AI Referral
When an AI answer points someone onward to a brand's site or resource.
Aingworth Concept
Full explanation
An AI referral happens when an AI-generated response points a user to a brand's website or another source as a next step. AI systems increasingly include citations and links alongside their answers.
Why this matters
It gives a way to talk about traffic from AI systems without falling back into treating clicks as the only thing that counts.
Where this sits
AI Referral belongs to AI-Mediated Discovery, one of the seven layers of the Aingworth Glossary. The larger shift Aingworth is talking about, covering Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and whatever comes after them, without depending on any one platform's name.
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