As AI-generated content floods professional networks and platforms, authentic thought leadership becomes exponentially more valuable. Yet most founders are outsourcing the very work that could differentiate them.

The growing concern about artifical intelligence eventually replacing various professional services, including communications, reveals something important about how founders and executives understand communications leadership, and offers an opportunity to clarify what really drives stakeholder relationships in today's AI-driven business environment.

Most founders in Singapore and the region approach PR and comms agency selection backwards, prioritising media contacts over strategic capability, campaign ideas over systematic execution. Cutting through the local agency landscape, we identify what actually drives results for early-stage companies in Southeast Asia's ultra-competitive startup ecosystem.

While Southeast Asian startups and companies obsess over traditional search rankings and SEO, their competitors are building authority in generative AI responses—from ChatGPT and Claude to Gemini and Perplexity. ACID’s research reveals how Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and the new "citation economy" determines startup visibility—and why Southeast Asian founders are losing a competition they don't even know exists.

Understand how fractional communications leadership helps startups and SMEs sharpen messaging, build trust, and grow reputational equity—without the full-time overhead.

Many startup founders and teams in Singapore and Southeast Asia today still misunderstand the role of comms, to the detriment of business growth. This piece breaks down the most common misconceptions about PR in early-stage companies and what it really takes to build perception that compounds.