In mid-September, something major happened in the AI search landscape that most people missed.
ChatGPT deprioritized Reddit as a source.
Reddit’s share of citations in ChatGPT responses dropped from 14% to under 2% in just three weeks. Shortly after, Reddit’s stock fell 15% as investors realized those $60M AI licensing deals may not be as valuable as they thought.
So what changed?
OpenAI is moving away from user-generated forum content and toward authoritative, premium sources - NewsCorp, Financial Times, Axel Springer, and others.
The message is clear: quality and credibility matter more than ever in AI search.
Why does this matter?
AI search platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity are rapidly becoming the new default for millions of users. Instead of “10 blue links,” answers are being synthesized, and citations are the new rankings.
That means the brands showing up in AI answers aren’t the ones spamming forums anymore. They’re the ones producing credible, expert-driven content.
Why is this good news?
The wild west era of AI training data is ending.
Over the next year, AI platforms will increasingly reward:
- Authoritative, fact-checked insights
- Content structured for clarity and transparency
- Brands that track and adapt their AI visibility
For marketers, this is a massive opportunity. While others scramble to game old systems, the brands that double down on credibility will own the next era of search.
Where we come in
We built ChatFeatured to help brands understand exactly where they show up in AI search across all the major models. Because “just Google it” is dead, and the companies who see this shift early will dominate tomorrow’s market.
What are you seeing in the AI search space? Drop a comment below.