Every year, industry predictions offer a glimpse of where communications is headed. But the real value lies not in the predictions themselves, but in the shift they signal for how communications teams must adapt and evolve to operate effectively.
Gartner’s latest outlook for communications leaders validates what strong communications teams have long understood: this work function influences everything. Telling compelling stories matters, but communications has always been responsible for more than that – driving visibility, protecting reputation and delivering intelligence that shapes leadership decisions.
What’s changed? The rest of the teams within an organization are starting to recognize the impact.
That shift raises expectations. Audiences are discovering companies and evaluating credibility differently, and in turn forming opinions faster than they did even two years ago. The environment is moving quickly, and communications strategies must keep pace.
Here are a few specific shifts worth paying attention to right now:
AI Search is Reshaping Brand Discovery
For a long time, digital visibility was largely an SEO problem: you either ranked, or you didn’t.
That’s changing.
More buyers, journalists and decision-makers are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to research companies. In those environments, your brand is summarized, interpreted and sometimes described in ways you didn’t directly shape.
What determines how a company appears in these answers is authority.
AI tools rely heavily on credible third-party sources to generate responses. Earned media, research, and trusted editorial coverage influence how these platforms describe companies and markets. Authority is not limited to outlets like The Wall Street Journal or Fortune – trade media in brands’ respective industries are playing a crucial role in the AI era, no matter their clout.
At V2, we recently introduced AI Visibility, a proprietary solution designed to help companies understand how their brand appears across AI answer engines. Through the structured AI Visibility audit process, V2 evaluates how a brand appears across leading AI platforms, benchmarks visibility against key competitors and identifies which publications and content formats AI systems prioritize most often.
The analysis reveals narrative gaps, inconsistencies and missed positioning opportunities. Those insights are then translated into actionable recommendations across earned media, content strategy and website optimization to strengthen the authority signals that AI systems prioritize when generating responses.
Earned Media is Becoming More Influential
Independent editorial coverage now serves two audiences: human readers and AI platforms increasingly shaping how human readers gather information.
When someone asks an AI tool about your company or your industry, the answer gets built from what it considers credible sources. If your earned media coverage is thin, outdated or inconsistent, your brand may be left out or inaccurately described.
Strong media relationships remain essential. And, a steady drumbeat of earned media coverage from authoritative, credible sources is critical for your brand to stand out.
To solve for this, V2 launched Earned Media at Scale, a strategic amplification offering designed to extend the reach of high-quality editorial content across a network of trusted publishers while reinforcing the authority signals that support AI visibility. The goal isn’t to replace traditional media relations, but to sustain consistent, credible visibility over time.
Reputation Management Must Become Proactive
Narratives now move faster than monitoring cycles. Misinformation, AI-generated commentary and synthetic content can amplify or distort a story before most monitoring tools can detect unusual activity.
By the time you see a spike in mentions, you may already be behind in your defense strategy.
The communications teams managing this effectively operate more like intelligence functions. They’re tracking early signals in conversations, understanding how narratives develop and briefing leadership before issues escalate into a crisis.
For technology companies operating in fast-moving markets, the ability to anticipate reputational shifts can significantly affect business outcomes.
Internal Comms is Entering a New Phase
75% of employees are already using AI tools throughout their workday, and adoption is accelerating. As these tools improve, people will expect faster, more personalized access to company information and less tolerance for fragmented internal messaging.
In response to this movement, many companies have built chatbots for employees to use as their primary source of internal communication. Organizations that prioritize internal communications will gain an advantage. Those that don’t will risk misalignment, information overload and disengaged teams.
V2 has supported technology companies’ internal communications strategies through growth, transformation and change for years. That experience matters even more now, when clarity and consistency are harder – and more important – to maintain than ever.
What This Means for Communications Leaders
These shifts aren’t happening sequentially, but they are happening simultaneously. Buyers are researching differently, employees are getting their information differently and narratives can take shape before organizations even know a conversation has begun.
As a result:
- Visibility now extends beyond traditional search engines
- Reputation management requires anticipation
- Internal communications requires infrastructure
- Measurement must connect directly to business outcomes
This is also why many leadership teams are reevaluating communications budgets. When credible third-party coverage directly influences how a company is understood across digital channels, including AI-driven platforms, sustained earned media becomes a strategic business driver, not a budget line to minimize.
Being present isn’t enough. Companies need to be accurately, consistently and credibly represented wherever stakeholders form opinions about them.
Understand How Your Brand Appears in AI-Driven Discovery
Let’s start with a conversation about your AI visibility, authority signals and communications strategy and where it can drive measurable impact. Reach out today at [email protected] to get started.
V2 Communications is an integrated communications and PR firm that helps technology companies build visibility, strengthen reputation and adapt to how audiences discover and evaluate brands in an AI-driven landscape.
Hannah Fairbanks is a senior vice president at V2 Communications, where she leads integrated communications strategies for B2B technology companies, aligning messaging with business goals to drive measurable impact. She specializes in translating complex technologies into clear, compelling narratives across earned, owned and paid media.