Muck Rack

What the rise of AI means for your startup’s comms approach

AI has become the single most important decision-shaping layer in the startup world. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are now the default routes through which prospective clients size up your products and applicants consider your job postings. Your potential investors are firing off prompts rather than spend time scrolling through several pages of Google search results. AI compresses discovery, evaluation and recommendation into a single interface, and navigating this new reality will prove decisive for startups. What LLMs are reading To understand how to make a startup appear in LLM results in the best possible light and as relevant answers to prompts, we need to understand how LLMs work. In a May 2026 report, the PR analytics firm Muck Rack found earned and third-party media make up about 84% of AI citations, with paid and advertorial content comprising a rounding error of 0.3%. Ahrefs, an SEO data company, studied 75,000 brands and reached the same conclusion. A March 2026 distribution st