Profound checked 41 million answers from ChatGPT, Google AIO & Perplexity.
Published
May 28, 2025
Author
Paul
These are their key takeaways from Profound's massive AI search study.
Search is shifting fast
In the last six months ChatGPT’s share shot up 400 %, while Google’s fell 2.15 % for the first time in ten years. AI systems now decide what users see before a single click.
AI vs classic SERPs
ChatGPT shares only 12 % of top results with Google.
It overlaps 26 % with Bing, the index it leans on for browsing.
In short: the AI answer page is its own battleground.
Each LLM engines loves different things
Engine | Favourite sources | How to react |
|---|---|---|
ChatGPT | Wikipedia, G2, Forbes | Make clear, reference‑style pages and get on trusted review sites |
Perplexity | Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn | Feed helpful answers into forums and videos |
Google AIO | A mix of all the above | Keep expertise fresh and topical |
Copilot | Big media brands (Forbes, The Verge) | Earn mentions from high‑authority press |
Classic SEO signals don’t explain AI picks
95 % of citation behaviour has nothing to do with traffic.
97.2 % cannot be tied to backlinks. Pages with few links can still win many citations.
Some type of content are more popular than others
Listicles and product comparisons rule the roost:
Content Type | Citations | Share % |
Other | 69,722,281 | 39.35 |
Comparative Listicles | 57,591,022 | 32.50 |
Blogs / Opinion | 17,565,744 | 9.91 |
Commercial / Store | 8,376,007 | 4.73 |
Homepage | 6,637,322 | 3.75 |
Community / Forum | 5,950,684 | 3.36 |
Documentation / Wiki | 4,835,532 | 2.73 |
News | 3,723,397 | 2.10 |
Video | 1,680,158 | 0.95 |
Search pages | 1,100,989 | 0.62 |
Tech to implement for AI SEO
Get key pages indexed by Bing.
Use clean HTML; skip heavy JavaScript.
Add
llms.txtto steer AI crawlers.Write readable URL slugs and answer‑first meta descriptions
Search has a new rulebook. Give AIs easy access and clear answers and they will talk about you—even if your site is small.
Access the full presentation here.