Send2Press is expanding an AI-focused layer of its public relations distribution service as brands increasingly look beyond traditional search rankings to understand how their companies and products appear in AI-generated answers.

The U.S.-based newswire, a unit of NEOTROPE, says its expanded “AI Seeding” program builds on an initiative launched in 2025 to improve the discoverability of client news within emerging AI search and answer-engine environments. The company is now positioning the broader practice as AI Engine Optimization (AEO).

The approach reflects a wider shift in digital marketing. As consumers increasingly use conversational interfaces to research companies, products and services, marketers are experimenting with ways to make publicly available information easier for AI systems to retrieve and interpret.

Send2Press describes AEO as having two components. The first resembles conventional SEO: incorporating useful answers and relevant language into press release content so that it can address specific search intents. The second involves manually running queries across AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.

Under its AI Seeding process, Send2Press says those queries can include the full text of a client's announcement alongside searches for company names, brands, products, executives, website links and relevant product imagery.

Market Landscape

The emergence of AEO has created a new marketing category alongside established disciplines such as search engine optimization, content marketing and digital PR. Agencies and specialist vendors are increasingly selling services designed to improve a brand's visibility in generative AI responses.

However, the measurement problem remains significant. Unlike conventional search, where marketers can track rankings and organic traffic with established tools, AI-generated responses can vary by query, model, location, timing and available web sources.

That makes claims about “optimizing” AI answers difficult to validate consistently. Send2Press itself acknowledges that the effectiveness of manual AI seeding is not yet conclusive, describing the observed benefits as incremental and based largely on its own experiments.

The distinction is important for marketers evaluating AEO investments: visibility in an AI response does not necessarily translate into website traffic, conversions or revenue.

Strategic Outlook

Send2Press is also incorporating custom AI queries into its PRtrax reporting dashboards. According to the company, clients can run one-click queries related to their news without purchasing an additional AEO service.

That feature could help shift AEO from an agency-controlled activity toward a measurement and experimentation process that marketers can conduct themselves. It also highlights a broader trend in marketing technology: brands are seeking direct visibility into how AI systems interpret their publicly available content rather than relying exclusively on third-party optimization claims.

The longer-term value of AI seeding will depend on whether marketers can connect AI visibility with measurable outcomes. As answer engines become another discovery channel, companies will likely need stronger systems for monitoring brand mentions, source attribution, factual accuracy and downstream engagement.

Top Insights

• AEO is moving into digital PR: Press releases are increasingly being considered potential sources for AI-generated answers.
• Measurement remains immature: AI visibility is harder to benchmark than traditional search rankings.
• Manual experimentation is emerging: Brands are testing direct queries across multiple AI platforms rather than relying solely on automated tools.
• Content quality still matters: Clear, factual and answer-oriented information remains central to discoverability across search and AI interfaces.
• Self-service monitoring is growing: Dashboard-based querying could give marketers greater control over AI visibility testing.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts