What AI Engines Cite Changes Completely By Industry
We ran the same measurement for ten companies in ten different industries, 924 tracked questions put to five answer engines. Directories and marketplaces were cited in 320 of 709 answers for a coworking operator, 45.1%, and in 4 of 245 answers for a financial data vendor, 1.6%. Same method, same engines, same week.
Most published AI citation statistics quote one number for the whole web. This page is the argument against that. Ten latest measurement runs, one per company, taken between 17 and 22 September 2026, produced 4,570 answers and 18,201 cited links across 6,304 distinct domains. One thing held everywhere: vendor and agency websites were the most cited kind in all ten industries, within a narrow band of 178 of 245 answers, 72.7%, to 392 of 454 answers, 86.3%. Everything underneath that moved enormously. Documentation and standards were cited in 312 of 500 answers, 62.4%, for a software supply chain security company, and in 1 of 709 answers, 0.1%, for the coworking operator. That is the same source kind, measured the same way, 442 times apart. If you are deciding where to spend to be cited, the industry you are in changes the answer more than anything else on this page.
Vendor sites vary 1.2 times across ten industries. Documentation and standards vary 442 times.
Exactly what was measured
Every number on this page is computed in SQL against ten stored snapshots. The SQL is printed in full at the end of the page source so anyone can reproduce it.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Runs | 10, the latest published run for each of 10 accounts, one account per industry |
| Run dates | 17 to 22 September 2026 |
| Questions | 924 in total, each account has its own tracked set of 49 to 150 questions |
| Answer engines | 5: ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews |
| Engine cells | 4,619. One question on one engine. 924 questions times 5 engines is 4,620, and one cell was absent from one snapshot |
| Answers excluded as no-answer | 49 of 4,619, 1.1%. An engine that returned no answer text cannot have cited anything |
| Answers counted | 4,570. This is the denominator for every share on this page |
| Answers with no source list | 790 of 4,570, 17.3%. Kept in the denominator, reported in section 06 |
| Cited links counted | 18,201 |
| Link exclusions | 236 links removed: Google result-viewer links of the form google.com/searchviewer, which point at the engine's own result panel rather than at a source. 205 were in the coworking run and 31 in the staffing run. The same rule removed nothing from the single-account report |
| Distinct domains | 6,304, counted at the registrable domain so subdomains roll up |
| Unit of the share | an answer, meaning one question on one engine. An answer counts once for a source kind however many links of that kind it cited |
Six of the ten accounts are named with permission: Westhive, CodeCargo, Cruitfly, DealSource Systems, Danish Lead Co and our own account. The other four are shown as an industry label only. No account's own visibility score, pricing or commercial volumes appear anywhere on this page.
Each cited URL is reduced to a registrable domain and assigned to exactly one of seven source kinds by an explicit named rule set, printed in the SQL at the end of the page source. Vendor or agency site is the residual, which means it also contains each measured company's own website and its direct competitors. This is a companion to the single-account citation report, which takes one of these ten runs apart domain by domain.
Source mix by industry
Share of that industry's answers citing at least one source of each kind. Rows are ordered by the directories and marketplaces share. An answer can cite several kinds, so rows do not sum to 100%.
| Industry | Vendor or agency site | Directories and marketplaces | Docs and standards | Government and regulator | Social and video | Community | News and media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coworking and flexible office space Westhive | 524 of 709 73.9% | 320 of 709 45.1% | 1 of 709 0.1% | 8 of 709 1.1% | 6 of 709 0.8% | 3 of 709 0.4% | 0 of 709 0.0% |
| B2B outbound and lead generation Danish Lead Co | 441 of 590 74.7% | 60 of 590 10.2% | 8 of 590 1.4% | 8 of 590 1.4% | 74 of 590 12.5% | 42 of 590 7.1% | 3 of 590 0.5% |
| Healthcare benefits, employer buyers account not named | 223 of 270 82.6% | 27 of 270 10.0% | 30 of 270 11.1% | 63 of 270 23.3% | 12 of 270 4.4% | 8 of 270 3.0% | 1 of 270 0.4% |
| Private equity and M&A deal sourcing DealSource Systems | 424 of 499 85.0% | 47 of 499 9.4% | 21 of 499 4.2% | 12 of 499 2.4% | 51 of 499 10.2% | 19 of 499 3.8% | 11 of 499 2.2% |
| Ecommerce development account not named | 408 of 539 75.7% | 50 of 539 9.3% | 13 of 539 2.4% | 2 of 539 0.4% | 70 of 539 13.0% | 53 of 539 9.8% | 8 of 539 1.5% |
| Construction and industrial staffing Cruitfly | 392 of 454 86.3% | 39 of 454 8.6% | 6 of 454 1.3% | 49 of 454 10.8% | 21 of 454 4.6% | 15 of 454 3.3% | 1 of 454 0.2% |
| Healthcare benefits, clinic buyers account not named | 218 of 264 82.6% | 14 of 264 5.3% | 24 of 264 9.1% | 26 of 264 9.8% | 18 of 264 6.8% | 7 of 264 2.7% | 0 of 264 0.0% |
| Software supply chain security CodeCargo | 401 of 500 80.2% | 13 of 500 2.6% | 312 of 500 62.4% | 6 of 500 1.2% | 84 of 500 16.8% | 62 of 500 12.4% | 0 of 500 0.0% |
| Answer engine optimization SourceRank AI | 367 of 500 73.4% | 10 of 500 2.0% | 39 of 500 7.8% | 4 of 500 0.8% | 67 of 500 13.4% | 43 of 500 8.6% | 20 of 500 4.0% |
| Financial market data and news account not named | 178 of 245 72.7% | 4 of 245 1.6% | 11 of 245 4.5% | 18 of 245 7.3% | 27 of 245 11.0% | 17 of 245 6.9% | 92 of 245 37.6% |
Two of the ten accounts sit in the same broad healthcare category with different buyers, an employer-side set of questions and a clinic-side set, which is why two rows look related. They are separate accounts with separate question sets and separate runs.
Read down the directories column: 45.1%, 10.2%, 10.0%, 9.4%, 9.3%, 8.6%, 5.3%, 2.6%, 2.0%, 1.6%. Read down the documentation column and the order is almost reversed. There is no single AI citation profile to optimise against. There are at least ten.
Vendor sites lead everywhere, so what comes second is the whole story
Vendor and agency websites were the most cited kind in all ten industries. The column that matters is the next one.
| Industry | Vendor or agency sites | Leading non-vendor kind | Its share | Runner up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software supply chain security CodeCargo | 401 of 500, 80.2% | Docs and standards | 312 of 500, 62.4% | Social and video, 84 of 500, 16.8% |
| Coworking and flexible office space Westhive | 524 of 709, 73.9% | Directories and marketplaces | 320 of 709, 45.1% | Government and regulator, 8 of 709, 1.1% |
| Financial market data and news account not named | 178 of 245, 72.7% | News and media | 92 of 245, 37.6% | Social and video, 27 of 245, 11.0% |
| Healthcare benefits, employer buyers account not named | 223 of 270, 82.6% | Government and regulator | 63 of 270, 23.3% | Docs and standards, 30 of 270, 11.1% |
| Answer engine optimization SourceRank AI | 367 of 500, 73.4% | Social and video | 67 of 500, 13.4% | Community, 43 of 500, 8.6% |
| Ecommerce development account not named | 408 of 539, 75.7% | Social and video | 70 of 539, 13.0% | Community, 53 of 539, 9.8% |
| B2B outbound and lead generation Danish Lead Co | 441 of 590, 74.7% | Social and video | 74 of 590, 12.5% | Directories and marketplaces, 60 of 590, 10.2% |
| Construction and industrial staffing Cruitfly | 392 of 454, 86.3% | Government and regulator | 49 of 454, 10.8% | Directories and marketplaces, 39 of 454, 8.6% |
| Private equity and M&A deal sourcing DealSource Systems | 424 of 499, 85.0% | Social and video | 51 of 499, 10.2% | Directories and marketplaces, 47 of 499, 9.4% |
| Healthcare benefits, clinic buyers account not named | 218 of 264, 82.6% | Government and regulator | 26 of 264, 9.8% | Docs and standards, 24 of 264, 9.1% |
A pattern falls out of that column. In a local, physical, bookable category the engine reaches for a marketplace. In a technical category it reaches for documentation and specifications. In a market data category it reaches for the news. In regulated categories, healthcare benefits and industrial staffing, it reaches for a government or regulator site. And in the professional services categories, lead generation, deal sourcing, ecommerce development and answer engine optimization, it reaches for social and video, which in practice means LinkedIn, YouTube and Reddit. Four different industries, four different answers to the question every buyer of this service asks first.
How far each source kind moves between industries
For each kind, the industry where it was cited most, the industry where it was cited least, and the ratio between them.
| Source kind | All 10 industries | Highest industry | Lowest industry | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Docs and standards | 465 of 4,570, 10.2% | Software supply chain security 312 of 500, 62.4% | Coworking and flexible office space 1 of 709, 0.1% | 442 times |
| Directories and marketplaces | 584 of 4,570, 12.8% | Coworking and flexible office space 320 of 709, 45.1% | Financial market data and news 4 of 245, 1.6% | 28 times |
| News and media | 136 of 4,570, 3.0% | Financial market data and news 92 of 245, 37.6% | Healthcare benefits, clinic buyers 0 of 264, 0.0% | no floor: zero answers in the lowest vertical |
| Government and regulator | 196 of 4,570, 4.3% | Healthcare benefits, employer buyers 63 of 270, 23.3% | Ecommerce development 2 of 539, 0.4% | 63 times |
| Social and video | 430 of 4,570, 9.4% | Software supply chain security 84 of 500, 16.8% | Coworking and flexible office space 6 of 709, 0.8% | 20 times |
| Vendor or agency site | 3,576 of 4,570, 78.2% | Construction and industrial staffing 392 of 454, 86.3% | Financial market data and news 178 of 245, 72.7% | 1.2 times |
| Community | 269 of 4,570, 5.9% | Software supply chain security 62 of 500, 12.4% | Coworking and flexible office space 3 of 709, 0.4% | 29 times |
News and media has no ratio because three industries, coworking, software supply chain security and clinic-side healthcare benefits, recorded 0 answers citing a news source out of 709, 500 and 264 answers respectively.
The aggregate column is the number a vendor would publish as the industry benchmark. Directories and marketplaces were cited in 584 of 4,570 answers, 12.8%. That number is true and almost useless: it is nine times too low for the coworking operator and eight times too high for the financial data vendor. Any single AI citation statistic quoted without an industry attached is describing a company that does not exist.
The engines disagree with each other more than the industries do
All ten industries pooled, split by engine. Share of that engine's answers citing each kind.
| Engine | Answers | No source list | Vendor or agency site | Directories and marketplaces | Docs and standards | Government and regulator | Social and video | Community | News and media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | 924 | 0, 0.0% | 922 of 924 99.8% | 205 of 924 22.2% | 104 of 924 11.3% | 17 of 924 1.8% | 76 of 924 8.2% | 34 of 924 3.7% | 37 of 924 4.0% |
| Google AI Overviews | 875 | 30, 3.4% | 831 of 875 95.0% | 120 of 875 13.7% | 87 of 875 9.9% | 32 of 875 3.7% | 227 of 875 25.9% | 142 of 875 16.2% | 33 of 875 3.8% |
| Google AI Mode | 924 | 118, 12.8% | 737 of 924 79.8% | 109 of 924 11.8% | 73 of 924 7.9% | 27 of 924 2.9% | 108 of 924 11.7% | 70 of 924 7.6% | 24 of 924 2.6% |
| ChatGPT | 923 | 117, 12.7% | 705 of 923 76.4% | 113 of 923 12.2% | 144 of 923 15.6% | 110 of 923 11.9% | 5 of 923 0.5% | 0 of 923 0.0% | 41 of 923 4.4% |
| Gemini | 924 | 525, 56.8% | 381 of 924 41.2% | 37 of 924 4.0% | 57 of 924 6.2% | 10 of 924 1.1% | 14 of 924 1.5% | 23 of 924 2.5% | 1 of 924 0.1% |
Engine rows use that engine's own answer count as the denominator, because the engines did not all answer the same number of questions.
Three findings sit in that table. First, ChatGPT cited a community site in 0 of its 923 answers, and a social or video site in 5 of 923, 0.5%. Google AI Overviews cited community in 142 of 875, 16.2%, and social or video in 227 of 875, 25.9%. On this dataset those are not the same medium. Second, ChatGPT is the engine that reaches for authority: it cited a government or regulator source in 110 of 923 answers, 11.9%, against 17 of 924 for Microsoft Copilot, 1.8%. Third, Microsoft Copilot cited a vendor or agency site in 922 of its 924 answers, 99.8%, and returned a source list on every single answer.
The ChatGPT community figure of 0 of 923 deserves a caveat rather than a headline. It is a real property of what our collector captured from ChatGPT on these dates, and it is consistent across ten independent accounts, which makes a per-account fluke unlikely. It is still one collector, one window of dates, and it may reflect what ChatGPT exposes as a citation rather than what it read.
The same disagreement inside one industry
Two industries where one source kind dominates, split by engine, to show the effect is not an artefact of pooling.
| Engine | Coworking: answers citing a directory or marketplace | Software supply chain security: answers citing documentation or standards |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Copilot | 115 of 150, 76.7% | 79 of 100, 79.0% |
| Google AI Overviews | 66 of 109, 60.6% | 67 of 100, 67.0% |
| ChatGPT | 68 of 150, 45.3% | 61 of 100, 61.0% |
| Google AI Mode | 56 of 150, 37.3% | 57 of 100, 57.0% |
| Gemini | 15 of 150, 10.0% | 48 of 100, 48.0% |
In coworking, Microsoft Copilot cited a directory or marketplace in 115 of its 150 answers, 76.7%, while Gemini did so in 15 of 150, 10.0%. In software supply chain security the same kind of split does not appear: documentation ran from 79 of 100 answers on Microsoft Copilot down to 48 of 100 on Gemini, and every engine put it above 48%. Where a source kind is genuinely the substance of the category, the engines agree. Where it is a convenience, they do not.
Every industry's full denominator
Including the answers that returned text and no source list, which is the number most AI visibility statistics leave out.
| Industry | Questions | Answers | No source list | Cited links | Distinct domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer engine optimization SourceRank AI | 100 | 500 | 120 of 500, 24.0% | 1,969 | 914 |
| B2B outbound and lead generation Danish Lead Co | 118 | 590 | 137 of 590, 23.2% | 2,296 | 698 |
| Financial market data and news account not named | 49 | 245 | 56 of 245, 22.9% | 919 | 366 |
| Ecommerce development account not named | 108 | 539 | 115 of 539, 21.3% | 2,049 | 1,238 |
| Coworking and flexible office space Westhive | 150 | 709 | 146 of 709, 20.6% | 2,547 | 526 |
| Private equity and M&A deal sourcing DealSource Systems | 100 | 499 | 71 of 499, 14.2% | 2,074 | 718 |
| Healthcare benefits, employer buyers account not named | 54 | 270 | 28 of 270, 10.4% | 1,124 | 551 |
| Construction and industrial staffing Cruitfly | 92 | 454 | 46 of 454, 10.1% | 1,896 | 673 |
| Healthcare benefits, clinic buyers account not named | 53 | 264 | 26 of 264, 9.8% | 1,108 | 631 |
| Software supply chain security CodeCargo | 100 | 500 | 45 of 500, 9.0% | 2,219 | 463 |
790 of 4,570 answers, 17.3%, carried no source list at all, and 525 of those came from Gemini. The sourceless rate itself varies by industry, from 26 of 264 answers, 9.8%, up to 137 of 590, 23.2%. Every share on this page is computed over the answers that did carry sources and expressed against the full answer count, so the shares below are floors, not estimates. A provider who drops sourceless answers from the denominator will report the same runs with materially higher numbers.
What to invest in, by industry
What this run says about where citation effort pays and where it does not. Every figure is share of that industry's answers.
| If you are in | Worth the money | Lowest return in this run |
|---|---|---|
| Coworking, flexible space, any bookable local category | Marketplace and directory listings. Cited in 320 of 709 answers, 45.1%, on 24 distinct platforms. The four most cited were flexoffice.swiss in 82 answers, workin.space in 47, homegate.ch in 46 and matchoffice.ch in 38 | Documentation, 1 of 709 answers, 0.1%. Community, 3 of 709, 0.4%. News, 0 of 709 |
| Software, developer tools, security | Documentation, standards bodies and public repositories. Cited in 312 of 500 answers, 62.4%, and above 48% on every one of the five engines. Community and video follow: 62 of 500, 12.4%, and 84 of 500, 16.8% | Directory listings, 13 of 500 answers, 2.6%, across 4 platforms. News, 0 of 500 |
| Market data, financial information | Earning a mention in the financial press. News and media cited in 92 of 245 answers, 37.6%, across 19 outlets, which is the highest non-vendor share of any industry outside software | Directory listings, 4 of 245 answers, 1.6%. No single directory was cited more than once |
| Healthcare benefits, insurance, anything regulated | Alignment with the government and regulator sources the engines quote. Cited in 63 of 270 answers, 23.3%, drawn from 40 distinct government domains, and in 26 of 264 answers, 9.8%, on the clinic-side account | Community, 8 of 270 answers, 3.0%. News, 1 of 270, 0.4%. Directories, 27 of 270, 10.0%, and mostly niche ones rather than the household names |
| Staffing and industrial services | Regulator alignment plus a small set of sector directories. Government cited in 49 of 454 answers, 10.8%, directories in 39 of 454, 8.6%, led by clearlyrated.com in 13 answers and ziprecruiter.com in 12 | Documentation, 6 of 454 answers, 1.3%. News, 1 of 454, 0.2% |
| B2B services: lead generation, deal sourcing, ecommerce build, AEO | Social, video and community. Social and video cited in 10.2% to 13.4% of answers across these four accounts, community in 3.8% to 9.8%. In lead generation, clutch.co was cited in 23 of 590 answers and trustpilot.com in 17, so the classic review directories do earn a place here | Government and documentation, both under 5% in three of the four. For answer engine optimization specifically, directories were 10 of 500 answers, 2.0% |
The general rule this run supports: your own website carries the citation load in every industry, between 72.7% and 86.3% of answers, and no listing, profile or press mention substitutes for it. What changes by industry is the second surface, and that is where a budget is either well spent or wasted. A coworking operator ignoring marketplaces is invisible in 45.1% of the answers about it. A software company buying directory listings is buying into 2.6%.
What this does not tell you
- +One industry, one company, one run. Each industry here is represented by a single company's tracked question set on a single date. A second coworking operator, or the same one a week later, would not return identical shares. Treat each row as one observation, not as the industry's constant.
- +The question sets are not identical. Each account has its own questions, from 49 to 150 of them, written for its own buyers. Part of any gap between two industries is a difference in what was asked, not only in what the engines did with it.
- +Domain kind is a judgement. Seven kinds, assigned by an explicit named rule set printed in the SQL at the end of this page's source, with vendor or agency site as the residual. The hardest calls are the ones where a category's competitors are the source type: a news vendor competing with news outlets, a code platform that is also a documentation host. We classified by what a site primarily is and published the list so it can be re-cut.
- +The vendor bucket includes the company itself. Vendor or agency site covers each measured company's own website, its competitors and unrelated commercial sites. We do not publish any individual account's own-domain figures, so the vendor column should be read as a category total, not as anyone's visibility score.
- +Sourceless answers are real and uneven. 790 of 4,570 answers, 17.3%, carried no source list, 525 of them from Gemini, and the rate ranges from 9.8% to 23.2% between industries. Shares here are floors.
- +It measures sources, not sales. Being cited is not being chosen, and a marketplace citation is not a booking. This page counts what the engine reached for.
- +Ten industries is not every industry. There is nothing here about legal services, industrial manufacturing, hospitality or consumer retail. The finding that the mix varies is well supported. The specific number for an industry not listed is not something this page can give you.
We re-measure every account every 6 days. This page is refreshed in place on the same URL as each account's newest run lands, so the URL stays stable and the numbers stay current rather than freezing on the day we first published them. If a figure here is being quoted, quote it with the run dates attached.
- +Directories and marketplaces were cited in 320 of 709 answers, 45.1%, for a coworking operator and 4 of 245 answers, 1.6%, for a financial data vendor. Same method, same five engines, same week.
- +Documentation and standards ran from 312 of 500 answers, 62.4%, in software supply chain security to 1 of 709, 0.1%, in coworking. That is the widest gap on the page, 442 times.
- +Vendor and agency websites were the most cited kind in all ten industries and moved least: 178 of 245 answers, 72.7%, to 392 of 454, 86.3%.
- +ChatGPT cited a community site in 0 of its 923 answers. Google AI Overviews cited one in 142 of its 875, 16.2%. Microsoft Copilot cited a vendor site in 922 of 924, 99.8%.
- +790 of 4,570 answers, 17.3%, carried no source list, which is why the denominator has to be published alongside any AI citation statistic.
Where to go next
What AI engines actually cite
The companion report. One of these ten runs taken apart domain by domain, including the 25 most cited domains and the review directory count.
The measurement method
How the tracked question sets, the engines and the snapshots work, published before any numbers came out of them.
Free site readiness scan
A free scan of whether your site is structurally ready to be cited. It checks your site, it does not measure your citations.
To get this run for your own industry rather than one of these ten, the $497 audit on the pricing page is where it starts. The free scan at /score/ is a site readiness check, not a citation measurement, so it will not produce numbers like the ones on this page.
Common questions
Does the mix of sources AI engines cite change by industry?
Yes, and by far more than the averages suggest. Across ten companies in ten industries, 4,570 answers on five engines, directories and marketplaces were cited in 320 of 709 answers, 45.1%, for a coworking operator, and in 4 of 245 answers, 1.6%, for a financial data vendor. Documentation and standards ran from 312 of 500 answers, 62.4%, in software supply chain security down to 1 of 709, 0.1%, in coworking.
What do AI engines cite in every industry?
Vendor and agency websites. They were the most cited kind in all ten industries, and the range was narrow: from 178 of 245 answers, 72.7%, at the low end to 392 of 454 answers, 86.3%, at the high end. That is a spread of 1.2 times, against 442 times for documentation and standards.
Should a company invest in directory listings to get cited by AI?
It depends entirely on the industry, which is the point of this page. For the coworking operator, directories and marketplaces were cited in 320 of 709 answers, 45.1%, so listings are a primary surface. For the financial data vendor they were cited in 4 of 245 answers, 1.6%, and for the software supply chain security company in 13 of 500, 2.6%, so the same spend buys close to nothing.
Do different AI engines cite different kinds of sources?
Sharply. ChatGPT cited a community site such as Reddit, Quora or Stack Overflow in 0 of its 923 answers, and a social or video site in 5 of 923, 0.5%. Google AI Overviews cited community in 142 of its 875 answers, 16.2%, and social or video in 227 of 875, 25.9%. Microsoft Copilot cited a vendor or agency site in 922 of 924 answers, 99.8%.
Which AI engines does SourceRank AI measure?
Five: ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. Every number on this page comes from those five engines and no others.