AI citation
When an AI engine names your business as a source in its answer.
An AI citation is the source attribution an answer engine attaches to a generated answer — for example Perplexity's inline numbered footnotes, or the linked sources beneath a Google AI Overview or a ChatGPT search answer. Citations are the AI-era equivalent of a top organic ranking, but scarcer: an answer typically cites a few sources rather than ten links. A Pew Research Center study (March 2025, ~900 US adults, 68,879 searches) found that 88% of AI summaries cited three or more sources.
The same study quantified why being cited matters: users clicked a traditional result on only 8% of searches that showed an AI summary, versus 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary itself just 1% of the time. As answer engines absorb the click, being the cited source — not merely ranking — becomes the unit of visibility. Citations are earned through trustworthy, structured, well-sourced data rather than bought.
Sources
- Google users are less likely to click links when an AI summary appears — Pew Research Center
- Google's AI Overviews are hurting clicks: Pew study — Search Engine Land