Quick Answer: AI tools favor press releases packed with verifiable facts, not marketing language. Florida companies should lead with the news, name real people, places, and figures, organize content with subheads and a brief FAQ, and distribute widely, including through Florida-focused platforms like the Florida Authority Network’s press release sites.
A New Audience for Every Announcement
Every press release now has two readers. One is a person: a reporter, customer, or investor. The other is a machine: Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity, deciding whether your announcement belongs in an answer.
Writing for both isn’t complicated, but it does require dropping some old habits. This playbook explains what AI systems actually reward and how Florida businesses can write, format, and distribute releases that work for people and machines alike.
What the Research Shows
The best public data on this question comes from Muck Rack’s ongoing “What Is AI Reading?” series. Its third edition, released in May 2026, analyzed more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
Three findings matter most for Florida businesses.
Releases are a small but real citation source. In the May 2026 study, roughly 99% of AI-cited links came from non-paid media, and press releases accounted for 1.1%. That share had grown fivefold between Muck Rack’s July and December 2025 reports.
Their bigger value is indirect. Muck Rack frames releases as catalysts for earned coverage, which AI models then consume and cite heavily. Journalism made up 27% of all cited links in the latest study.
Context decides when they appear. Releases surface mostly in answers about industry trends, roughly 1.16% of those citations, compared with 0.33% for best-of queries and 0.09% for how-to questions.
| Muck Rack Finding (May 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
| Links analyzed | 25 million+ |
| Share from non-paid media | ~99% |
| Journalism share | 27% |
| Press release share | 1.1% |
| Paid/advertorial share | 0.3% |
The lesson: a release succeeds with AI when it reads like news and gets picked up as news.
Google’s Position on AI Optimization
Google has tried to cut through the hype. Its official documentation says SEO best practices still apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that sites don’t need new machine-readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in them.
Its more detailed 2026 guide lists tactics to skip, including llms.txt, content chunking, rewriting specifically for AI, chasing inauthentic mentions, and overdoing structured data.
There are, however, two technical must-dos. Your release page needs to be indexed and eligible for a search snippet. And with Google’s new Search Console control, sites that opt out of generative AI features won’t receive traffic or impressions from them. If your web team has changed that setting, check it.
Seven Rules for Writing the Release
Rule 1: Make the headline a plain statement of fact
Skip clever wordplay. State what happened, who did it, and where.
- Avoid: “Innovation Takes Flight at ABC Aviation”
- Use instead: “ABC Aviation Adds 60 Jobs at Sanford Maintenance Hangar”
A headline like the second one matches how people phrase questions to AI tools, and it gives an AI a complete fact even if it reads nothing else.
Rule 2: Put the whole story in paragraph one
AI tools and busy reporters both read from the top down. Practitioners advise front-loading who, what, and why so the engine finds your core facts where it looks first.
Test it: if someone read only your first paragraph, could they explain the news accurately? If not, rewrite it.
Rule 3: Trade adjectives for evidence
Muck Rack’s data lead explained that fact-based, statistic-heavy releases about real changes, people, and partnerships get cited far more than hype pieces.
Replace claims with proof:
- “Leading provider” → “Serves 1,200 clients across 14 Florida counties”
- “Significant investment” → “$4.2 million renovation”
- “Rapid growth” → “Revenue up 31% since 2024”
Rule 4: Be geographically precise
Florida is a big, diverse market, and AI answers are increasingly local. Name your city and county, and the region if relevant: “Naples, Collier County, Southwest Florida.” This connects your release to questions like “Which construction firms are expanding in Southwest Florida?”
Rule 5: Format for skimming
Muck Rack found that cited releases are typically well-structured, use bullet points, and include more statistics. Use descriptive subheads, short paragraphs, and bulleted lists of key facts.
Rule 6: End with a short FAQ
Add three to five questions a customer, reporter, or AI user might ask about your news, each answered in a sentence or two. FAQs give AI tools ready-made, self-contained answers.
Rule 7: Treat the boilerplate as your company’s fact sheet
AI systems scan your “About” section for relevance signals, so list your industries, audiences, and services there. Keep your company name, address, and phone number identical across every release you issue. Consistent details across many sources are what make AI confident about who you are.
The Florida Release Checklist
Before you publish, confirm each item:
- Headline states the news in plain language
- First paragraph answers who, what, where, when, and why
- Florida city and county named early
- At least three specific figures (dollars, jobs, dates, percentages)
- Executive and partner names spelled in full
- One quote that adds information, not enthusiasm
- Subheads and bullet points break up the text
- Three to five FAQ entries at the end
- Boilerplate lists services, service areas, and matching NAP
- Images use descriptive file names and alt text
- Video includes a written transcript
- Release is published as web text, not just a PDF
Getting Your Release in Front of AI
Writing is half the job. Distribution decides whether search engines, AI tools, and journalists ever see it.
Post it on your own site. A newsroom page on your domain gives AI a primary source you control.
Use a national wire for major news. Of wire releases cited by AI, Muck Rack found GlobeNewswire led at 61%, followed by PR Newswire at 27% and BusinessWire at 12%.
Add Florida-specific distribution. National wires reach broadly, but Florida platforms tie your news to Florida searches and Florida audiences.
Pitch reporters directly. Earned coverage is the strongest AI signal. A story in a Florida business publication can outweigh the release itself.
Spread it wide. Muck Rack’s research indicates that broader placement of a release improves its chances of being cited.
Florida Authority Network Press Release Services
The Florida Authority Network (FAN) was built to give Florida businesses the kind of multi-source, consistent coverage AI systems trust. Owned and managed by Brian French, FAN operates more than 35 Florida business, industry, video, and press release websites and has published more than 2,400 articles.
FAN’s press release services include:
Four Florida press release platforms. Releases can be published across PressReleaseFlorida.com, FlPressRelease.com, FloridaPressReleases.com, and FlBusinessPressReleases.com, giving a single announcement multiple Florida-branded sources.
AEO formatting built in. FAN structures releases and articles with Quick Answer summaries, subheads, snapshot tables, and FAQ sections designed for AI extraction.
Connection to Florida news coverage. Beyond the press release sites, FAN’s regional business news and industry sites can extend an announcement into broader Florida business and industry coverage.
Consistent business profiles. FAN builds four to five profiles per client across separate network sites, each repeating identical name, address, and phone details with its own summary and schema, a consensus signal AI systems rely on.
The Florida Business Index. Client profiles are listed in FAN’s Florida Business Index on FlBusinessPressReleases.com, adding another structured reference point.
PR partnership. FAN has partnered for more than 15 years with BoardroomPR, a Florida public relations firm founded in 1989, which offers FAN placements to its clients alongside full-service PR.
To discuss a release, call or text the Florida Authority Network at 813-409-4683.
Mistakes That Keep Releases Out of AI Answers
- Leading with company history instead of the news
- Using “Southeast” or “Florida area” instead of a real city
- Filling space with superlatives and no figures
- Quoting executives saying they’re “excited” or “thrilled”
- Changing company name, address, or phone formats between releases
- Publishing only as a downloadable PDF
- Blocking Google or AI search crawlers on your website
- Paying for “AI hacks” Google says don’t matter
Measuring Results
Google recommends using the Generative AI performance report in Search Console to track how your content performs in AI features. Beyond that, test it yourself: ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini the questions your release answers and see whether your company appears. And keep a log of every outlet that covers your announcement, since that coverage is what AI tends to cite.
Questions Florida Businesses Ask
Will a press release get my company into ChatGPT or AI Overviews?
It can help, but rarely by itself. Releases are cited directly in about 1% of AI answers. Their larger impact comes from generating coverage and consistent facts across many sources.
Does Google require AI-specific formatting?
No. Google says standard SEO practices apply and special AI files or markup aren’t needed.
What type of release is most likely to be cited?
Releases about real business developments, such as expansions, hires, partnerships, and data, especially those tied to industry trends.
Should I use a national wire or a Florida service?
Both serve different purposes. National wires offer broad reach, while Florida platforms tie your news to Florida audiences and searches. Many businesses use both.
How do I get a release on the Florida Authority Network?
Call or text 813-409-4683.
Brian’s Take
AI didn’t make press releases obsolete. It made bad ones invisible. The releases that travel now are the ones a good reporter would respect: specific, local, factual, and easy to verify. Pair that writing with wide, consistent Florida distribution and your announcement has a real chance of showing up where buyers are increasingly asking questions.
