Research

26 October 2026

Do AI engines send people to search for brands?

Two studies of US brands: branded search hasn't grown faster since AI took off, but brands AI engines rank in the top three have.

RA-WP-2026-03 · 25 October 2026

Top-three AI brands grew faster in branded search

Brands that AI engines ranked in the top three had faster branded search growth from ChatGPT's launch than other brands, across 418 US brands.

RA-WP-2026-02 · 24 October 2026

Does AI exposure lift branded search?

A test of whether exposure in AI engine answers is linked to rising branded search, across 347 US brands from 2015 to 2026.

RA-WP-2026-01 · 8 October 2026

Onsite listicles still work (if your offsite game is solid)

262 AI answers, 2,413 citations. Engines named a company 86% of the time when citing its own service page and 44% when citing a 'best of' list on its own site.

October 2026

Can a new site become a source AI engines cite and recommend?

We launched a brand new site and measured whether AI engines would cite and recommend it. Within six weeks it was the site they cited most on small-business security questions, but each engine behaved very differently.

24 April 2026

How AI names the experts in tech: one in five is a woman

Across 2,520 AI answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, women made up 20.5% of named ICT experts against a 28% workforce baseline. Changing the question's wording alone moved the figure from 11.8% to 27.8%.

13 April 2026

Welcome to the SaaSpocalypse

A SaaS inflation index of 65 tools, January 2020 to April 2026: vibe-codeable software lost all pricing power while AI-resistant SaaS categories raised entry-tier prices up to three times faster than inflation.

1 March 2026

The hidden economy behind Google rankings

A six-year analysis of 140,000 publisher listings on how paid link markets expanded after repeated Google crackdowns.