A suite of fantastic images have been designed by creative agency Moka Media, for our new Module Digital PR product S.W.I.M. that incorporates Delphi Advisory GAIO and AI Visibility data and various PR options over 12 month contracts.
Public Relations, Strategic Communications and Media Relations, and its expertise securing ‘earned’ media and authoritative results, for business clients, are getting a bigger slice of marketing and communications’ budget pies as SEO return on investment, for some, falls off a cliff, says Managing Director Cate Rocchi.
New Business: From February to April 2026, 10 New Clients for Perth Media
“For the past 10-15 years, many companies have spent large chunks of their marketing and communications’ budgets on SEO, websites, social media and CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) processes. All still have a place, but AI searches such as ChatGPT and Claude are sourcing information from authoritative content including news, media sources, podcasts, YouTube and government announcements. Businesses need their companies and products to appear in AI searches. They know PR helps that and the PR percentage (of the overall comms spend) has risen substantially over the past few months. It’s an impact of the AI revolution that few saw coming. PR (traditional, social media and digital PR) is experiencing a golden age as it enables businesses to appear highly in AI searches. In Western Australia – in a new AI-enabled world – there has been an uptick in demand for Public Relations, Media Relations, PR Research on Influencers, and Government Relations services. From February to April 2026, Perth Media welcomed 10 new substantial clients. In 11 years of trading since launching in 2015, this is a record in new business for us. Right now, many companies are seeing their website traffic fall off a cliff and they can’t easily ‘buy’ their way out of the problem with increased SEO budgets. It has altogether got more complicated and everyone needs quality PR and strategic communications right now.”
Biggest Upskill in a Generation
Cate – a former global financial journalist who has worked in communications, media and journalism for 30 years – says: “From 2025 to 2026 has been the biggest upskilling year of my career, since I was a cadet reporter on The Kalgoorlie Miner in 1993! The past year and a half were, at times, incredibly difficult. AI research and development has been a huge investment for our small company, requiring innovation and testing of new systems. Our business model has changed. Whereas we previously did 12-month strategic plans, we are now planning new products, events and procedures every few weeks. We have trialled and tested services constantly, seeking feedback from clients to help us evolve. We want to be valuable and stay relevant.”
Not all About SEO Anymore
Jack Newbould, founder of Delphi Advisory, says in a post-SEO world, visibility is no longer won by keyword density or publishing cadence alone. LLMs (Large Language Models) and AI summaries synthesise and recommend based on perceived authority and consistency. “LLMs reward outlets that demonstrate subject-matter depth and editorial discipline,” he says. “As generative AI reduces the value of undifferentiated content and fragments search traffic, media is being pushed back to its core strengths of trust, clarity and editorial authority. AI doesn’t just surface what’s popular, it surfaces what appears dependable over time. When everyone can publish endlessly, authority stops being about reach and starts being about restraint.” Public relations and communications are changing as discovery moves from traditional search engines to AI-generated summaries. The shift is most visible in regulated and high stakes domains like defence, nationalsecurity, health and finance where audiences are actively sceptical of shallow explainers and noise. In these environments, credibility is cumulative. “Having spent years working in media intelligence, I’ve seen how credibility is built through consistency and external validation,” says Newbould. “The future of PR is to move from maximising visibility to shaping the reference layer AI platforms use to explain the world. In complex sectors, audiences aren’t looking to be entertained or reassured, they’re looking to be orientated. They want sources that can explain why something matters, not just what happened.”
On AI-SEO
While Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) focuses on how content is structured so AI can reuse it, AI-SEO is broader and encompasses where authority is built such as earned media, expert citation and credible platforms and outlets. AI-SEO is concerned with whether content is selected, synthesised and cited by large language models (LLMs).“ The key shift is optimising for trust, success in AI-SEO is measured less by traffic but by whether an organisation becomes a reference point that AI systems can repeatedly rely on to explain a topic” Newbould says. “Many of our clients rank well on Google but are still absent on ChatGPT or Claude, where an increasing number of people are sourcing information. The game has changed and businesses need to wise up now.”
Exclusive Agreement for Western Australia
Delphi Advisory has signed an exclusive agreement to work with Perth Media in Western Australia. It is important for companies and organisations to measure performance in the media (including ASR or Advertising Space Rate) and social media while adopting a GAIO (Generative AI Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) framework. Companies that appear highly on LLMs (Large Language Models such as ChatGPT) are likely to outpace competitors and improve business results. This newly available technology now informs all Perth Media and Delphi Advisory digital content, media, research and public relations’ campaigns.
Please contact cate@perthmedia.com.au if you want to attend monthly CEO Tech Breakfast and Morning Tea events featuring Delphi Advisory.