Most signup forms we look at still don't have an AI option under how did you hear about us. Google, G2, referral, LinkedIn, other, and that's it.
We started paying attention to that after a test in September. 24 buying questions through OpenAI's and Perplexity's APIs, then we opened every page they cited, 308 in total. For the software questions 118 of the 167 citations were roundups or alternatives lists, and vendors in the same category wrote 85 of those lists. The chat had pretty much picked the shortlist off other people's lists before anyone opened a vendor site.
Prices came from odd places too. One answer about Help Scout took $30 a month from its Shopify App Store listing and $25 from its pricing page, which is the annual price, and just gave a range. So a buyer can show up with a number in mind that came from a page the vendor forgot about.
Then they read some reviews, book a demo, get to the form and tick G2. The chat never gets recorded anywhere. The buyer surveys and their dates are in the full write-up.
RankControl tracks the engine side of this, which answers name you and what they cite.