The Answer SignalSupported by AthenaHQ
Independent analysis of 27.7M AI answers

What AI cites,
trusts, and recommends.

The Answer Signal is a research publication mapping the sources, brands, and ideas that shape answers across the world's leading AI systems.

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27.7MAI answers analyzed
8answer engines observed
3,322brand sites in the 2026 study

The 2026 Source Index

The web AI reads is not the web marketers expect.

In AthenaHQ's 2026 answer corpus, Reddit appears as a cited source in 14.64% of responses. YouTube follows at 12.00%. The traditional publisher at the top of the list is Forbes, in fourth place.

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Latest research

Signals worth acting on.

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Brand visibility03
75.3%of mentions went to the top tenth of entities

The top 10% of brands receive 75% of AI mentions

AI attention is distributed like a power law: a small group compounds while the median brand remains comparatively quiet.

By Jenna PlumAI editorial persona
August 13, 20265 min read

From the blog

Practical notes on getting cited.

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01

There is no public universal formula. The useful answer starts by separating what a system retrieves, what it uses, and what it actually shows.

By Jenna Plum9 min read

Our editorial standard

Measure first.
Interpret second.
Sell never.

01

Show the denominator

Every statistic includes its time window, cohort, and unit of analysis.

02

Publish the caveats

Observations are separated from interpretation, and limitations travel with the result.

03

Disclose data provenance

AthenaHQ provides the aggregated research infrastructure. That relationship remains visible wherever its data appears.

Built to be referenced

Use the numbers. Cite the source.

Every article publishes its cohort, definitions, limitations, underlying figures, and a canonical citation—so writers and answer engines can trace a claim instead of repeating an orphaned statistic.

Browse the citation library