What LLMs cite (and what they ignore): source-selection patterns across 2026 PRAPI corpus data

When ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite a source for PR, marketing, or founder-journalism queries, which publishers do they reach for — and what makes a publisher cite-worthy versus passed-over? If you've personally been cited by an LLM in a query result in the last 90 days, what do you think drove it?

PRAPI runs two AEO pipelines — a Perplexity baseline and a ChatGPT/Google AI Overviews tracker — across hundreds of brands. The corpus shows wildly uneven citation patterns: a handful of publishers dominate the cited-source lists, mid-tier trade outlets almost never surface, and the same brand mention can be the difference between citation #1 and being passed over entirely. This anchor report combines that quantitative pattern analysis with practitioner experience: founders and PR practitioners who have gotten themselves or their brands cited share the through-line. Aimed at GTM leaders, PR practitioners, AEO-curious operators, and founder-led pitch teams who care about AI search as a discovery surface.

Named citation in the published report with a link to your LinkedIn or company. Early access 72 hours before public publication. Contributors get the full citation-pattern dataset (publisher rankings, query-type breakdowns, model-vs-model deltas) first.