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Syed Irfan Ajmal
Est. 2004  ·  GEO  ·  SEO-PR  ·  Content Marketing
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Flagship SessionKeynote · Interactive Workshop · Panel
Vol. XV · The AI Desk

Earned Media
in the Age of AI

Earned media earns attention instead of buying it. That matters more every quarter, as paid ads get pricier, convert worse, and vanish behind ad blockers.

AI is now rewriting earned media from both sides at once. This session maps the whole shift from the inside, using real data from the earned media OS I built and run.

Invite me to speak →Ask about this session →

By Syed Irfan Ajmal · Founder of EMOS · CEO of DMR.agency · Quoted in Harvard Business Review and Forbes.

Also presented as“When AI Agents Pitch Journalists: The New Earned Media Engine”
§ 01The Shift · Why this, why now
Vol. XV · № 01

Paid attention is getting worse.
Earned attention compounds.

A credible mention in a publication your buyers already trust keeps working long after it goes live, and it makes the next mention easier to get. The moment you stop paying for an ad, the attention stops. And AI has just changed earned media from both sides at once.

Supply side

AI agents can now do the core jobs of a PR team.

The work of earning coverage breaks into six stages. Each one now has an AI agent doing the heavy lifting, and each maps to a tool in the OS I run.

Demand side

LLMs and AI search now decide which brands get seen.

And they reward exactly what earned media produces: authoritative coverage, citations, and genuine expert content.

§ 02Supply Side · The Earned Media Pipeline
Vol. XV · № 02

Six jobs a PR team does.
AI can now run every one.

Each stage maps to a tool in EMOS, the earned media OS I built and run, so the talk is backed by live data, not slideware. String the six together and you have a full pipeline, run with AI and no code.

What AI does

Drafts, researches, or even builds the tool, report, calculator or dataset itself.

What a human does, always

Reviews and approves before anything moves to the next stage. No stage skips this.

Scroll sideways on narrow screens to see all six stages

01SignalIQ

Signal

Surface the topics about to break before the market notices.

AI: research assist
Human: picks the angle
02AssetIQ

Authority Content

Build the research, tools and data that earn coverage.

AI: drafts the asset
Human: approves it
03FactCheckIQ

Verify

Screen out AI slop and unverified claims.

AI: flags what is unverified
Human: makes the final call
04JournoIQ

Match

Find the right journalists for the right stories.

AI: surfaces candidates
Human: confirms the fit
05PressIQ

Pitch

Draft and send outreach, scored and tuned.

AI: drafts and scores
Human: approves the send
06CoverageIQ

Attribute

Track what the coverage actually produced.

AI: pulls the data
Human: verifies the result

AI agent

In the room, we do not just describe the pipeline. We run it live.

§ 03In the Room · Three live activities
Vol. XV · № 03

A working session,
not a lecture.

The room does the work. Three activities turn the pipeline from a slide into something everyone has tried by the time they leave.

01

Idea sprint

The room picks a topic. Together we generate authority asset ideas the press would actually want to cover.

02

Spot the slop

We put an AI draft next to a human one. The room calls which is which, and we pull apart the tells that give AI away.

03

Pitch clinic

We review attendees’ real pitches live, then rebuild the weak ones on the spot.

See it live

Watching a real pitch get tightened, live.

An AI draft opens, gets flagged phrase by phrase the way the room does it in Pitch Clinic and Spot the Slop, then cross-fades into the tightened, human-edited version that actually goes out.

Pitch Draft · Beat: Future of WorkAI Draft

Hi [Name], I hope this finds you well! Our groundbreaking new report reveals that AI is revolutionizing every single industry overnight, with massive results already being seen everywhere. Let me know if you want more info!

I hope this finds you well!Cut: filler greeting
revolutionizing every single industry overnightUnverified claim
massive results already being seen everywhereVague: needs a number
let me know if you want more infoWeak CTA

Hi [Name], new data: 62% of mid-size firms cut their content budget last quarter and shifted spend to earned media instead. I have the underlying survey (400 marketing leads) and three on-record quotes if useful for the Future of Work beat. Happy to send the full breakdown.

→ Sent to Future of Work reporter Sent
§ 04Demand Side · Who gets seen now
Vol. XV · № 04

AI search rewards exactly
what earned media produces.

Generative engines increasingly decide which brands surface in an answer. They stake their credibility on citation quality, so they reward authoritative coverage, third party citations, and real expert content. Earn it once and it pays out to people, to search, and to the machines that cite you, at the same time.

People

Readers, buyers, and the journalists who cover them still trust editorial coverage far more than an ad.

They want

A credible, quotable source with a real point of view.

Search engines

Google weighs links, mentions and expertise signals to decide who ranks and who stays buried.

They want

Authority signals from independent sites.

Generative engines

LLMs and AI search stake their reputation on citation quality, so they surface brands with genuine authority.

They want

To cite the most trusted, most mentioned source.

§ 05The Payoff · The Coverage Flywheel
Vol. XV · № 05

One asset. One placement. Six compounding returns.

A single authority asset and a single piece of coverage do not stop at the placement. They compound around a six part flywheel. Spin it long enough and it starts turning on its own, because journalists cite sources other journalists have already cited.

Earned Media
Coverage Flywheel
Six compounding returns

Hover or tap a segment to read each return

01ReputationMedia mentions signal authority to prospects, partners and search engines at the same time.
02VisibilityEditorial coverage reaches audiences no paid budget can reliably touch.
03ConversionsThird party validation turns interest into intent, faster than owned content can.
04Brand EquityConsistent coverage compounds into a brand that commands premium positioning.
05MagnetismPress begets press. Journalists cite sources other journalists have already cited.
06LibertyA media backed brand earns pricing power, category leadership, and freedom from paid ads.
§ 06What You Leave With · And the honest part
Vol. XV · № 06
You leave able to
  • 01.Run a full earned media pipeline with AI and no code.
  • 02.Brief an AI agent for each of the six stages, from signal to attribution.
  • 03.Catch AI slop and unverified claims before they ship.
  • 04.Read the numbers that prove a placement actually worked.
The honest part · where AI still fails
  • It still fabricates and over claims. Verification is not optional.
  • It cannot build a real relationship with a journalist.
  • It misreads nuance, timing and embargoes.
  • It cannot make the judgment call on what is genuinely newsworthy.

The session is candid about all of it. That is the point.

§ 07Q&A · Where the room usually goes
Vol. XV · № 07

The questions this session tends to open.

01

Which jobs of a PR team can AI agents genuinely run today, and where do they still fail?

02

How do you pair AI with human judgment so the work earns the trust of journalists, customers, LLMs and AI search?

03

Why do LLMs and AI search now decide which brands get seen, and what do they reward?

§ 08The Speaker · On the record
Vol. XV · № 08

An operator,
not a commentator.

Syed Irfan Ajmal is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of EMOS, an AI powered earned media operating system. He has led DMR.agency since 2013, delivering SEO-PR and content results like growing Ridester from zero to 1.5M monthly organic visitors. Earlier he cofounded Silk Route Interactive, a spatial intelligence startup, and studied and worked in Scandinavia. He also hosts the SIA Business podcast.

As seen in

Written for: World Bank · HuffPost · Forbes ME · SEMrush · SERPed  |  Quoted in: Harvard Business Review and Forbes (USA)  |  Workshops and talks: SEMrush · uHubs (UK) · DMSS.io (Bali) · MaGIC (Malaysia) · Arabian Travel Market (Dubai)

22
years in marketing, as an operator
1.5M
organic visitors grown, Ridester
04
countries hosted on stage
500+
biggest live audience
Syed Irfan Ajmal speaking to a large live audience at DMSS Conference, Bali
DMSS Conference, Bali · Same live-room energy this session is built for, 500+ attendees.
Photo by dmss.io
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Vol. XV · № 09

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