“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
For me, Google’s shift towards AI-led shopping experiences is shining an even greater light on the need for brands to invest in their presence online specifically. When AI is inevitably responsible for what gets surfaced, compared, and ultimately bought, the question becomes “When the technical playing field is level, why would AI trust that we should be recommended to potential customers?”.
In this post I’ll give my thoughts on what I think will help brands win in this new world 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 and reliable.
That means getting the technical fundamentals in place:
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Structured product data that is accurate and complete
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Clean product feeds
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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 levels, and that’s when differentiation starts to matter.
Many teams will be able to “optimise” for AI product listings, just as many can do SEO today, but optimisation alone does not guarantee you outperform competitors. Authority, reputation, and brand presence still act as the tie-breakers.
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’s a brand new rulebook. In reality, the deciding factors will look very familiar.
Brands that are most likely to be surfaced are the ones that appear most credible across the wider web:
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Relevant, high-authority backlinks
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Consistent brand mentions in the right places
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Positive sentiment around the brand
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Authentic reviews that reinforce real customer experience
PR campaigns will still matter as they create narrative moments, attract links and can live on and attract links long after outreach is complete. But relying on occasional spikes is risky when AI-driven discovery is always running in the background.
Again, as has always been the case, combining campaigns with an always-on engine, something like reactive PR, is going to be the way to win. Consistency is key.
Reactive PR is about:
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Monitoring the news cycle
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Spotting relevant stories and developments quickly
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Proactively contributing commentary, data, or a brand point of view as events unfold
This creates a steady cadence of coverage and credibility between campaigns, which compounds your authority over time.
Dare to be different
It’s never been easier to create a brand, there are new ones popping up every day, just check your social feeds. The problem is that many are indistinguishable from one another. To go from an internet brand that lasts a couple of years to something people affiliate themselves with, recommend and come back to, is all about building a strong brand presence.
There is no one way to do this, but once you have a brand that creates a good product or service (the basics) you need to differentiate yourself from the pack.
That could mean:
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Having a notable USP over competitors
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Having a strong Tone Of Voice and brand identity
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Being brave enough to not blend in
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Building a community and loyalty
When a brand has a mix or all of these things, building the brand through effective Digital PR is so much easier. As Digital PR and marketing specialists we thrive on having a brand to work on that stands for something and isn’t afraid to say what they mean, and mean what they say.
All this is to say that brands that stand out will do better with Digital PR efforts, aiding the traditional SEO metrics we all know and love, as well as feeding the new AI shopping machine.
What to do next
None of us are 100% on what all the contributing factors will be to making sure your brand wins in the new AI assisted shopping world, but I think it’s a good guess to assume the offsite signals that influence traditional SEO rankings will have a major part to play.
Here’s how I would prepare:
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Get your product data and stock accuracy right, so you are eligible to be recommended.
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Invest in authority, because mentions, links, sentiment, and reviews will differentiate you when everyone else has the same technical setup.
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Build always-on PR momentum, so credibility compounds rather than arriving in bursts.
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Stop trying to look like everyone else, because distinct brands earn attention, and keep 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.