News Australia has expanded its AI research initiative, The Prompt, with the launch of The Prompt Report, a new series of category-specific advisory playbooks designed to help marketers protect and grow brand visibility as consumers shift to AI-driven discovery.
The series debuts on Tuesday and it is a dedicated retail guide, giving brands a clear roadmap to be recommended across AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.
The initiative is spearheaded by News Australia’s Search, AI, and Emerging Platforms team, led by Mike Cook. By analysing more than 148,000 cited pages and 310,000 AI-generated answers over the past two years, the team has identified how AI systems evaluate brands and recommend products across different sectors.
“The traditional search funnel has turned into a direct conversation with AI software,” said Cook. “With over 57 per cent of web traffic now non-human, discoverability is no longer just a technical search problem, it is a total brand strategy. Getting recommended by AI isn’t about prompt tricks, it’s about having a trusted reputation across the web that these systems have every reason to cite. The Prompt Report gives business leaders the exact roadmap to make sure their products are recommended where decisions are actually being made.”
Research featured in WARC shows 63 per cent of a brand’s visibility in AI search is driven by long-term web reputation and trusted third-party coverage rather than owned channels alone. To help marketers adapt, News Australia is introducing a dual publishing approach, a strategy that structures content so it can be easily processed by AI software while remaining engaging for human readers.
News Australia is delivering these capabilities through bespoke AI audits, strategy workshops and specialised content creation via agency partners Medium Rare Content Agency and Suddenly. By pairing structured website data with authoritative editorial coverage across trusted news domains, companies can ensure AI engines regularly find, trust and cite their products.
