How to Pivot Your PR Agency to GEO (Without Firing Everyone)
Your PR skills are already the skills GEO needs. Here's exactly how to reposition your agency without the dramatic restructuring everyone else is doing wrong.
You already have most of the skills.
Every PR professional who has ever secured a placement in TechCrunch, PR Week, or any tier-1 publication has already done the hardest part of GEO. They have built relationships with journalists who create original content. They know how to craft narratives that reporters want to cover.
That is not nothing. That is everything.
Let me show you exactly how to pivot without the chaos.
The Problem With Most Agency Pivots
I have watched agencies try to "add GEO" and it is painful. They hire SEO specialists. They build technical teams. They confuse their existing clients. And six months later, they are still figuring out what GEO actually means for their service offering.
The mistake is treating GEO as a technical discipline. It is not 2. GEO is an earned media discipline that happens to require technical understanding.
Your PR relationships are the moat. The technical stuff can be learned.
Step 1: Redefine Your Existing Service
Your media relations service already produces what AI models need: original, expert-authored content that journalists cite.
Right now, you probably report to clients on:
- Number of placements
- Media outlet quality
- Message pull-through
Add one new metric: AI citation potential.
When you pitch a story, ask: "Will this give AI models something to cite?" If yes, prioritize it. If no, still do it — but understand the difference.
Step 2: Add AI Visibility Reporting
This is the easiest change. Start reporting on where your clients appear in AI-generated answers 3.
Tools like Brandi AI, Go Fish Digital, and others now offer citation tracking 4. Add this to your monthly reporting. Show clients:
- How often their brand appears in AI answers
- Whether the citation is accurate (AI describes them correctly)
- What competitors are being cited that they are not
This takes an hour to set up and immediately makes you look forward-thinking.
Step 3: Train Your Team on Prompt Engineering
Here is a practical exercise: have your PR team run your clients' names through ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity with the prompt: "Tell me about [Client Name]."
What comes back is what AI thinks about your client. If the answer is wrong, thin, or missing — that is your new pitch deck.
Your team is already great at shaping narratives for humans. Now they need to understand how to shape narratives for machines. The skills transfer. The vocabulary shifts. The core competency does not change.
Step 4: Create AI-Optimized Content Briefs
When you brief your clients on contributed content, add a new section:
"For AI citation optimization:"
- Define key entities in the first paragraph
- Include specific numbers and data (AI loves quantifiable claims)
- Cite sources within 2 sentences of every data point
- Answer the question directly in the headline
This is not writing differently. This is writing with awareness of who — and what — is reading.
Step 5: Build Case Studies Around AI Citations
This is the money move. Track a client campaign that resulted in AI citations. Document:
- The original pitch
- The placement
- The AI query where it appeared
- The citation context
This becomes your best sales tool. "We don't just get you coverage — we get you recommended by AI" is a much stronger positioning than "we get you media hits."
By the Numbers
| [object Object] | [object Object] | [object Object] |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-market GEO | $5,000+ | Growing |
| Enterprise GEO | $15,000-$50,000+ | Expanding |
| Citation tracking tools | Add-on pricing | New market |
Look at what GEO agencies are charging 5. Your existing clients are already paying you for PR. The upcharge for "AI-optimized PR" is significant. But only if you can demonstrate the value.
What You Do NOT Need to Do
- Hire a full SEO team (at least not yet)
- Rebuild your service from scratch
- Fire your existing PR staff and hire "GEO specialists"
- Buy expensive AI platforms before you understand the basics
The PR professionals who will thrive in this era are the ones who realize their existing skills — relationships, narrative building, story placement — are the foundation 6. Everything else is add-on.
The Opportunity
GEO agencies are emerging fast. They are technical, hungry, and loud. But they do not have what you have: real relationships with journalists who create the original content that AI models cite.
The agencies that recognize this — that PR is the engine, not the obstacle — will own the next decade of earned media.
Your move.
FAQ: PR Agency GEO Pivot
What skills do I already have for GEO?
Your PR relationships with journalists are the foundation. GEO agencies are technical but lack the earned media relationships that drive AI citations 2.
How quickly can I add GEO services?
Start with AI visibility reporting — add it to existing client reports. Tools like Brandi AI make this possible in hours, not weeks 3.
Do I need to hire SEO specialists?
Not immediately. Train your existing PR team on prompt engineering first. The core skills of narrative building transfer directly to machine audiences.
Forward this to a PR agency founder who is freaking out about GEO. Sometimes the best way to calm the chaos is to show them their skills are already valuable.
Want a clear picture of where your agency stands on AI visibility? Get a visibility audit and see what AI is actually saying about you.
Related: The GEO Divide: Why Brands Who Ignore AI Search Will Fade by 2026
About
AuthorityTech is the first AI-native Machine Relations (MR) agency, helping brands earn citations and recommendations from AI engines 1. Here's what the GEO agencies won't tell you: