What is an AI narrative and why does it matter?

Where SEO measured rankings and PR measured impressions, AI reputation measures narrative: the consistent description, framing, and themes the engines return when asked about a company or person. Because the engines synthesize across many sources, the narrative is the meta-story the synthesis produces, not any single article. A journalist asking ChatGPT about a brand before writing a story now starts with that synthesis. An investor asking Gemini about a portfolio company starts there. A senior candidate asking Perplexity about a potential employer starts there. The narrative they receive shapes how they read everything else, and that is what makes it the new primary unit of reputation.