Carly Martinetti@PRcarly
PREDICTION: Gartner says that PR and earned media budgets will DOUBLE by 2027... and the reason why should matter to every marketer still pouring money into paid channels.
Their latest report lays it out: mass adoption of AI as a replacement for traditional search is going to force a fundamental reallocation of marketing spend away from paid, toward earned.
THE EVIDENCE:
Between the first half of 2024 and first half of 2025, ChatGPT traffic grew 608%, while Google and Bing both declined.
Muck Rack's research shows that more than 95% of links cited in AI-generated answers come from non-paid sources, with half of all AI citations coming from content published in the last 11 months. And per Semrush, AI search visitors convert at 4.4x the rate of traditional organic search.
We've been watching this play out with our own clients... one saw 38% of their leads this year come directly from earned media surfacing in ChatGPT queries (we got them in the NYT, WSJ, Wired, Forbes, TechCrunch, and others).
WHAT THIS MEANS:
Gartner is essentially telling CMOs: the channel your customers use to find you is changing to AI; and earned media is what AI trusts.
Brands still treating PR as a "nice to have" line item below paid media and SEO are in store for an awakening (I was going to say “rude awakening” but that would be… rude).
For PR teams already doing the work, every placement you secure isn't just building credibility with human readers anymore; it’s informing the AI systems that are increasingly deciding which brands get recommended and which ones don't exist.
And for marketers who spent the last decade buying their way into "earned-looking" content... native ads, sponsored posts, advertorials pretending to be editorial... AI is seeing right through it.
THE NEW REALITY:
We're watching a once-in-a-generation shift in how people discover brands.
The companies investing in real earned media (that is, true third-party validation) are the ones building a moat.
Every month without it?
Good luck catching up.
