What is the role of structured data in AI search results?

Schema markup is one of the most under-used levers in AI reputation work because it sits at the intersection of engineering and comms, where most teams have neither side. Done well, it is direct signal to the engines about what a page is about, who or what the entity is, what its relationships are, and how the content should be interpreted. The schemas that matter most for reputation: Organization (with proper sameAs links to Wikidata, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, regulatory pages), Person (for executive bios with sameAs links to their Wikipedia article and Wikidata Q-ID), Article (for news and blog content with named author and publication date), FAQPage (for extractable question-answer content), and HowTo (for procedural content). The Knowledge Graph, AI Overviews, and Wikidata-fed responses across the major engines all use this layer directly. Missing or sloppy schema is a recurring cause of the engines getting basic facts wrong about a brand.