AI Discoverability Is Now Essential for News and PR, UNB's Nahar Khan Warns

AsiaNet Forum 2025: UNB's Nahar Khan calls for stronger AI discoverability in news and PR

At the AsiaNet Forum 2025 in Singapore, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) Executive Editor Nahar Khan made a clear point: audiences are getting answers from AI, not just from articles. If journalists and PR teams want their work to be used accurately, it has to be findable and readable by machines.

The panel, moderated by Amrita Sidhu of Medianet, featured Nahar Khan alongside Pannee Yongpiyakul (Managing Director, Dataxet), Prima Satya (Content & Media Relations Officer, Antara), and Karen Yu (Senior Director and Global Head of Media Partnership, Notified GlobeNewswire).

Why AI discoverability matters now

"Audiences are no longer just reading articles directly, but increasingly relying on AI-generated answers and summaries," said Nahar Khan. Her call to action: make credible journalism and press materials discoverable by AI in ways that preserve accuracy and context.

That means optimizing content so AI systems can identify sources, extract facts, and cite them correctly. Otherwise, the risk is simple: good information gets ignored, and weak sources fill the gaps.

Signals from the panel

• Pannee Yongpiyakul (Dataxet): "AI has significantly helped our business across all functions… we were able to develop mockups and create the prototype code in just a few hours." Efficiency gains are real-and they compound.
• Karen Yu (Notified GlobeNewswire): "Excited to learn that the news agencies are actively exploring how AI can be beneficial… enabling collaboration on new ideas and product innovations." Collaboration between platforms and news agencies is accelerating.
• Prima Satya (Antara): "We have to make use of AI in limited fashion as a complementary tool, not as the main resource for content creation - the human element is irreplaceable." Judgment still sits with people.

What this means for PR

Press releases are no longer just background for reporters. AI-driven search and conversational platforms index and surface them directly to audiences as cited sources. That creates reach-and risk.

Clear, structured, and factual releases can travel far across AI channels. Poorly formatted or imprecise releases can be misread by models, spreading errors and creating headaches for brands.

An AI-ready press release checklist

• Use structured data. Add schema for Article/NewsArticle where appropriate, and ensure consistent metadata (headline, description, publication date, organization). See Google's guidance on structured data: developers.google.com.
• Lead with facts. Put key numbers, names, dates, and attributions in the first two paragraphs. Keep claims verifiable.
• Standardize formatting. Clear subheads, bulleted key points, and properly attributed quotes make extraction easier for AI.
• Canonical and clean URLs. Use a single, permanent URL per release and avoid duplicate versions without canonical tags.
• Consistent entity naming. Keep organization, product, and people names consistent across releases and sites.
• Link to source material. Reference primary data, reports, or newsroom pages that back claims.
• Provide machine-readable assets. Descriptive alt text, captions, and file names for images, charts, and PDFs.
• Version updates transparently. Timestamp corrections and include an "Updated on" note so systems can pick the latest version.
• Test summaries. Run your release through trusted summarization tools internally to see what AI extracts and fix ambiguities.
• Maintain credibility signals. Clear contacts, organization details, and consistent newsroom standards help models assess reliability.

Build AI fluency across teams

The panelists agreed: thought leadership, workshops, and ongoing training matter. Teams that understand how AI reads, ranks, and cites content will produce material that performs better across search and conversational interfaces.

If you're upskilling PR and comms teams on AI workflows, see curated options here: Latest AI courses.

Journalism and PR: Work with AI, don't fight it

Alongside discoverability, Nahar urged newsrooms and PR pros to engage directly with AI systems. The goal isn't chasing clicks-it's ensuring outputs stay accurate and contextual.

By partnering with platforms and optimizing for machine readability, credible outlets can influence how information gets surfaced and cited. That's how trust is protected while the distribution model shifts.

Bottom line

AI summaries and generative search are changing how audiences find information. For PR and communications, adapting content for machine discoverability is now a core competency-essential for reach, accuracy, and brand trust.

If you're formalizing this capability, start with structured data, consistent formatting, and disciplined fact presentation. Then train your teams and keep iterating as platforms evolve.