• AI is supercharging editorial media's influence on corporate reputation, driving 61% of content about brands, new research shows
• Owned media is also influential (44%), social media barely registers (less than 1%)
5 December, 2024, London, UK: The rise of artificial intelligence was expected to disrupt traditional media's influence on corporate reputation. Instead, it's reinforcing it. According to new research from Hard Numbers, LLMs rely on editorial media for nearly two-thirds (61%) of their content about brand reputation.
The most influential channel was editorial media (driving 61% of citations). Owned media was also highly influential on results (44%). Social media drove barely any answers (less than 1%).
Editorial media was found to be particularly influential when asking whether a company is trustworthy. When asking, ‘Is [company] trustworthy?’, 65% of answers were influenced by editorial coverage. Editorial coverage was also highly influential on answers related to whether a company offered good value for money, driving 72% of answers.
The research analysed GPT-4's responses about quality, trust, innovation, and value across Forbes' top 100 brands, tracking and categorising all sources cited.
What sources are driving answers on LLMs?
When asked questions like ‘Is [company name] trustworthy?’
1) Editorial media: 61%
2) Owned media: 44%
3) Customer review / ratings websites: 10%
4) Analyst reports: 10%
5) Industry awards / lists: 8%
6) Books: 2%
7) Academic studies: 1%
8) Social media: <1%
Paul Stollery, Co-founder and Creative Director of Hard Numbers, says:
"Everyone predicted digital would kill traditional media twice - first with social, then with AI. But they were wrong. What we’re seeing from this research is that AI is becoming an amplifier for editorial authority.”
“Consumer habits online are changing, and sooner or later your customers will be querying platforms like ChatGPT in the same way they now do with Google. What’s clear from this research is that the single best way to influence the answers on these platforms is to earn the right to be covered by respected journalists at influential outlets.”
