Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
ChatGPT seems to have updated their model dropping citations from Reddit by over 86% from a strong 3.83% within just a few weeks to less than 0.5%. While other LLMs have show modest declines, the sudden drop on ChatGPT citations points to a deliberate change in their sourcing/citation strategy.
LLMs and ChatGPT in particular seem to be gravitating towards more authoritative sources of content vs relying mostly on open sources of content. This is a great development for brands and Agentic Commerce.
One of the significant challenges faced by some brands is the lack of visibility of their products on LLMs. Even when they are visible, ChatGPT often creates the narrative around their products, often sourced from places like Reddit and the open web which isn’t very reliable and can often damage a brand or at the very least misrepresent it.
This drop in citations shows ChatGPT leaning heavily into domain authority which means that brands should focus on making their official websites more conversation friendly and even more importantly use structured mechanisms like ACP, UCP and MCP to publish the kind of content they want consumers to see so ChatGPT uses that instead of whatever it finds on the open web.
MCP promises to be the most important domain authority of the future, because it is not restricted to merchants and retailers but can be used by any product/service providers like banks, travel and hospitality and CPG brands. It does require selection and connection by users via a directory (like a iPhone app) at least to start with before it is organically discoverable but becomes a permanent way to publish content directly from brand to user (kind of like a Facebook or LinkedIn follow).
Key takeaways for brands:
- Stop trying to game LLM visibility by creating content on other websites hoping to be found
- Invest in true catalog/website content enrichment by tailoring your content to conversational discovery
- Invest in ACP/UCP if you are a merchant or MCP services – via ChatGPT apps/plugin to ensure consumers can be served with relevant and accurate content from your brand
All of this points to Agentic Commerce growth and the imperative for brands and retailers to invest in greater product discoverability in LLMs, improve consumer experience overall within LLMs via apps and MCP services and get themselves ready for what is bound to be an AI discovery dominated holiday season.
With this change, discoverability on LLMs has probably dropped for brands who saw their products mentioned in answers sourced via Reddit, so this is an urgent call to action to invest in a more robust way to ensure your products and content make their way to consumers on LLMs in a trusted manner.