When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity to recommend a supplier, where does the answer come from? Not from your homepage. According to a study published September 15, 2026, by Citations.press, sector directories accounted for 41% of the citations behind AI-generated provider recommendations — more than twice the 18% share held by brand-owned pages.
The study, Sector Directories Are Driving AI Overview Citations, analysed 3,850 commercial prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews between June 10 and August 22, 2026. For businesses that depend on being found when buyers search for a supplier, the implications are concrete: your directory listings may matter more than your website for AI visibility.
What the Study Found
Citations.press ran 3,850 prompts divided into three categories:
| Prompt Type | Count | Share | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category prompts | 2,140 | 56% | Named a sector but no company (e.g., "recommend an engineering firm") |
| Comparison prompts | 890 | 23% | Asked to compare options within a sector |
| Verification prompts | 820 | 21% | Named a specific company |
Key findings:
- Directories supplied 41% of citations on supplier-selection prompts, against 18% for brand-owned pages.
- 68% of directory citations came from list pages rather than individual profile pages.
- Structured directories (one entity per entry, consistent attributes) were cited 3.1 times more often than directories with free-text listings.
- Brand homepages appeared in only 14% of all responses and in just 6% of category prompts (where the assistant names a sector, not a company).
- In the engineering category, directory citations exceeded brand-site citations by 4.2 to 1.
- The overlap between cited source sets across the four platforms was only 31%, meaning different AI engines draw from significantly different sources.
The study covered six sectors: engineering, IT supply, channel partnerships, agency selection, training provision, and independent consumer services. The consumer category (sampled from Secret Salons) was the only one where AI assistants returned named individual businesses more often than provider lists.
Why Directories Win: Coverage Depth Over Domain Authority
One of the most counterintuitive findings was the weak relationship between a directory's domain authority and how often it was cited. The study reported a Spearman rank correlation of just 0.19 between domain authority and citation frequency.
What predicted citations instead was coverage depth within a stated category. A directory that comprehensively covers a single sector — with consistent entity attributes, structured fields, and complete entries — outperformed larger, more authoritative domains with thinner or inconsistent coverage.
As the study authors noted: "A model answering a narrow category question appears to favour a source that resolves that question completely over a source that is generally trusted."
This aligns with what we see in our Generative Engine Optimization work at Vivid Visuals. AI models are optimization engines for relevance, not authority. When asked "recommend a logistics consultant in Montreal," a niche directory with 50 complete consultant profiles beats a high-DA blog with three scattered mentions.
How Different AI Platforms Cite Sources
Citation rates for sector directories on category prompts varied significantly by platform:
| AI Platform | Directory Citation Rate (Category Prompts) |
|---|---|
| Perplexity | 47% |
| Google AI Overviews | 39% |
| Google AI Mode | 36% |
| ChatGPT | 22% |
Perplexity's higher directory citation rate likely reflects its design as a research-oriented engine that prioritizes citable, structured sources. ChatGPT's lower rate is consistent with its tendency to synthesize from broader knowledge, sometimes without explicit citations. The low cross-platform overlap (31%) means that optimizing for one AI engine does not guarantee visibility in others — a critical insight for multi-platform AEO strategies.
Corroborating Research
Three larger studies published over the past year report broadly compatible patterns:
- DeltaV Digital examined 25,337 citations across 21,075 AI engine responses over 90 days. Listicles accounted for 19.6% of citations portfolio-wide and 61% within B2B technology services, where own-domain citation share was 0%. Their conclusion: "AI visibility is won on other people's websites."
- Semrush analysed over 100 million citations across 230,000 prompts on ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity over thirteen weeks, finding citation weight concentrated among a small number of aggregating platforms.
- Peec AI reviewed 30 million cited sources across five AI search surfaces, reporting that listing and review platforms like G2 and Yelp appeared frequently in recommendation queries.
The Citations.press authors caution that these studies measure different samples over different periods and were not designed to test the same question. They are offered as context, not corroboration.
What This Means for Your Business: 5 Actions
1. Audit Your Directory Presence — Not Just Your Website
If directories supply 41% of AI citations and brand pages supply 18%, your directory listings are your most leveraged AI visibility asset. Identify the sector directories relevant to your industry and ensure your listing is complete, structured, and consistent across all of them.
2. Prioritize Structured Over Free-Text Directories
Structured directories with consistent entity attributes were cited 3.1 times more often. Choose directories that enforce standardized fields (services, location, certifications, pricing model) over those that allow free-text listings. If you're already on a free-text directory, update your listing to include the most common structured fields available.
3. Optimize List Pages, Not Just Profile Pages
68% of directory citations came from list pages, not individual profile pages. This means your visibility depends on appearing in the right category lists, ranked well within them, and having your entry's headline and summary fields optimized for AI extraction.
4. Don't Rely on Brand Search Alone
Brand homepages appeared in only 6% of category prompts — the prompts where buyers name a sector but not a company. If a prospect asks an AI assistant to "recommend a marketing agency in Quebec," your homepage will not surface unless your brand is already top-of-mind. Directory listings bridge that gap.
5. Track Citations Across Multiple Platforms
With only 31% overlap between cited source sets across AI engines, visibility in ChatGPT does not guarantee visibility in Perplexity or Google AI Overviews. Track your brand's appearance across at least three AI platforms to identify gaps.
Read next from the blog : Profound's $180M Raise: AI Search Visibility Becomes a Real Marketing Category · Salesforce + Google Cloud: One Connected AI Stack — Why Open Beats Walled Gardens · Zendesk Specialized AI Agents: The End of Generic Customer Service Automation · From SEO to AEO: How to Get Your Business Cited by ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot
