How AI decides
which water companies to trust
Generative AI is changing how people gather information — and for niche sectors like municipal and industrial water, the stakes are especially high. When operators, engineers and procurement teams turn to AI tools for clarity, the quality of your content directly shapes what they see.
There’s been no shortage of conversation about generative AI and how it’s reshaping information discovery. What’s talked about far less is the quality of the inputs feeding those tools — and how the integrity of human-generated content determines the reliability of AI-generated output.
Understanding that relationship matters, especially for the writers, editors and subject matter experts responsible for shaping a brand’s digital footprint in the water sector and beyond.
Recently, Muck Rack, a PR management platform, stress-tested how generative AI tools source, interpret and prioritize information across the web. Instead of evaluating chatbot responses, researchers looked underneath the hood — focusing on where AI models pull answers from, which sources they treat as credible and the types of content surface most often.
Their report, What is AI Reading? December 2025, analyzed millions of realistic prompts across a wide span of topics to understand which kinds of earned and owned media appear most frequently and why. The study ran from July through December and will continue tracking this rapidly shifting landscape.
What They Found
At a high level, the findings confirm something communicators have long understood:
AI, like humans, relies on trusted sources.
Eighty-two percent of cited links came from earned media — government sources, academic research, third-party publications or journalism. Only a small percentage surfaced from social media or other user-generated platforms. Even as users turn to AI for quick clarity, the models themselves still prioritize institutionally vetted information.
One point especially relevant to our world: trade publications matter. For niche industries like municipal or industrial water, AI favored trade media over mainstream outlets.
The study also found that 25% of citations came from journalistic sources. Human editors, fact-checkers and subject matter experts continue to shape the information ecosystem in meaningful ways.
Press releases are also gaining ground. Since Muck Rack’s last report in July, press release citations have increased fivefold, now represent roughly 6% of all results. The releases most frequently cited shared common traits:
- Twice as many statistics
- 30% more action verbs
- 30% higher rate of objective sentences
- 2.5x more bullet points
In short: clear, structured and data-driven announcements help AI understand what matters.
Recency remains a major factor. About half of cited content was published within the last 11 months, with the rest coming from the prior three years. Staying current still counts.
While earned media dominates, owned media still plays an important role. When a query requires comparison or objectivity, AI prefers third-party coverage. But when a user needs specifics — warranties, specs, product details — owned content becomes the source of truth.
What This Means for Water + Wastewater Brands
For teams across engineering, sales and leadership, the takeaway is straightforward:
Verified information shapes how AI presents your brand.
Every press release, article, case study and blog post becomes part of the knowledge framework AI tools rely on to answer questions. If customers or partners are using AI to learn about technologies, compare solutions or check specifications, your credibility today directly influences what AI will say tomorrow.
A steady drumbeat of accurate, timely content isn’t just good marketing. It strengthens authority across the entire digital ecosystem, including AI search.
For marketing and comms teams in the water sector:
- Earned media still carries significant weight
- Well structured, data-forward announcements perform better
- Trade publications matter more than ever
- Recency signals reliability
- Owned content still plays a critical role in technical queries
For leadership teams, this reinforces what we see every day: PR is a strategic lever. Consistent credibility doesn’t just reach audiences, it reaches the systems shaping how audiences find information.
The more your organization invests in validated expertise, transparent communication and consistent storytelling, the more likely AI outputs will reflect your strengths and support informed customer decisions.
To read Muck Rack’s full report, visit https://generativepulse.ai/report/
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