McKinsey Just Told Every Brand to Invest in PR. Here's Why That Matters.
McKinsey doesn't say things quietly. So when it’s State of the Consumer 2026 report tells brands to strengthen public relations, keep messaging accurate and consistent across platforms, and show up in the forums where people already talk about them—that's not a trend piece. That's a strategic directive from the world's most influential management consultancy.
The reason is AI search. And the implications are significant.
What's Actually Happening
Only 1% of the sources cited by large language models come from brand-owned websites. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Mode about a product, a service, or a company, the answer is assembled from third-party sources—editorial coverage, forums, reviews, and blogs—not from what the brand itself publishes. McKinsey & Company
Half of consumers now intentionally use AI-powered search to guide their decisions, and by 2028, $750 billion in US revenue alone will funnel through AI-powered search. Traditional search traffic to brand websites could fall by 20-50%.
The old model — invest in SEO, drive traffic to your website, control the narrative from your own channels — is being fundamentally disrupted.
What McKinsey Actually Said
"Proactive efforts—such as strengthening public relations, ensuring accurate and consistent messaging across platforms, and having an active brand presence in forums where consumers are already discussing the brand—can help reinforce a clear, credible narrative that AI models are more likely to recognise and amplify," said McKinsey.
In plain language: the brands that appear in AI-generated answers are the ones with strong earned media presence, consistent third-party validation, and credible reputations built over time. Not the ones with the biggest ad budgets.
Why This Matters More in B2B Than Anywhere Else
For consumer brands, the AI search is significant. For B2B organisations — the ones Lighthouse PR works with across Romania and Southeastern Europe — it is even more significant.
B2B buyers research extensively before making contact. They ask AI tools about industry experts, about agency credentials, and about which consultancy is most credible in a specific discipline. If your organisation doesn't appear in those answers — or appears with inconsistent, outdated or unvalidated information — you are invisible at the most important moment in the buying journey.
The answer is not more advertising. The answer is exactly what McKinsey recommends: strategic media relations, consistent corporate communication and the kind of sustained reputation management that builds the third-party credibility AI systems draw on when they construct their answers.
This is not a new discipline. It is PR. And McKinsey just told the entire business world that PR is now more strategically important than it has been at any point in the last decade.
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About the Author
Steve Gardiner (exec MBA) is a senior marketing and commercial leader at Lighthouse PR, bringing global experience from Accenture, Electronic Arts, Virgin Media, Telekom, and Etisalat. Latterly, as VP Business at Etisalat, he was responsible for $1.8B in revenue.
Today, Steve applies his strategic, marketing, and growth expertise to support Lighthouse PR clients as part of the agency’s service offering.
About Lighthouse PR
Lighthouse PR is a leading PR agency in Romania that works with a select number of organisations across Central and Southeastern Europe, delivering media relations, reputation management, crisis communications, social media and an extensive range of business growth and business continuity services — always led by senior practitioners.
We hold exclusive membership for Romania and the Republic of Moldova in both the Eurocom worldwide PR network and the CCNE, Europe's leading crisis communications network.
Lighthouse PR: Clear. Concise. Convincing.