A new report from Muck Rack indicates that earned media continues to play an outsized role in shaping how leading AI platforms interpret and describe brands, even as press releases gain increased visibility within generative search environments. The findings, released as part of the latest Generative AI citations study in the “What Is AI Reading?” report, analyze more than one million links cited by top AI systems and highlight significant shifts in the sources that generative models rely on when producing responses to complex user prompts.
According to the report, non paid media overwhelmingly dominates the training and citation landscape. Approximately ninety four percent of all citations analyzed originated from non paid sources, and earned media alone accounted for eighty two percent. Traditional journalism remains particularly influential, representing twenty to thirty percent of citations during any measured period. The data reinforces the growing convergence between news credibility and AI generated discovery, where authoritative reporting helps anchor model outputs and contextual understanding.
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Yet despite the sustained influence of earned media, PR teams are failing to connect with the journalists who drive results. Muck Rack found that when comparing the most frequently pitched reporters with those most often cited by AI engines for a specific brand, the overlap is a mere two percent. Greg Galant, cofounder and CEO of Muck Rack, described this disconnect as a defining challenge. “What we saw in our July report is even clearer now: earned media still shapes how AI understands brands. At the same time, the gap between who PR teams pitch and who AI cites is striking only a two percent overlap, which shows the industry hasn’t fully adapted,” Galant said. “This report gives communicators clear steps to close that gap, and those who act now will move their organizations forward while demonstrating their value through impactful metrics. That means more budget, more headcount and more opportunities for their teams.”
The research also reveals a surge in press release performance. Cited press releases increased five fold since July 2025, driven largely by stronger visibility within ChatGPT and Gemini. Structure appears to play a key role in whether press releases are selected for citation, with top performing examples containing twice as many statistics, thirty percent more action oriented language, two and a half times as many bullet points, and a higher rate of objective phrasing.
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Other trends surfaced in the study include a notable decrease in reliance on Wikipedia and major consulting firms for generative outputs, alongside a shift away from corporate blogs, which fell from thirty seven percent to twenty four percent of citations. Recency also matters: nearly half of all citations originated from content published within the last eleven months, and approximately four percent came from the previous week. Frequently cited outlets vary widely by AI system, with top sources including Reuters, The Verge, The Guardian, US News and World Report, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Investopedia, and NerdWallet.
The report also emphasizes that owned content remains critical when users search for factual brand details, while earned media is more influential for discovery and recommendation driven queries. The research is powered by Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse platform, which allows communications teams to monitor and influence how brands appear inside AI models.
As the next wave of Generative AI citations evolves, the findings underscore a significant turning point for PR leaders who must now design strategies optimized not only for human audiences but also for algorithmic interpretation.
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