This data is sourced from our deep experience running AI search programs. If you have any questions or want to see how your brand appears, contact AIAdvisors@wecommunications.com.
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On a fixed panel of long-running studies, the share of ChatGPT answers that ran a live web search rose from 35% in September 2025 to 99.5% in August 2026. Gemini went from 15% to 83%. What sits on the open web, and who it credits, now shapes almost every answer.
Company and brand websites supply 32% of the distinct domains AI engines cite, and 82% of answers with sources cite at least one. The other 68% is earned media (21%), academic and institutional sources (15%), social platforms (8%) and a long tail of reference, government and marketplace sites.
In unbranded questions the focus brand is named in 28% of answers, but its own website is cited in only 13% of the answers that list sources. When the question names the brand, own-site citation jumps to 70%. Most category discovery happens on other people’s pages.
Across a fixed panel of studies tracked since September 2025, the share of answers retrieving Reddit fell from 27.6% to 6.5% by October 2026, and YouTube from 28.7% to 13.1%. LinkedIn climbed from almost zero to 3.2% in August before slipping back to 1.9%. Community content still matters, but engines are leaning on it less every quarter.
YouTube appears in 39% of Google AI Overviews answers with sources, and in 40–47% of them each month since July. Google AI Mode leaned on it almost as much until it cut its sources in late August 2026, falling from 45% to 16% by October. On ChatGPT it is 3%, on Gemini 4% and on Claude about 1%.
On a fixed panel, ChatGPT attached shopping or product modules to 71% of answers in August 2026, up from 32% a year earlier, before easing to 58% in October. Google AI Mode went from none to 44% in July and AI Overviews to 35% by September, and both settled near 31% in October. ChatGPT showed ads in about 12% of answers in July and August 2026; none have been detected on the panel since September.
Answers to questions that name a brand cite 6.2 distinct domains on average, against 8.3 for unbranded questions. The brand’s own website is cited in 70% of those answers, which makes owned pages the default fact base once a buyer knows your name.
Even in branded answers, earned media makes up 24% of citations (20% for unbranded) and social and community platforms 10% (7%). Wikipedia appears in 8% of branded answers against 5% of unbranded. What others publish about a brand travels into its own branded answers.
Across the dataset, 5% of answers that discuss brands frame them negatively. That rises to 10.3% for brand trust and reputation questions and 15.7% for health and medical questions, against 2.6% for recommendation questions.
In the last week of August 2026, Google AI Mode went from about 14 distinct domains per answer to about 4, and it has stayed there into November. It shows up in the same week across studies tracked on two independent platforms, so it reflects a change in Google’s product rather than in measurement. In October AI Mode averaged 3.7 sources per answer, against 7.7 for Perplexity, 7.5 for ChatGPT and 6.4 for Google AI Overviews; only Gemini (3.2) cites fewer. Each remaining AI Mode citation now carries far more weight.
YouTube leads on Google AI Overviews, and LinkedIn shows up in 13% of Perplexity answers and 12% of AI Mode answers. The OpenAI API cites Wikipedia in 22% of answers, against 7% for the ChatGPT app. Claude almost never cites Reddit or YouTube.
Within the same studies, the switch from Claude Sonnet 4.6 to Sonnet 5 in August 2026 cut earned media’s share of citations from 42% to 30%, and sources per answer dipped from 6.6 to 6.2. Visibility has to be tracked by model version, not just by engine.
Vehicles, EVs, dealers and mobility
View insightsBanking, financial services, payments and insurance
View insightsRetail, FMCG, food & beverage, consumer tech and lifestyle
View insightsUniversities, schools and lifelong learning
View insightsEnergy, materials, manufacturing and B2B industry
View insightsPublic agencies, investment promotion and public services
View insightsPharma, biotech, payers and providers
View insightsFoundations, charities and non-profits
View insightsReal estate, serviced residences and developers
View insightsSoftware, hardware, semiconductors and cloud
View insightsAirlines, hotels, destinations and attractions
View insightsThe key AI search statistics for 2026: ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews usage, the click impact of AI summaries, what AI engines cite, and country data for Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Europe. Every figure linked to its source.
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Want to understand your brand opportunities and risks on AI search? Contact We AI & Data Advisors for a sample audit: AIAdvisors@wecommunications.com