Study is exactly how you answer these concerns, and exactly how you stay on par with what’s changing in AI search. These are the 25 people releasing the most original research study on AI search, and the ones worth adhering to.

I began with a longlist of 87 names: individuals extensively advised as AEO and GEO specialists, and scientists at AI visibility companies.

After that I counted how many original AI search research studies each person has released. I pulled every page published on each person’s major publishing sites since 2023 (more than 17, 000 pages), checked each one versus the criteria listed below, and inspected that was attributed. Where the exact same study showed up in greater than one area, such as a cross-post, translation or update, I counted it as soon as.

A web page counted as a research if it satisfied 4 examinations:

Individuals just obtained credit rating for research studies lugging their byline, or that name them as a co-author or as the expert behind the data. Firm research with no named writer really did not count towards anybody.

I rated by variety of studies, and damaged ties by the number of sites linking to those researches.

Kevin Indig is a growth advisor and writer of the Growth Memo newsletter, and he previously led search engine optimization and growth at Shopify, G 2, and Atlassian. His research study utilizes large citation and customer behavior datasets to show what drives LLM citations, consisting of retrieval rank, material depth, brand name appeal, and G 2 account signals, and just how AI Overviews and AI Setting alter the way people search and choose.

Where their researches are published: growth-memo. com (25, searchenginejournal.com (6, sell.g 2 com (3, kevin-indig. com (1, learn.g 2 com (1

Xibeijia Guan is an information researcher at Ahrefs and the expert behind most of its AI search research study. Her researches cover just how much AI Overviews cut clicks (34 5 %), exactly how commonly AI-cited pages rank in Google’s top 10, and exactly how secure AI citations more than time.

Where their studies are released: ahrefs.com (31

Dan Petrovic is the Founder and Supervisor of DEJAN, a SEO company, and of its AI-focused arm DEJAN AI. His research makes use of big question and citation datasets to determine exactly how Google and OpenAI ground answers, including the number of words Google draws from each resource, exactly how little web page web content endures filtering, and just how formatting and intent suit affect AI exposure.

Where their research studies are released: dejan.ai (20

Louise Linehan is a content marketing professional at Ahrefs that leads much of the company’s AI search study writing. Her researches cover exactly how AI Overviews and ChatGPT select citations, consisting of a 75, 000 -brand visibility evaluation, a finding that 97 % of llms.txt data never get checked out (137, 210 domains), and a test showing 1, 885 pages that included schema saw hardly any kind of modification in AI citations.

Where their researches are published: ahrefs.com (19

Johannes Beus is the owner and handling supervisor of SISTRIX, the SEO and exposure analytics software company. SISTRIX research under his leadership is known for large-sample researches of exactly how AI Overviews, AI Setting, and ChatGPT select and transform their mentioned resources, and what that does to click-through prices and brand exposure.

Where their research studies are published: sistrix.com (7, sistrix.de (6, sistrix.fr (1

Metehan Yeşilyurt is a GEO Researcher at Peec AI that releases experiments and big information analyses on just how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews get and point out resources. His work is recognized for specific findings such as GPTBot creeping a brand-new 60, 000 -page website 29, 000 + times in 12 hours, Perplexity’s reranking patterns, and the decrease in Reddit citations in ChatGPT buying responses across countless conversations.

Where their research studies are released: metehan.ai (9, peec.ai (2, metehanai.substack.com (2, speakerdeck.com (1

Look Atlas |13 studies

Manick Bhan is the creator and CTO of Look Atlas and the founder of LinkGraph. His research, improved big citation datasets such as 120 M+ AI citations throughout 6 4 M domains, reveals that LLM citations are only loosely tied to Google positions and domain authority, which schema markup and/ llms.txt program no measurable impact on presence.

Where their researches are published: searchatlas.com (12, signalgenesys.com (1

Josh Blyskal is the AI Approach & Research Study Lead at Profound, where he runs massive studies of exactly how AI respond to engines choose which resources to cite. His research makes use of datasets of as much as billions of citations and reveals that cited domain names change greatly with time, vary dramatically between ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude, and are only weakly clarified by standard search engine optimization metrics.

Where their studies are published: tryprofound.com (8, joshblyskal.com (2, speakerdeck.com (1

Ryan Law is Supervisor of Web Content Marketing at Ahrefs. His researches analyze AI search at huge range, including one searching for that AI Overviews reduce clicks by 34 5 % across 300, 000 keywords and another analyzing 146 million SERPs to see what causes AI Overviews.

Where their research studies are released: ahrefs.com (9

Aleyda Solís is a worldwide SEO expert and founder of Orainti, and she also developed the SEOFOMO newsletter and LearningAIsearch. Her research tests how AI search functions and gauges where citations and traffic originate from, including findings that third-party resources drive 84 % to 93 % of AI citation weight for SaaS brands which AI search is only 0. 19 % of gos to throughout 40 sites.

Where their research studies are released: aleydasolis.com (8, hub.seofomo.co (1

Mitul Gandhi is founder and Principal Engineer of seoClarity, the enterprise SEO platform. His studies make use of seoClarity’s search data to measure exactly how AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT citations line up with Google positions, including a 1, 000 -question AI Setting study (12, 011 citations) and a record on 77 million AI search visits across 300 + brand names.

Where their studies are released: seoclarity.net (9

Bit Digital |7 studies

Suganthan Mohanadasan is a co-founder of Fragment Digital and Search Phrase Insights and an AI SEO researcher. His research study inspects network website traffic, API feedbacks, and web server logs to demonstrate how ChatGPT, Perplexity, and DeepSeek find, label, and choose the sources they point out.

Where their researches are released: suganthan.com (7

Davis McCain is a Research study lead at Profound and among its early study works with. His research studies are known for large AI search data, including a 1 19 million page-engine lifecycle evaluation across 7 AI engines that located the half-life of an AI citation is 11 days, and a 1 4 M citation analysis revealing LinkedIn is the most-cited domain for expert questions.

Where their studies are released: tryprofound.com (7

Peec AI/ ZipTie |6 studies

Tomek Rudzki is a GEO scientist at Peec AI and co-founder of ZipTie.dev, and previously led R&D at Onely. His recent studies map which domain names AI search cites (30 M sources), exactly how ChatGPT develops fan-out inquiries, and why AI Overviews are the most under-tracked AI surface.

Where their studies are published: peec.ai (5, ziptie.dev (1

Chris Long is a founder at Nectiv and a SEO and AEO consultant that focuses on B 2 B and modern technology brand names. His research study is recognized for examining exactly how ChatGPT and Google develop fan-out queries (such as ChatGPT’s jump to 7 61 per prompt and Google’s standard of 9 06, in addition to OpenAI’s crawl task across 7 B+ log documents and a CHEQ case study revealing a 5, 600 % surge in AI citations.

Where their research studies are released: nectivdigital.com (5, botify.com (1

Tom Capper is a Senior Browse Scientist at Moz and STAT, where he has also serviced search product technique. His study utilizes huge key words samples, frequently 40, 000 or more, to determine just how AI Overviews, AI Mode and SGE citations compare with typical leading 10 natural positions, consisting of where AI Overviews show up on the web page.

Where their research studies are published: moz.com (3, getstat.com (2, webtan.impress.co.jp (1

Lily Ray is VP of Search Engine Optimization & AI Browse at Amsive, where she researches just how AI search tools choose and point out sources. Her recent research studies cover self-promotional listicles in Google AI Overviews (69 % of 100 B 2 B inquiries mentioned them while advising competitors), the web link between Google natural visibility losses and shed AI citations across 11 subfolders, and exactly how swiftly various LLMs repeated fictional cases.

Where their researches are released: lilyraynyc.substack.com (3, lilyray.nyc (1, amsive.com (1

Hanns Kronenberg is an AI search advisor and the creator of GPT Insights in Germany. His study covers German-language AI search, consisting of a 1, 000, 000 prompt dataset (DEVAL- 25 with about 14, 000 Netflix-related prompts, an evaluation of 3, 000 key words with AI Overviews using Sistrix data, and a Brand-AIO research of 100 brands across 800 SERP observations.

Where their studies are published: gpt-insights. de (4, groundingpage.com (1

Rand Fishkin is the cofounder and CEO of SparkToro and the author of Absolutely no Click Advertising. His research utilizes big device panels and volunteer trigger goes to determine how people search and just how consistently AI devices advise brands, including a finding that Google handled regarding 373 times more searches than ChatGPT and a 2026 study revealing AI brand checklists rarely repeat.

Where their researches are published: sparktoro.com (4

David Bell is Chief Item Police officer and co-founder of Previsible, a search consultancy. His yearly State of AI Exploration reports usage GA 4 information from lots of websites (1 96 M LLM sessions in the 2025 version) to determine how much traffic AI aides send and which systems send it.

Where their research studies are published: previsible.com (2, searchengineland.com (2

Ethan Smith is the Creator and CEO of Graphite, a search engine optimization and growth-marketing company focused on search engine optimization and answer engine optimization. His research utilizes large datasets to examine insurance claims concerning AI and search, including that AI-generated content is a tiny share of Google results and AI citations, that SEO web traffic dropped only 2 5 % year over year, and that tasting about 10 AI reactions is enough to approximate brand name exposure and placement.

Where their research studies are published: graphite.io (4

Mark Traphagen is VP of Item Advertising And Marketing and Training at seoClarity. His research utilizes seoClarity’s search phrase datasets to determine exactly how AI Overviews influence search engine optimization, including a 432, 000 -key words impact research and an evaluation of 120 million United States key phrases.

Where their studies are released: seoclarity.net (4

Andy Crestodina is the CMO and founder of Orbit Media Studios, a web design and electronic advertising agency. His research makes use of surveys and site information, including a 1, 110 -individual AI search fostering study, conversion prices throughout 97 B 2 B internet sites and 29 million gos to, and 560, 000 + AI crawler demands, and it shows that AI site visitors convert to leads at 3 x the rate of various other organic traffic, that AI crawlers see homepages 15 times greater than other web page kinds, and that free AI visibility audits offer approximate ratings.

Where their research studies are published: orbitmedia.com (4

Jan Ehrlinspiel is a GEO Scientist at Peec AI who releases data studies on exactly how AI engines state and rank brand names. His research study covers how listicle placement affects brand name exposure throughout virtually 200, 000 AI actions, why tracking a lot more prompts when gives more precise exposure ratings than duplicating fewer motivates, and just how a business’s name shapes the means AI designs explain it.

Where their studies are published: peec.ai (3, searchenginejournal.com (1

Ross Hudgens is the creator and CEO of Siege Media and the author of Generative Engine Optimization. His research study is understood for customer and multi-site research studies on just how AI Overviews and LLMs influence website traffic, consisting of a 50 -website research study showing homepage clicks up 10 7 %, a 116 -site research study naming versus pages as the strongest forecaster of AI search web traffic, and a 585 -brand name study where five or more homepage trustworthiness statements increased AI presence 62 % for mid-authority brand names.

Where their studies are published: siegemedia.com (4

These are the 10 research studies by the experts on this list that have actually made links from the most sites.