FB2B buyers are no longer just Googling vendors. They are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. And the brands that show up in those answers are not necessarily the ones with the best SEO. They are the ones with the most consistent message across every touchpoint.
In episode 156 of Women Disrupting Tech, I sit down with Rachel Gilley, CEO of Clarity Global, a global growth consultancy. Rachel has spent years working with fast-growing tech companies on how they show up in the market, and she now argues that the question has fundamentally changed. It is no longer just “how do we get coverage?” It is “how do we show up when AI is answering our customers’ questions?”
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why AI may remove the admin layer of communications, but cannot replace strategy, political context, or the ability to read a client’s anxiety
- Why inconsistent messaging across marketing and PR is no longer just a brand problem: LLMs treat it as noise and may stop citing your brand entirely
- How a deliberate GEO strategy drove a 300% increase in AI citations for Monday.com
But the episode does not stop at GEO strategy. Rachel also makes a clear distinction between mentoring women and actually sponsoring them, and she makes the case that AI is changing junior roles, not replacing them.
Hit play below to listen to the full conversation. Or keep reading for practical takeaways, highlights, and trends from the episode.
Practical Takeaways for Founders
Rachel’s core advice to founders is straightforward: do not wait until the AI landscape settles before you start experimenting. The founders who engage now are training AI platforms to recognize and cite their brand. The ones who wait are letting competitors do it instead. Here’s how to avoid that.
Measure how your brand shows up in AI search
Most founders have no idea whether LLMs cite their brand or ignore it. That is the first problem to solve. Rachel recommends using a tool like Surfacd to build a dashboard that tracks your brand against competitors across leading LLM platforms. From there, identify exactly which sources and URLs AI is using to surface your brand. A single snapshot is not enough: track over weeks or months, because the AI search environment shifts and a trend is more useful than a data point.
Prioritize content that AI treats as credible
LLMs do not weigh all content equally. They favor sources they perceive as high-domain and authentic. In practice, that means third-party editorial and trade publications carry more weight than owned content. Trade media in particular tends to rank well because it produces sector-specific content that AI recognizes as authoritative. It is also worth monitoring whether competitors are gaining ground through video or user-generated content, both of which are becoming more influential in how LLMs evaluate a brand.
Build AI tools people can actually trust
When AI is involved in high-stakes decisions, around funding, health, or financial outcomes, visible human involvement is not optional. It is what makes the tool credible. Rachel’s point is precise: trust comes from knowing a human cares about the outcome. An algorithm talking to another algorithm does not provide that. A human in the loop does.
The Monday.com case study shows what this looks like when it works. By deliberately shaping content to answer the questions their customers were asking AI, the team tripled the number of citations across LLM platforms. Consistency of message, credible third-party sources, and a clear strategic question were the three ingredients.
Do you know a founder who is still thinking about discoverability in terms of Google rankings? Share this episode with them using the buttons below.
Or scroll down for magic moments.
Highlights and timestamps
| Time | Highlight |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Introduction |
| 03:05 | Rachel Gilley’s path to Clarity Global |
| 04:52 | Navigating AI noise — what actually matters |
| 05:52 | How AI is changing communications work |
| 10:44 | Women and AI: closing the gap |
| 13:09 | What is Generative Engine Optimization? |
| 19:11 | The Monday.com case study |
| 21:56 | Why startups need an outside perspective |
| 23:48 | Aligning marketing and PR in the AI era |
| 25:35 | How AI changes junior roles |
| 27:31 | AI and energy consumption |
| 29:34 | What’s next for Surfacd |
| 30:59 | How men can support women in leadership |
| 32:55 | The diversity gap in leadership |
| 34:24 | Women’s health and FemTech |
| 36:39 | Building AI tools female founders can trust |
3 Magic Moments In The Episode
Rachel and I ended up talking about our mothers at one point. Hers is 88, mine is 85, and both of them are using AI without much friction. It is an easy moment to laugh at, but it makes a point that runs through the whole episode: the barrier to entry is lower than most people think. The question is not whether to engage with AI. It is how.
The Monday.com proof point
Numbers matter more than arguments in this space, and Rachel has a good one. By working with Monday.com to deliberately shape content around the questions their customers were actually asking AI, the team tracked a 300% increase in citations across LLM platforms. What made the difference was not a large budget or a complex campaign. It was consistency of message, credible third-party sources, and a clear strategic question: how do we show up when AI answers our customers’ questions?
Junior talent is not being replaced. It is being promoted.
Clarity does not see AI as a headcount reduction tool. Rachel’s view is that it removes the admin: the research, the formatting, the first drafts. What that frees up is time for critical thinking, which means junior hires can contribute to strategy much earlier in their careers than was previously possible.
The difference between a mentor and a sponsor
Rachel draws a line that is worth repeating. A mentor gives advice over coffee. A sponsor puts a woman forward for a board seat, a job, or an investor introduction when she is not in the room. The distinction matters because one requires someone to use their own reputation and presence to change an outcome, and the other does not.
All three moments point to the same underlying argument: the human layer is not disappearing. It is becoming more valuable. The strategist who shapes how a brand shows up in AI search, the junior who thinks critically rather than formats documents, the sponsor who changes outcomes in rooms where others are absent. In each case, the competitive advantage is still human.
What was your favorite moment from the episode? Drop it in the comments or slide into the DMs on LinkedIn or Instagram!
The Quote from the Episode
“Trust is born out of being able to see the whites of individuals’ eyes and know and trust the direction that they’re going in.” — Rachel Gilley
Rachel says this in the context of building AI tools for female founders navigating the funding process. Her point is that when the stakes are high, an algorithm is not enough. Founders need to know that a human is accountable for the outcome, not just present in the process.
It is a line that reaches further than the funding context. It applies to how brands build credibility in AI search, where third-party human endorsement carries more weight than owned content. It applies to how junior talent develops, through proximity to strategic thinking rather than task completion. And it applies to sponsorship: the reason it works where mentoring does not is precisely because a sponsor puts their own name and reputation behind someone else’s direction.
The human layer is not a soft argument. In each of these cases, it is the mechanism that makes the outcome possible.
3 Trends I’m Seeing Across Conversations
The more conversations I have on Women Disrupting Tech, the more I notice that the biggest shifts in how technology gets built and adopted are rarely about the technology itself. They are about the human structures, behaviors, and incentives surrounding it. Three patterns from this episode connect to things I keep hearing across very different sectors and contexts.
The craving for human connection will grow as AI scales
Rachel’s prediction is that as AI becomes more prevalent, the demand for genuine human contact will increase rather than decrease. Small, focused gatherings of 15 to 20 people having real conversations about specific topics will become a strategic tool for founders and leaders. This connects directly to what Izzy Sayers raised in episode 152: the value of unscripted human exchange is not diminished by AI. It is amplified by it.
Capital still moves through the same networks
Rachel’s argument is precise: the shortage of female unicorns is not a capability problem. It is a structural one. Capital keeps moving through the networks that have always existed, and changing that requires people in those rooms to make different decisions. This is one of the most consistent themes across Women Disrupting Tech, and it connects directly to what Beata Wandachowicz-Krason explored in episode 155 on the FemTech funding paradox: the barriers are systemic, not individual.
AI as a multiplier, not a replacement
Across sectors, the pattern is the same. AI removes the admin layer and frees up expert time for higher-value work. Rachel sees it in communications. I heard the same argument from Melissa Solis in episode 139 and from Marili ‘t Hooft-Bolle in episode 116, in completely different industries. The founders who understand this early are not asking whether AI will replace their team. They are asking how to restructure around it.
Each of these trends points back to the core argument of this episode: the human layer is not disappearing. The question is whether you are positioning yourself, your brand, and your team to make the most of it.
🗣️ Which of these trends resonates most with what you are seeing in your own work? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Coming Up On Women Disrupting Tech
Most founders walk into a funding conversation already negotiating against themselves. They have a number in mind, but it is the number they think they can justify, not the number they actually need.
In episode 157, financial independence coach and investor Ana Herrero-Wallace argues that this is where the fundraising process breaks down for many female founders. Before strategy, before pitch deck, before the room: do you know what you actually want?
In the clip above, Ana shares the one question she would embed in an AI funding coach for female founders. Hit play, and if what Ana says resonates, subscribe below to find our conversation in your mailbox on 18 June at 8:00 CET.
What I Want to Leave You With
AI is a tool. Humans are the architects.
That is the thread running through everything Rachel and I discussed. Whether it is shaping how your brand shows up when AI answers a customer's question, or stepping into a room and putting a woman forward for a board seat or a funding introduction, the common factor is intentionality. Neither happens by default.
The GEO argument and the sponsorship argument look like separate topics. But they are the same argument in different contexts. In both cases, the outcome depends on a human making a deliberate decision to act, rather than waiting for the system to produce a fair result on its own.
Rachel's advice is to get messy now. Start experimenting, start tracking, start asking different questions. The founders who engage early are how AI interprets their brand. The ones who wait are leaving that to others.
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
About Rachel Gilley
Rachel Gilley is the CEO of Clarity Global, a global growth consultancy with clients across the enterprise and scale-up space. She has spent her career in technology communications, building toward senior leadership roles across independent agencies.
At Clarity, Rachel leads a team working with fast-growing technology companies on communications strategy and, increasingly, AI-driven brand discoverability. Her focus on how brands show up in AI search environments has become central to how Clarity advises clients on the shift from traditional PR metrics to generative engine optimization.
Rachel is also a vocal advocate for women in leadership, with a particular focus on the systemic barriers that limit women's access to board seats, capital, and senior decision-making roles.
You can connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.
About Clarity Global
Clarity Global is a global growth consultancy founded in 2006 and operating across London, Amsterdam, New York, and Sydney. The agency works with technology companies across enterprise, fintech, healthtech, and cybersecurity, connecting marketing and communications strategy to the moments that shape commercial growth.
The agency’s service offering covers PR and influencer relations, content marketing, SEO, paid media, policy communications, and generative engine optimization. Clarity’s CTO, Will Julian-Vicary, built the agency’s internal AI assistant, Clara, before leading the development of Surfacd, a proprietary tool that tracks how brands show up across major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Mode.
Surfacd is the first product on a broader Clarity product roadmap focused on brand discoverability and reputation measurement in AI environments. It tracks mention frequency, competitive share of voice, and the sources AI platforms use to surface a brand, giving marketing and communications teams the data they need to shape how AI answers questions about them.
You can learn more at clarity.global or follow them on LinkedIn. You can explore Surfacd at surfacd.com.
Listen to Episode 156 on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube
How Female Founders Build a Brand AI Will Recommend with Rachel Gilley | Ep. 156 - Women Disrupting Tech
Events that Women Disrupting Tech Must-Attend
Some great events take place this spring. Below are some that you definitely want to check out. For a full overview of all events, including links to buy tickets, please check the events page.
Featured Event: Understanding Women's Health - 24 June 2026
Learn how hormone cycles or perimenopause impact your life, and discover more about conditions like PCOS or Endometriosis at the quarterly Understanding Women's Health Events hosted by Kasia Pokrop.
Women's health is a topic near and dear to my heart. Which is why I'm happy to support and attend the events that 3mbrace Health organizes at Equals every quarter.
Men are expressly invited to join. In fact, send me an email if you want to be a women's health pioneer. More info and tickets can be found here.
Diverse Leaders in Tech Events
If you like being in the know about what is happening in the DEI space, Diverse Leaders in Tech is the place to be.
Every last Thursday of the month, they have monthly in-person meetups for tech people, HR leaders and supporters of diversity to exchange insights, tackle challenges, and take action. It's a vibrant, safe space where diversity is celebrated.
You can find their events on the website. Joining your first event is free.
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