The news: ChatGPT now handles more than 2 billion queries daily from 190 million users, per MarTech. The chatbot has transcended novelty and become a decision-stage search companion.

Nearly 80% of US ChatGPT users treat it like a search engine, per a new Adobe survey. Among 1,000 respondents, 36% discovered a new product or brand through it—including 47% of Gen Z users and 37% of Gen X users.

Why it’s worth watching: ChatGPT pulls live web data to answer questions, surfacing brand narratives shaped by media, competitors, or users, per MarTech.

The immediacy of ChatGPT’s responses, derived from real-time sources and sentiment, could have a significant impact on brand reputation. 

• Weak digital footprints leave brands voiceless as AI fills gaps with outdated or hostile sources, per Martech. For example, Reddit posts complaining about a service or brand have the potential to reinforce negative sentiment. 
• Executive reputations now appear alongside brand queries, binding leadership credibility and reputation to corporate trust.
• Absence of AI-optimized assets risks misinformation and declining influence with consumers, investors, and partners.

How to reclaim narrative control inside AI: Brands that invest in structured, authoritative, and AI-readable content like generative engine optimization (GEO) are best positioned to control how they appear in ChatGPT and other AI output.

Brands can amplify visibility by building consistent profiles across web, social, and thought-leadership channels that give models accurate context to surface in the following ways:

• Optimize brand-owned assets for AI discovery using metadata and unified cross-channel messaging.
• Strengthen third-party validation by surfacing credible coverage, expert commentary, and executive visibility.
• Align brand safety, reputation management, and search teams around “AI visibility” as a performance metric.

What this means for brands: Influence now hinges on how brands appear within genAI—not just in Google Search results or on social media. This adds another layer of complexity for brand managers while unlocking opportunities for real-time content optimization and risk monitoring. 

Brands that adapt first by presenting accurate, timely, and unified brand stories and identities could be more resilient against future reputational risk than those that put their identity at the mercy of AI algorithms.

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