Jeanne Meyer is a connector, well-respected strategic communications leader and founder of Authentic Intelligence. She advises C-Suite executives on communications strategy, crisis management, thought leadership and their own visibility. Meyer also coaches in-house teams and agencies and is an in-demand media and presentation trainer. Jeanne led communications and marketing at global brands including Martha Stewart, Al Gore’s Current TV, EMI Music and ToysRUs.com. She is also an Executive-in-Residence at Media/Tech Investment Bank Progress Partners. She is a sought-after advisor for emerging brands in media, entertainment and enterprise tech. Earlier in her career, she led marketing at Internet TV start up Pseudo Programs and held senior posts at leading agencies Robinson Lerer Montgomery (now FGS), DKC and Dorf & Stanton (now Weber Shandwick), and established the environmental affairs function at Lever Brothers Company. She earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri and has served on non profit boards such as The Grammy Foundation and Mouse.Org, a leading EdTech organization.
As AI becomes the primary place where people seek answers, recommendations, and expertise, every executive is facing a new visibility challenge. Jeanne Meyer, founder of Authentic Intelligence and a longtime leader at the intersection of media, marketing and technology, explained how large language models are reshaping authority and what leaders must do to ensure they are accurately represented.
Meyer emphasized that this landscape is moving extremely fast. What is true today may shift tomorrow. Yet the principles that guide discoverability and credibility are becoming clearer. Below are the five key insights she shared, illustrated with her words from the session.
When large language models surface information, they prioritize sources that carry reputational weight. Meyer noted that AI engines overwhelmingly rely on earned, third party citations rather than advertising.
“About ninety five percent of links from AI are driven by non-paid media,” she said. “You cannot pay your way into AI discoverability right now. You have to earn it.”
Tier one sources such as Reuters, the Associated Press or academic institutions act as the top of the credibility hierarchy. Press releases distributed through reputable wires also carry more influence than many leaders expect, especially when clearly structured and easy for AI to parse.
Meyer underscored that AI engines look for content that is easy to ingest. Structure, clarity and recency matter more than cleverness or stylistic flourishes.
“AI likes content that is new and fresh,” she explained. “Your headlines need to be clear. It is more important to say exactly what it is than to be clever.”
Long form LinkedIn articles have become especially powerful. Meyer encouraged leaders to treat them as a central pillar of thought leadership.
“LinkedIn articles are far more crawlable than posts,” she shared. “If you are an individual brand, this is where I would double down.”
Press releases formatted with simple what, when and why headings and supplemented with FAQs also perform well in AI environments because they give models structured signals.
Meyer described a shift in how people act once they receive information from AI. Increasingly, users rely on the answer itself rather than clicking through to additional resources.
“People are consulting large language models and getting a fully formed answer,” she said. “The evaluation and decision may happen offline. You are not always seeing the click.”
This shift makes it critical for accurate information to live upstream in the sources AI consults most often. It also means that authority is shaped long before a user lands on a website or product page.
While AI still validates information against high authority sources, community generated content is one of the largest volumes of data feeding machine answers. Meyer pointed to Reddit communities and ecommerce reviews as significant inputs.
“Customer reviews are increasingly becoming a factor,” she noted. “And Reddit is huge. It is one of the primary places these models look.”
For consumer brands in particular, encouraging reviews and monitoring Reddit conversations are no longer optional. They are part of how AI learns what a product or service represents.
Although AI can generate drafts at scale, Meyer stressed that human judgment is still required to produce meaningful, credible content. Leaders should use AI for efficiency, but they must apply editorial rigor to ensure clarity and accuracy.
“There is a lot of AI generated work that is not very good,” Meyer said. “You have to get out your red pen and make sure the writing is concise and clear.”
She encouraged executives to evaluate all content through a strict lens of usefulness and readability. Clarity is now a competitive advantage. Audiences can immediately sense the difference between thoughtful, human guided communication and generic AI output.
Meyer closed the session with a reminder that leaders must keep experimenting. Understanding how AI interprets expertise is becoming a core part of executive visibility and reputation management.
“If 2025 was the year we all became AI users, 2026 is the year we build with AI,” she said. “These tools can make you more efficient, but you still need to apply your own taste and judgment.”
The path forward requires consistent action. Audit how your brand appears across AI platforms. Strengthen your presence in authoritative sources. Refresh your website with structured information. Produce LinkedIn articles that clearly articulate your expertise. Monitor community conversations that shape perception. These practices now form the backbone of modern thought leadership.
