Every PR platform claims AI visibility. Only one shows the receipts.
You've heard the promises: "Get discovered by AI." "Appear in ChatGPT." "Rank in AI search."
But when you ask for proof? Silence.
Today, we're doing something different. We're opening our tracking dashboard and showing you exactly what happens when press releases are built for the Citation Economy.
No theory. No projections. Just verified data from real companies.
The Dashboard
Here's a live snapshot from our citation tracking system:
26 citations tracked. 22% citation rate for mature PRs. 11 position #1 rankings.
This isn't a mock-up. This is production data, pulled from pressonify.ai/api/v1/citations/stats.
What the numbers mean
| Metric | Value | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Total Citations | 26 | Times AI platforms quoted client press releases |
| Citation Rate | 22% | PRs published 7+ days ago that earned citations |
| PRs Cited | 6 of 27 | Companies with at least one AI citation |
| Position #1 | 11 | Citations that appeared as the top source |
The 22% rate excludes press releases published in the last week—because new PRs haven't had time to get indexed and cited yet. This is an honest number.
7 Companies. 26 Citations.
These aren't hypothetical case studies. These are real companies who published press releases through Pressonify:
| Company | Citations | Best Position |
|---|---|---|
| Pressonify.ai | 12 | #1 |
| PlantGift Ireland | 8 | #1 |
| PlantGift.ie | 2 | #1 |
| runthetic | 1 | #1 |
| Sword Software | 1 | #2 |
| Blog Machine | 1 | #2 |
| iBooking.com | 1 | #4 |
Every citation is logged with the query that triggered it, the platform that cited it, and the exact position in the response.
42% of all citations earned the #1 position. When AI answers questions about these companies, their press releases appear first.
The Crawlers Are Coming
If AI isn't crawling your content, it can't cite your content.
Here's proof that AI systems are actively consuming Pressonify content:
62 AI crawler hits in the past 7 days across GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, and Bingbot.
These crawlers access our AI Discovery Protocol endpoints—/llms.txt, /feed.json, /rss.xml—and consume the structured content. When they find something relevant to a user's query, they cite it.
Distribution vs. Citation
Traditional press release distribution optimizes for one thing: sending volume.
"Sent to 500 outlets!"
"Picked up by 200 sites!"
But distribution doesn't equal citation.
The difference
| Traditional PR | Pressonify |
|---|---|
| Measures impressions | Measures citations |
| Optimizes for journalists only | Optimizes for AI + journalists |
| No visibility into what happened | Real-time citation detection |
| "We sent it somewhere" | "AI cited it at position #1" |
The companies getting cited aren't doing anything different with their announcements. They're just using infrastructure built for how AI actually discovers content.
Where Citations Come From
All 26 detected citations originated from Perplexity. This isn't a limitation—it's a reflection of how different AI platforms work:
| Platform | How It Works | Trackable? |
|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | Real-time web search with explicit citations | Yes |
| ChatGPT | Training data + web browsing (no URLs shown) | No |
| Claude | Training data (no web access in most modes) | No |
| Gemini | Mixed (training + grounding) | Limited |
Perplexity is the citation-forward AI. When it cites, it shows its sources. When it shows sources, we can track them.
For PR professionals, this means Perplexity is your measurable ROI channel. Other platforms may be citing you—but Perplexity is where you can prove it.
Position Distribution
When Pressonify press releases get cited, they tend to appear near the top:
| Position | Citations | Share |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 11 | 42% |
| #2 | 7 | 27% |
| #4-5 | 2 | 8% |
| #7-10 | 6 | 23% |
That's not luck. It's structured content meeting AI systems that reward clarity and information gain.
What This Means for Your Next Announcement
Every press release competes for AI attention. The question is whether you'll know if you won.
With traditional PR:
- You publish
- You hope
- You never know
With Pressonify:
- You publish
- AI crawlers index
- Citations get tracked
- You see exactly what happened
The loop is closed. No more guessing.
See It For Yourself
Ready to publish a press release that actually gets tracked?
Create Your First Press Release →
Every Pressonify press release automatically:
- Gets structured for AI discovery
- Triggers instant indexing via IndexNow
- Becomes trackable in the citation system
- Shows up in your dashboard with proof
Or check your current content's AI visibility:
The Citation Economy rewards proof over promises. We've shown ours. Ready to build yours?
FAQ
Can you actually prove AI cited my press release?
Yes. Pressonify's tracking system detects when AI platforms like Perplexity quote your content. You get the citation URL, the query that triggered it, and the position your content appeared in. All data is from live production systems.
What's a good citation rate for press releases?
Industry average is below 5%. Pressonify clients currently achieve a 22% citation rate for press releases that have been live for 7+ days. We exclude recent PRs from this calculation because they haven't had time to get indexed yet.
Which AI platforms cite press releases?
Perplexity is the primary platform where citations are trackable because it shows source URLs in responses. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini also consume structured content through their crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot), but don't expose citation URLs publicly.
How long until my press release gets cited?
Most citations occur within 24-72 hours of publication. Our fastest tracked citation happened within 4 hours. Time-to-citation depends on relevance and how the content aligns with queries people are asking.
Related Reading
- What is the Citation Economy? — Why citations matter more than impressions
- 25 AI Citations in 30 Days — Previous proof post with methodology
- The Five-Layer Optimization Stack — How we structure content for AI
- 80% of Companies Can't Get Cited — The visibility gap and how to fix it
Published: January 13, 2026 | Data Source: Live Pressonify Production Systems
All metrics are from verified production data. Citation rate calculated for PRs published 7+ days ago.