Chad Hetherington

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October, my favorite month based strictly on the vibes it bestows, is almost over.

The following AI marketing updates have nothing to do with color change, camping under orange and red canopies or crunching over fallen leaves on the trail. But there’s still some interesting stuff here.

Google is changing how links appear in AI-generated search results — and also experimenting with personalized ads in AI Mode. Anthropic is preparing for a potentially historic stock market debut. And a new report suggests that earned media may be one of the most important ingredients for AI visibility.

Here’s what happened in October.

Google Is Making Links More Prominent in AI Search

Google has been under pressure to make its AI search experiences more useful for publishers and websites, particularly as AI-generated answers continue to reduce the need for users to click through to sources.

On October 15, the company announced several updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews, including more prominent inline links, dedicated sections highlighting official websites and new ways to surface relevant articles and publishers.

The changes appear designed to make it easier for users to explore the web from within Google’s AI-generated responses, rather than treating those responses as the final stop.

But whether these changes will actually translate into more website visits remains to be seen.

I wrote about the announcement in more detail, including what it could mean for SEO and GEO strategies, in Google Is Making Links More Prominent in AI Search. Will It Help Website Traffic?

Anthropic Is Preparing for a $1.5 Trillion Stock Market Debut

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, is preparing to go public, and its valuation could reach an extraordinary $1.5 trillion.

On October 26, the company filed its IPO paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, revealing that it generated $16.3 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026, compared with $1.2 billion during the same period last year. The proposed valuation hasn’t been confirmed, but investors are reportedly eyeing the $1.5 trillion mark.

For marketers, the big takeaway isn’t the stock price. It’s what this tells us about the AI industry’s rapid growth and the financial pressure on its biggest players.

As AI companies work to justify enormous valuations and infrastructure investments, we could see changes to pricing, product offerings and how these tools are monetized. It’s worth keeping in mind as more marketing teams build their workflows around AI platforms.

Google Is Testing Personalized Ads in AI Mode

Google revised its privacy policy on October 16 to allow information from Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos to potentially influence the ads users see.

Previously, Google stated that it wouldn’t use content from those services for personalized ads. Now, there’s an exception for people who choose to make that information available to other Google services. 

This ties into Google’s Personal Intelligence feature, which allows AI tools to access information from connected apps to provide more personalized responses.

Google explains that ads won’t be based directly on a user’s Gmail inbox or Photos library. However, summaries, excerpts and inferences drawn from that information may be used to personalize ads.

Google also says connecting these services is optional, advertisers won’t receive access to personal emails or photos, and sensitive information won’t be used for ad targeting.

Still, there’s a reasonable privacy concern here. There’s a difference between delivering useful, relevant advertising and making people uncomfortable with how much an advertiser seems to know about them.

The technology may be capable of delivering increasingly personalized ads. Whether consumers actually want that level of personalization is another question.

New Research Suggests Earned Media Drives Most AI Citations

We’ve spent much of the past couple of years talking about how businesses can make their brand more AI-visible. A lot of that includes SEO and GEO — things you can do on your own website. But a portion of that advice also includes exercises like directory management and third-party brand mentions.

And we just got new data to show how important those strategies are.

A new report from Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse, titled What Is AI Reading?, suggests that earned media plays a particularly important role in the sources AI systems reference.

Generative Pulse analyzed millions of prompts covering consumer questions, including product recommendations and purchasing decisions, and researchers examined the sources AI systems cited and found that earned media was a leading source.

The report also identified some differences between AI providers. Some referenced a greater variety of domains than others, and identical prompts didn’t necessarily produce the same citations each time.

That gives public relations, digital PR and earned media a larger role in GEO strategies. It also reinforces the value of building a brand presence beyond your own domain. Industry publications, credible reviews, independent coverage and other third-party sources can help establish the kind of external visibility that AI systems draw on.

Of course, appearing in more publications doesn’t automatically guarantee AI citations. Source selection varies across platforms and prompts, and there’s still plenty we don’t understand about how these systems decide which information to reference.

Still, this research adds to the growing case that GEO isn’t exclusively an SEO exercise. For marketing teams, it might be time to bring PR, content and search specialists into the same conversation more often.

Final Thoughts

AI keeps finding new ways to shake up marketing, and October was no exception. Between changes to AI search, new advertising possibilities and growing questions about how brands show up in AI-generated answers, there’s plenty for marketers to think about as we head into November.

Note: This article was originally published on contentmarketing.ai.