From “How AI Changes Your Customers: The Marketing Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter” by Mark Schaefer
Researchers from Muck Rack analyzed 1 million AI responses to help us see how the information is prioritized. Here are some findings:
- Approximately 95% of the AI responses derive from non-paid (non-advertising) content sources. The three most important sources for AI referrals are 1) corporate blogs and other owned media, 2) journalism, and 3) academic research.
- Signals from social media conversations and shared content had a minor impact on the bots.
- Fresher content beats older content. A study by Ahrefs found that the average age of content cited by AI assistants is 1,064 days, compared to 1,432 days for content referenced by traditional search engines. That’s 26% “fresher.”
- Authority of the source matters. Sources with a high reputation, like Reuters and the Financial Times, are heavily cited.