailers.
Need help building authority for AI-led commerce?
If your brand needs stronger trust signals, better visibility and more authority across the wider web, our Digital PR services can help you build the kind of brand presence that supports both search performance and AI-led product discovery.
We also help ecommerce brands connect off-site authority with stronger ecommerce SEO and PPC strategy, so visibility, trust and conversion work together.
