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AI Citation Report

Professional Data Visualizations | Q4 2025

Report: Each AI Model Cites Differently. That Matters More Than Most Businesses Realize
Authors: Adam Abernathy and Yext Research Team
Dataset: 17.2M distinct AI citations across Q4 2025
Models: Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, SearchGPT

Overview & Aggregate Data

Aggregate Control Category Breakdown

Overall citation distribution shows 46.9% Full Control (websites) and 43.7% Some Control (listings), representing 90.6% controllable citations across all models.

Control Category% of Citations
Websites (Full Control)46.89%
Listings (Some Control)43.71%
Reviews & Social (Limited)5.48%
News, Forums, Other (None)3.92%
Sector Coverage Overview

Retail leads with 23.9% of citations, followed by Healthcare (20.1%) and Business Services (19.3%). Organizations represent less than 1% of citations.

Sector% of Citations
Retail23.93%
Healthcare20.10%
Business Services19.30%
Finance17.12%
Food & Beverage12.25%
Hospitality6.59%
Organizations0.71%

Exhibit 2: The SearchGPT Hospitality Anomaly

SearchGPT's 38.1% Full Control share in Hospitality is roughly double the rate of competing models, representing the largest single-model divergence observed in any sector.

By AI Model

Hospitality by Model

Note SearchGPT's elevated Full Control (38.1%) and Gemini's dominant Some Control (70.7%). Claude shows 15.9% Limited Control, 3x higher than most models.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude22.41%56.82%15.89%4.88%
Gemini22.44%70.70%0.52%6.34%
Perplexity16.72%58.92%14.57%9.79%
SearchGPT38.08%51.53%2.95%7.44%

Industry Breakdown

Hospitality Industries

Recreation shows higher Full Control (28.9%) and elevated No Control (14.9%), indicating greater reliance on independent travel publications.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Hospitality21.23%63.51%7.97%7.29%
Recreation28.85%48.61%7.66%14.88%

Exhibit 3: Business Services

Gemini leads Full Control at 52.15%, while Claude's Limited Control dependency (15.89%) is more than double any other model.

By AI Model

Business Services by Model

Clear model differentiation with Gemini favoring first-party websites and Claude drawing heavily from reviews and social content.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude44.84%36.94%15.89%2.33%
Gemini52.15%37.82%6.64%3.39%
Perplexity49.22%40.42%6.60%3.76%
SearchGPT41.41%46.77%7.36%4.45%

Industry Breakdown

Business Services Industries

Maintenance & Repair shows elevated Limited Control (12.31%), reflecting the importance of review platforms like Yelp and Angi.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Construction37.22%46.80%9.95%6.04%
Education42.52%40.67%4.80%12.01%
Education & Childcare32.79%55.54%6.00%5.67%
Industrial37.69%37.62%2.76%21.93%
Logistics & Mailing43.20%48.79%4.98%3.03%
Maintenance & Repair43.16%41.31%12.31%3.21%
Professional Services35.79%50.08%8.17%5.97%
Specialty Services46.49%45.61%3.51%4.39%

Exhibit 4: Finance

Strong Some Control preference across all models, driven by financial directories and comparison platforms. Gemini leads Full Control at 51.62%.

By AI Model

Finance by Model

All models show balanced citation patterns between Full and Some Control, with relatively low Limited Control rates (1.5-11.3%).

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude41.27%45.93%11.30%1.50%
Gemini51.62%39.15%6.01%3.22%
Perplexity46.11%43.41%5.48%5.01%
SearchGPT39.55%53.36%4.17%2.92%

Industry Breakdown

Finance Industries

Banking & Lending shows highest Some Control (58.52%), indicating heavy reliance on financial directories and comparison sites.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Banking & Lending31.68%58.52%3.75%6.04%
Insurance41.86%48.85%5.80%3.49%
Investment & Planning47.62%31.43%4.76%16.19%
Logistics27.58%55.09%1.56%15.78%
Specialized Services35.76%55.12%6.58%2.55%

Exhibit 5: Healthcare

Healthcare shows the narrowest model divergence of any sector, with Full Control ranging from 34.6% to 40.5%–a span of less than 6 percentage points.

By AI Model

Healthcare by Model

Unusual model convergence suggests shared sensitivity to medical information accuracy or structural dominance of healthcare directory platforms.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude34.60%47.53%10.70%7.17%
Gemini40.45%51.75%3.66%4.14%
Perplexity37.00%51.33%5.52%6.14%
SearchGPT35.25%56.35%3.81%4.58%

Industry Breakdown

Healthcare Industries

Specialized Physicians show highest Some Control (58.39%), indicating the centrality of healthcare directories for specialist discovery.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Dental & Vision38.22%55.03%3.46%3.29%
Medical Clinics37.58%50.89%4.48%7.05%
Personal Care46.33%41.94%8.04%3.70%
Specialized Physicians28.92%58.39%6.04%6.65%
Wellness & Fitness36.43%47.77%6.54%9.25%

Exhibit 6: Food & Beverage

This is where Claude's Limited Control dependency is most pronounced: 24.35% vs. Gemini's 2.57%, a nearly 10x difference.

By AI Model

Food & Beverage by Model

Ask Claude about a restaurant and roughly one in four citations will be a review or social media post. Ask Gemini and that ratio drops to one in forty.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude26.55%46.78%24.35%2.32%
Gemini43.00%48.56%2.57%5.87%
Perplexity31.53%43.90%19.87%4.70%
SearchGPT28.23%63.28%2.54%5.95%

Industry Breakdown

Food & Beverage Industries

Both Restaurants and Specialty Food & Cafes show similar Limited Control levels (~12.5%), but cafes have higher No Control, indicating greater reliance on food blogs.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Restaurants26.15%56.23%12.50%5.12%
Specialty Food & Cafes21.03%58.78%12.44%7.75%

Exhibit 7: Retail

Moderate variation across models with relatively balanced citation distribution. All models show strong Some Control preference (49-58%).

By AI Model

Retail by Model

Consistent pattern across models with Some Control dominant, though Claude maintains elevated Limited Control at 10.31%.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude35.89%49.34%10.31%4.46%
Gemini44.02%49.59%2.91%3.48%
Perplexity39.65%50.96%4.98%4.41%
SearchGPT34.52%58.32%2.36%4.80%

Industry Breakdown

Retail Industries

General Merchandise shows highest Some Control (64.99%) and lowest Full Control (23.60%), suggesting heavy reliance on aggregators and comparison sites.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Automotive Retail31.77%61.73%3.39%3.12%
Clothing & Accessories43.58%42.23%5.38%8.82%
Electronics32.38%57.80%4.03%5.79%
General Merchandise23.60%64.99%4.81%6.61%
Home & Hardware41.59%48.61%5.19%4.61%
Pet Services27.72%62.32%4.62%5.34%
Specialty Retail36.67%53.08%6.04%4.21%

Exhibit 8: Organizations

Organizations (non-profits and religious institutions) show uniquely high No Control rates (12-19%), far higher than other sectors.

By AI Model

Organizations by Model

Elevated No Control across all models reflects that non-profits and religious organizations are written about in news coverage and community publications more than they produce discoverable content.

ModelFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Claude40.38%39.90%6.34%13.38%
Gemini54.01%32.69%0.73%12.58%
Perplexity40.99%35.33%5.15%18.53%
SearchGPT43.71%39.36%0.54%16.40%

Industry Breakdown

Organizations Industries

Non-profits show remarkable 25.62% No Control rate. For these organizations, AI search visibility is substantially determined by what others write about them.

IndustryFull ControlSome ControlLimited ControlNo Control
Non-Profit28.90%40.54%4.93%25.62%
Religious37.15%43.21%3.87%15.77%

Exhibit 9: Claude's Limited Control Dependency

Claude's elevated Limited Control reliance is the most consistent cross-sector pattern in the data. In all seven sectors, Claude leads Limited Control citation share.

Claude's Limited Control Dependency

No other model shows this kind of directional consistency on any single metric. The gap ranges from +1.19 pp (Organizations) to +8.53 pp (Business Services).

SectorClaudeNext HighestGap
Food & Beverage24.35%19.87%+4.48 pp
Business Services15.89%7.36%+8.53 pp
Hospitality15.89%14.57%+1.32 pp
Finance11.30%6.01%+5.29 pp
Retail10.31%4.98%+5.33 pp
Healthcare10.70%5.52%+5.18 pp
Organizations6.34%5.15%+1.19 pp

Exhibit 10: Sector-Level Summary

Key patterns and outliers identified across all seven sectors.

Sector-Level Summary

Citation patterns vary more within sectors than across them. Each sector has distinct dynamics that affect model behavior.

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