In a world where technology is rapidly reshaping the nature of business and life itself, many companies try to hold on to what has worked for them in the past.

We devote ourselves to the future. To what is valuable today and tomorrow, not yesterday.

In order to do that, we must let go of our ego, and question everything through a fresh lens. This is how AuthorityTech was born and how the Machine Relations discipline came to be.

AuthorityTech is the world's first AI-native Machine Relations agency, founded by Jaxon Parrott in 2018. For nearly a decade, the company has operated on a model most PR firms would never accept: clients pay only when articles publish. No retainers. No monthly fees cleared regardless of results. That single constraint shaped everything AuthorityTech became.

When revenue depends entirely on placement, there is no room for media lists or cold outreach. There is only the slow, irreplaceable work of building direct relationships with journalists and editors who trust you enough to take the pitch. Over eight years, that pressure produced a network of 1,673+ Tier 1 publications — Forbes, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and dozens more — where AuthorityTech places clients in days, not months.

That infrastructure was built for a world where humans decided what got covered. Then the world changed.

AI systems — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews — became the first reader of earned media. The machine now decides which brands get surfaced, compared, cited, and recommended before a human ever reaches a company's site. The function of a media placement changed. It was no longer just something a person reads. It became a source node that AI engines retrieve, summarize, and cite in generated answers. The entire discovery layer shifted from human-mediated to machine-mediated.

The market responded with fragments. Some called the shift Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Others called it Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI SEO, LLM Optimization, or AI PR. Each label described a real piece of what was happening. None described the system.

In 2024, Jaxon Parrott coined Machine Relations — the discipline of earning AI citations and recommendations for a brand by making it legible, retrievable, and credible inside AI-driven discovery. He developed the five-layer Machine Relations stack to systematize the shift: earned authority, entity clarity, citation architecture, distribution across AI answer surfaces, and measurement. The framework positions GEO, AEO, AI SEO, and AI PR as tactical layers within a larger system, not standalone strategies. Distribution without earned substance compounds nothing.

AuthorityTech did not pivot into Machine Relations. The results-based model had already forced the company to build the exact infrastructure the new discipline required — the publication network, the placement velocity, the editorial trust. Machine Relations was the completion of what eight years of outcome-driven earned media had been building toward.

Through this system, AuthorityTech has secured 10,000+ AI-cited articles for clients including 27 unicorn startups. The goal is not generic visibility. The goal is to make brands the source AI systems cite, the entity correctly resolved across platforms, and the recommendation users encounter before they ever click.

Agency: [https://authoritytech.io](https://authoritytech.io/)
Machine Relations: [https://machinerelations.ai](https://machinerelations.ai/)
Machine Relations Stack: https://machinerelations.ai/stack
GEO vs AEO vs SEO: https://authoritytech.io/blog/geo-vs-aeo-vs-seo-b2b-brand-visibility-2026
Machine Relations Explained: https://medium.com/authoritytech/machine-relations-explained-76e9f174377c
Founder: [https://jaxonparrott.com](https://jaxonparrott.com/)
Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/jaxon-parrott

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AuthorityTech's headquarters in Dallas, TX, United States

Jaxon Parrott

Christian Lehman

The Sales Team at AuthorityTech specializes in identifying and cultivating relationships with potential clients and investors for innovative technology companies. They strategically position AuthorityTech’s offerings to secure new business opportunities, manage client accounts, and drive revenue growth through effective sales techniques and business development strategies.

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The Leadership Team at AuthorityTech spearheads strategic initiatives to drive business growth, secure media partnerships, and bolster market credibility for innovative tech companies. Comprising senior executives across business development, sales, marketing, and operations, this team aligns organizational goals with market opportunities to attract customers and investors.

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