As more people use generative AI search engines to discover information, PR professionals need a new approach to writing effective news releases — one that blends traditional PR best practices with techniques that make content more accessible to AI models. Learn why optimizing news releases for AI matters and how to do it effectively.
- What Is an LLM?
- Why It’s Important to Optimize News Releases for AI
- How News Releases Help Brands Appear in AI Search
- Tips for Writing a News Release for AI
What Is an LLM?
Large language models (LLMs)—such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google Gemini—are advanced types of artificial intelligence (AI) trained to understand, summarize and generate human-like text.
They can interpret questions better, find more relevant and comprehensive information from vast datasets and respond quickly with bite-size answers.
Because you can usually get your question answered faster with these AI-generated summaries, search engines are adding AI to the traditional search experience—like Google’s AI Overviews—and people are using AI tools and chatbots more.
Why It’s Important to Optimize News Releases for AI
It’s important to optimize news releases for AI because this process:
- Shows Your Brand Where People Are Searching: Not only are more people using AI chatbots to find information, but search engines also now display AI-generated answers in over half of all Google queries. Optimized news releases help your brand appear in both types of AI responses.
- Gives You a Significant Advantage: 89% of the links AI cites are earned media, making news releases one of the most effective types of content to feed AI systems and appear in AI-generated responses.
- Bypasses Traditional Media Coverage: Your announcements can reach audiences directly through AI-generated answers without waiting for journalists to cover your story first, since AI can pull directly from your news release.
- Lets You Control the Narrative: By providing information about your clients’ brand to AI models through news releases, you can be more confident that AI’s responses will be accurate and on-brand.
How News Releases Help Brands Appear in AI Search
Earned media strengthens search optimization, but news releases are uniquely positioned to succeed in AI-powered search. Their templated structure, authoritative nature and consistent format make them easier for AI models to parse, understand and cite. When someone asks an AI chatbot a question related to your announcement, a well-optimized news release increases the likelihood your brand will appear in the response, even if the content hasn’t yet been incorporated into published news stories.
Improve Visibility
Publishing a news release on your website and distributing it through established networks like PR Newswire or Business Wire multiplies your online presence. These platforms are regularly used by AI systems, giving your content more opportunities to be discovered.
Generate Quality Backlinks
When reputable third-party publications, industry blogs and news outlets pick up your release and link back to your website, it creates a powerful trust signal. Like traditional search engines, AI systems view these backlinks as validation of your content’s credibility and relevance.
Signal Authority
AI models prioritize authoritative sources that demonstrate trustworthiness, expertise and experience—similar E-E-A-T criteria Google uses to evaluate traditional search results. News releases naturally align with all four factors as official company statements backed by data and distributed through credible channels.
Use AI-Friendly Format
News releases follow a templated structure with short paragraphs and answers to key questions (who, what, when, where, why), making it easy for AI models to parse and understand content accurately.
Tips for Writing a News Release for AI
Much like human readers and search engines, AI values best writing practices that lead to readable, digestible content. You’ll need to balance clarity, structure, and SEO best practices to write news releases that LLMs and AI will cite. While journalists and media outlets will remain your primary audience, here’s how to write an AI news release.
Use a Descriptive, Keyword-Rich Headline
One of the first items that AI reviews is your headline, making it an important piece of your news release.
- Be Clear and Concise: Clearly tell the AI what your content is about in the headline to increase the likelihood that it will populate during relevant search queries.
- Add Keywords: Optimize your headline with primary keywords that capture the main purpose of your story.
Lead with Key Information
AI models like LLMs are designed to serve users the most relevant information as quickly as possible. If your release buries essential information, AI tools will try to find a more direct source to cite instead.
- Open with Key Details: Answer the who, what, when, where, why and how within the first few sentences.
- Give Context: Use a dateline to show your information is fresh and signal validity with company or author information.
Organize with Headings & Bullets
Structure is just as important as content for AI. A well-structured news release optimized for an AEO is more likely to be parsed accurately by AI tools, meaning the right details can be extracted and displayed in AI summaries.
- Break Up Text: Breaking your release into short, digestible paragraphs improves readability for AI and readers.
- Create a Hierarchy: Using subheadings like H2s and H3s highlights the most important topics for AI.
- Highlight Key Points: Bullet points help AI pull key information like facts, features or timelines.
Keep Language Simple
LLMs process straightforward language better, so news releases are more likely to be used or cited in AI results when the language is clear and concise.
- Remove Jargon: Avoid using too much industry or technical language, as this can make it difficult for language models to parse the information.
- Be Straightforward: Use clear phrasing. Overly polite or fluffy sentences have a higher perplexity, making AI less confident about what you’re trying to say.
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Any relevant keywords should fit naturally into the content, supporting the narrative rather than driving it. Trying to fit words unnaturally is a sign of “black hat” SEO, which AI also dislikes and deprioritizes.
Add FAQs
One of the easiest ways to optimize your AI news release is by including an FAQ or Q&A section after a boilerplate.
- Use an Obvious Structure: Since many AI search tools pull information in a question-and-answer format, using Q&A headings can increase the chances of your content being quoted directly.
- Consider Your Audience: Include questions that your readers or media outlets may ask.
- Answer Concisely: Providing clear, direct answers makes it easier for AI to understand and use your information in relevant results.
Include On-Page & Technical SEO Elements
Adding SEO elements helps your new releases be easily found and understood by AI models.
- Follow SEO Best Practices: Include clear metadata, a descriptive title and a straightforward URL.
- Cite Yourself: Insert one or two relevant links to your website or resources.
- Use Canonical Tag: A canonical tag tells AI which is the original version of your release when it’s distributed across multiple websites or platforms, helping AI cite your version in responses.
SEO Manager Molly Q. of Hurrdat, our parent company, further explains:
“Technical SEO elements help search engines and AI understand the release while keeping the story prominent. These elements improve discoverability, clarity and credibility without overwhelming the reader.”
Distribute Through Well-Known Channels
Because AI search tools favor content that’s published or referenced by high-authority sites, you need to share your news releases through trusted distribution networks like established wire services, industry publications and your company’s own newsroom.
- Use Reputable Channels: Using well-known channels (such as PR Newswire, GlobeNewswire and Business Wire) signals domain authority and increases the chances your release will retrieved by AI systems.
- Be Consistent: Routine distribution builds brand authority, which continues to be a key factor for AI when evaluating sources.
Improve AI Visibility for Your Upcoming News Releases
Want your news releases to show up in AI results? From crafting LLM-optimized news releases to building smarter PR strategies, Lukas Partners helps your brand get noticed by LLMs, search engines, journalists and your audience. Contact us to get started!
