Profound checked 41 million answers from ChatGPT, Google AIO & Perplexity.
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.