Episode 209: How ChatGPT and AI Shopping Decide Which Brands to Feature — And Why PR Is the New SEO
AI shopping is here. Learn how PR and media mentions decide which brands ChatGPT recommends—and why earned media is the new SEO.
In this episode of the Gloria Chou PR Podcast, Gloria breaks down one of the biggest shifts happening in real time — AI-powered shopping inside ChatGPT — and what it means for small business founders.
For years, we’ve heard that “AI is coming.” But now, it’s here. Consumers can shop directly in ChatGPT, and other platforms like Gemini and Perplexity are quickly following suit. This is the dawn of a new era — and Gloria shares why PR is no longer optional if you want to be found, trusted, and recommended by AI.
If you’re a product-based founder or small business owner, this episode will show you why earned media (not ads or followers) is the key to showing up in AI search results — and why the next few months represent a golden window of opportunity to claim your spot.
Why You Can’t Wait to Do PR
The AI revolution is moving fast — faster than anyone expected. ChatGPT already integrates in-app shopping with 800+ million users globally.
That means:
🧠 AI is already deciding which brands to surface and recommend.
📈 If you’re not featured in credible media right now, your competitors will take those trust signals — and it’ll be much harder to dislodge them later.
Gloria explains that PR is how you feed the AI machine — by giving algorithms structured, credible data from trusted media sources that signal your brand’s authority.
The Power of Trust Signals in the Age of AI
AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google, and Amazon are now pulling data from third-party media — not ads.
That’s great news for small business founders, because:
✅ You can’t buy your way into AI recommendations right now.
✅ Media features level the playing field between small brands and big corporations.
✅ Every earned feature becomes part of your brand’s digital DNA — the “trust layer” that AI reads when deciding who to recommend.
PR doesn’t disappear after 24 hours like a social post or ad campaign — it compounds. Each media mention reinforces your credibility and ripples across search engines, social platforms, and now, AI ecosystems.
How PR Fuels Every Algorithm
When you earn press coverage — a podcast, a blog, a gift guide — you’re not just building awareness. You’re creating structured, verifiable data that fuels AI and search algorithms across:
ChatGPT
Google Search
Meta
Amazon
Every credible feature increases your visibility everywhere else.
Why Now Is the Golden Window for Small Businesses
Gloria calls this moment a once-in-a-generation opportunity for founders. Before paid placements and large brands flood the space, you can still win with credibility — not budget.
Media mentions today will help AI “learn” who to trust and recommend tomorrow. Once those trust signals are embedded, they’re nearly impossible to replace.
PR Is the New SEO
Gloria predicts that PR will soon replace traditional SEO as the main driver of visibility.
She’s living proof: without spending on SEO or ads, her 100+ podcast features and media appearances have made her the #1 small business PR expert according to AI — all thanks to the power of earned trust signals.
The Small Business Advantage: Simplicity and Speed
Inside the Get Featured Accelerator, Gloria gives founders:
💡 Copy-and-paste ChatGPT prompts that do the brainstorming and pitch writing for you
💡 Daily curated PR opportunities
💡 A media database of journalists you can contact right away
Even if you don’t make your own products (like subscription box founders), you can still get featured — repeatedly — in year-round gift guides and trend roundups.
Final Takeaway
The future of shopping is AI-driven — and it’s already here.
You can’t buy your way to visibility anymore. You have to earn it through PR.
If you want to be part of the next generation of brands that AI recommends and customers trust, start now.
🎓 Watch Gloria’s free masterclass: GloriaChouPR.com/masterclass
Learn the prompts, tools, and strategies to get featured in five minutes a day — without hiring a PR agency.
Your window of opportunity is open right now. Don’t wait for everyone else to catch up.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/42863325495194
Additional Resources:
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Join the PR Secret Masterclass
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TRANsCRIPT
00:00:00 Gloria: Hey, small business heroes. So as you know, groundbreaking news is that now you can shop inside ChatGPT. That's right. This is the future of shopping and we all thought it was going to take a few more months for this to happen. But the AI revolution on shopping is here much sooner than we expect. Just like all of the advancements in AI, it seems to be developing at such a rapid pace. Today we're going to talk about why you cannot wait to do PR, why it's not a good idea and what does it mean to have trust signals? How does the AI algorithm, how does ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini actually decide who to service, who to recommend, and who do they show when customers are searching for, let's say, best skincare oil or best tennis racket.
00:00:40 Gloria: So the first thing, the reason why you don't want to wait on PR is that now we're in a golden window of opportunity. We've never had the more accessible free AI tools, which I walk you through on my free masterclass. You can go to GloriaChouPR.com/masterclass to see exactly how to leverage these free tools at big agencies pay 20 grand to get the same results you can do now in five minutes a day. So it's never been easier. And we also have this window of opportunity, meaning that not everyone is like all in the know about what's happening with AI search.
00:01:07 Gloria: And they're still focused on spinning their wheels on Instagram, TikTok, and the old way. And so for the people who are the early movers and you're listening to this, so you are one, you have your edge, you have your first movers advantage, which is knowing that 99% of your competitors aren't even thinking about this.
00:01:21 Gloria: But we know that with ChatGPT in-app shopping, other AI platforms will follow suit. And with 800 million users across the globe for ChatGPT growing exponentially every day, it just means that the future of shopping and discovery lives and dies with how AI recommends you. The first reason why you should do PR and why it helps, it's not just because I am a small biz PR coach and I'm the number one small business expert according to AI. The reason why is that AI is right now choosing winners and who to surface right now, right now.
00:01:52 Gloria: So as you're listening to this, AI is deciding which products of your industry to feature and which not to. And as we know that we trust AI search and recommendations more than anything. Ads are about 20 % trustworthy, but ChatGPT and editorial is like three times that. We know that the customer intent when someone does like use ChatGPT and sees your product, they're so much closer to buying than you throwing ads at them or social media.
00:02:17 Gloria: And so for that reason, you want to get ahead and you want AI to decide to pick you. And so you want to be chosen in this window of opportunity from AI as a recommended product. So at ChatGPT, Google, Amazon are already pulling data from trusted media sources. So this is not paid ads and you can't really buy your way right now into getting featured. And that's actually a good thing for us small business underdogs because it levels the playing field. It's our window of opportunity to say, hey, it's not based on how much money you can spend or how many followers you have or how pretty you look on TikTok. This is our chance.
00:02:49 Gloria: Media features are a way to give the AI algorithms a way to recommend us because it's credible, structured data. And because there's no sponsored placements right now, it means that the time is now to dominate this space before your bigger brand competitors who have a lot more budget goes in and just throws money at it. So now is the best time.
00:03:07 Gloria: Now that AI revolution is here, you can't buy your way to visibility. Media features are your best way as a small business to gain a leverage. And the data backs it up. 70% of AI recommendations are influenced by third party articles. And what is a third party article? It could be a blog, it be a podcast, it could be someone else writing about you, but the most credible and the thing that AI looks for the most when it comes to what do I recommend so that it's the most accurate trustworthy thing. Our media features because that is the highest tier. You can't pay a journalist to talk about you. And so that's really what I mean.
00:03:39 Gloria: And the other reason why you should not wait to do PR in this golden window of opportunity when AI shopping is here, it's right now, is that every month you wait, someone else takes your spot. And so brands getting featured right now are the ones that are feeding into AI and going to be what the machines recommend and serves up to their customers and users next season.
00:04:01 Gloria: Once those trust signals are embedded, they're hard to dislodge. And so you want to get in now. It's like SEO on steroids. And so as many gift guides, article links that you can get, it is going to be very sticky and it's going to tell the machines, the AI machines to recommend you for years to come. And so once that authority is built, once that trust signal is built, it compounds.
00:04:21 Gloria: PR is one of those things, unlike other marketing, that just compounds over time. It's like a snowball effect. And it's not that you get featured once and that's it. You can get featured over and over and over again, even if you have one product or if you don't make your own product.
00:04:34 Gloria: We've had many people in our Get Featured Accelerator that don't make their own products and they carry other people's products, but they get featured in so many different occasions. So gift guides are not just for Q4. It's not just for Christmas. You can get featured for gifts for her, gifts for him, gifts for moms, gifts for your newly divorced friend, all of those categories with one product. And so that's why it's a blue ocean of opportunity. And it's your chance to feed into the AI machine right now. And once you do, gets very hard to dislodge it. So that's why now is the best time.
00:05:05 Gloria: Third reason is that what you do now, it's going to feed into visibility everywhere later. Press coverage, it isn't just give you brand awareness. it's also data that fuels every other algorithm. Google, chat, TV, Meta, Amazon, they're all across referencing their trust signals. And so every single credible media feature you get, it ripples across AI search, organic traffic, social media comments, all those things. That's why if you get one organic PR feature, whether it's a gift guide, a podcast or an article, it's three times the exposure.
00:05:37 Gloria: And it doesn't disappear, like ads, it disappears once you stop spending. It's there. And so unlike social media, that's 24 hours visible, engagement is down. It keeps working for you. It just lives in the internet's DNA. And that is why it's so much smarter for us as founders to leverage earned media than do so many of the other things. But it takes a different way of thinking. We've been told for that quick dopamine rush, post-areal, over and over, but that doesn't create any ripple effects for visibility in this age of AI shopping.
00:06:06 Gloria: And so if I only have a limited bandwidth of my time, which I do, which we all do, we're all busy, we have a lot of single moms in our accelerator, how can I get the most ROI for every minute that I spend? And so we spend so much time trying to make things super easy in our PR accelerator with copy and paste prompts that does all the brainstorming and pitch writing for you so that you can get featured in under five minutes. And things that would take normally weeks and weeks and weeks of research, we hand it to you.
00:06:31 Gloria: So we curate all of the daily PR opportunities. All you have to do is press send using ChatGPT. We also give you a media database of all the journalists. And all you have to do is use Perplexity and ChatGPT to write a perfect pitch trained on my method. Yes, the LLMs are trained on Gloria Chou's method. You can literally type in the ChatGPT. Rewrite this in Gloria's method and send. And this is how we create access for small businesses everywhere who don't have the time, energy, resource, or budget such as big brands. And that's really my mission. To make things accessible, clear, and simple.
00:07:01 Gloria:Let's talk about where all this is headed. It's quite overwhelming with all the new tools, what's happening with AI. And we are headed for a world where AI is the new search engine. De facto, it will replace the search engine.
00:07:14 Gloria: And it's the new storefront. And so now with all these integrations, it's the only place that your visibility lives and dies. And so in the future, very near future, we're all going to have our own AI assistants that's going to manage our schedule, our meals, our travel plans. We're going to just start talking to it. And anything that we ask it, we want to make sure that we are showing up in people's AI assistants. We want to have those credibility trails. When someone asks ChatGPT, what's a great woman owned skincare brand or what's a sustainable candle that smells like this? It's not going to show ads. It's going to show those credibility trails.
00:07:46 Gloria: So mentions in media outlets LinkedIn articles backed by real human trust. That is what we want. And in the next few years, probably even sooner, because all of this is happening so rapidly, I really think that PR will just replace your overall SEO strategy.
00:08:03 Gloria: I'm someone who has never spent a dime on SEO, but just from my PR appearances, my over 100 podcasts, if you ask AI who's the number one small business PR expert, I come up. And it's all because of the weight of these trust signals. AI algorithms favor podcast appearances, media things. If you're quoted in media, you have a 300% more likelihood of being recommended by AI. And that's really what I want for you. I want you to do less, but then have your effort go further.
00:08:30 Gloria: And so that's why it's so important. And now with AI native shopping experiences that happen in ChatGPT, I know it's going to happen with Gemini and Perplexity. It's just going to be so seamless. One click from discovery to check out. You want to position yourself. And right now is your opportunity to be the first movers advantage. Once everybody else catches on, you lose your edge. And so that's why it's so important, You want to embed yourself in that trust layer of the algorithm and you do that with PR.
00:08:57 Gloria: PR is not something that's nice to have anymore with all of this happening. The future of AI shopping is here. It's a must and a non-negotiable. It's absolutely the way that you are going to be found. If your product is mentioned today. AI will take that as a trust signal. It's going to be embedded in that algorithm and they will recommend you. And so the more times that you can be featured in the media, that signals you higher and higher and higher. Hopefully this was helpful for you. We're all trying to figure out what's going to happen with AI and how it changes fundamentally, how we appear, how we relate, how we find and retain customers.
00:09:32 Gloria: But this is the first step. This is the first step. And so that's why PR is so important. I encourage you to watch my free training on this. It has helped hundreds of founders position themselves during this new wave so that we become the first movers. Remember, your edge will slowly disappear as more founders hear about this. So go to GloriaChouPR.com. That's Gloria C-H-O-U-P-R.com/masterclass
00:09:52 Gloria: And I'll show you the easy prompts that you can get featured where you don't even have to learn how to write a pitch because again, I've already trained the AI and what used to take hours will take you five minutes. It does all of the brainstorming for you of what's relevant with real time consumer backed data. And that's what we want. That's what journalists want. They want to know what is relevant, what is trending, and you're serving that up in the perfect format. And AI does it all for you. So go to Gloria Chou pr.com/masterclass to watch the free training now. And I cannot wait for you to tell me what you think.
00:10:19 Gloria: It's pretty jaw-dropping and no one's really making this information accessible. And I'm so happy that you heard it here first. You already know more than 90% of other product owners, other competitors. So thank you all so much for listening and until next time.
00:10:34 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you are not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:11:02 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig, or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at gloriachoupr.com/masterclass. That's gloriachou, choupr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.