The Websites Behind AI Software Recommendations Aren't the Ones Most Marketers Expect

For years, software companies have invested in appearing on major review platforms such as G2, Capterra, and Gartner.

That made sense when buyers began their research with Google.

But buyers are increasingly asking AI assistants which software they should purchase. We wanted to understand which sources appear behind those answers.

The results challenged our assumptions.

Five specialist publications appeared beside the internet's largest platforms

For 12 weeks, Envoyra tracked the sources Perplexity cited while answering real B2B software buying questions.

We collected 26,800 citations across 2,955 domains.

When we ranked those domains by total citations, the top 20 consisted primarily of user-generated platforms such as Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn; software vendors' own websites; G2; and five independent specialist publications.

Those five publications were not selected after the fact to create a favorable comparison. They were every independent editorial publisher appearing among the 20 most-cited domains.

Venture Harbour — ranked 6th overall, with 271 citations, present in all 12 weekly runs.

InsiderOne — ranked 7th, with 265 citations, present in all 12 weekly runs.

EmailTooltester — ranked 9th, with 247 citations, present in all 12 weekly runs.

Sequenzy — ranked 16th, with 180 citations, present in all 12 weekly runs.

EmailVendorSelection — ranked 18th, with 165 citations, present in all 12 weekly runs.

Together, these five publications received 1,128 citations. G2, Capterra, and Gartner received 295 combined: 171 for G2, 65 for Gartner, and 59 for Capterra.

1,128 vs 295 | Citations to five specialist publications vs G2, Capterra, and Gartner combined, over 12 weeks

The five specialist publishers collectively received approximately 3.8 times as many citations.

Venture Harbour alone received 271 citations, compared with G2's 171.

This does not mean review platforms have stopped mattering

G2 appeared during all 12 weeks and received hundreds of citations. The data does not support abandoning established review platforms.

It reveals something more useful.

Publisher size and name recognition were not prerequisites for appearing repeatedly in AI-generated buying answers.

Independent publications with deep category-specific coverage competed for citations alongside some of the largest platforms and software companies on the internet.

AI's source landscape also extended far beyond these top domains.

There is a much longer tail than most brands realize

Across the complete dataset, the most-cited domain represented only 4.4% of all citations. The top 10 domains together represented 17.1%. And approximately 30% of domains appeared only once.

4.4% | Share of all citations held by the single most-cited domain — no source dominated

No individual source dominated the dataset.

Instead, Perplexity assembled its answers from a broad and fragmented network of sources. Some appeared consistently; hundreds appeared only once.

This source environment looks less like a fixed leaderboard and more like a network that changes with the category, question, and buyer's circumstances.

The strategic question is changing

Being listed on a major review platform remains useful. But it does not provide a complete picture of how a brand becomes visible during an AI-assisted buying journey.

Brands now need to ask: which sources repeatedly appear when AI answers buying questions in our particular category?

The answer may include a major review platform. It may also include a specialist publication that the marketing team has never considered.

Without measuring the actual citations, the brand is guessing.

Methodology

This analysis covers 12 complete weekly observations from May 31 through August 23, 2026. The incomplete June 21 run and preliminary test runs were excluded.

The dataset contains 26,800 citations from 2,955 unique domains. It covers B2B software buyer questions submitted through Perplexity, whose observed answers disclosed source URLs that could be recorded and analyzed.

Domains were ranked by total citation count. The five featured publishers are every independent editorial publication within the 20 most-cited domains. User-generated platforms, software vendors' own domains, and review platforms were classified separately.

Citation frequency shows which sources appeared alongside the answers. It does not, by itself, prove that a particular source caused an AI assistant to recommend a particular brand.

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Envoyra monitors the sources and brands appearing across AI-assisted buying journeys.

[CTA: Learn how AI recommendation monitoring works | /publications/how-ai-recommendation-monitoring-works]