What AI looks for when it names a local creator
Early findings from an OmniCite study of 686 AI answers about local creators and local questions in Calgary, Seattle and Toronto.
When someone asks AI who to follow in their city, it doesn't guess. It reads the web and names whoever the pages it trusts point to. Our parent company, OmniCite, studied 686 of those answers from four AI engines (Google AI Mode, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini), recorded between October 10 and November 1, 2026, to see which pages get read and who gets named. Here's what it means for creators.
Big lists win the big question
Ask AI for "top influencers in Calgary" and the answer comes from a follower-ranked list: all 61 broad answers in the study cited an influencer directory. If you're a small creator, you're at the bottom of those lists or not on them at all. Paying for a spot rarely helps: paid cards usually sit outside the numbered ranking, and on at least one major list AI can't see them at all.
Specific questions are open to everyone
The picture flips when the question gets specific. "Bridal makeup for mature skin in Calgary" or "free things to do with kids in Seattle this weekend" are answered from local publications, business websites, booking pages and pages about the people behind them. On specific local questions, follower-ranked lists were cited in just 1 of 137 answers.
AI looks for the details you already post
Before answering, ChatGPT and Gemini run a few short web searches, about six or seven words each. They carry the asker's details: neighbourhood, budget, audience, what makes it different. Of the 456 searches we captured, none mentioned follower counts. A page that states those details is what those searches find.
A page about you beats a profile
In OmniCite's tracking, individual directory profiles were never cited. Apart from the big lists, what got small creators named were pages about them: city guides, articles and local blogs. The first Samoony pages appeared in AI answers on November 1, and in the early data, when an engine read one, it named the creator in 2 of 3 cases.
What this means for you
- Don't chase the biggest question. Be the best answer to the specific ones your posts already cover.
- Say the specifics out loud: your city, your neighbourhood, who you're for and what you're known for.
- Get written about, not just listed. A page about you counts for more than another directory profile.
- Keep creating. Fresh posts give AI something current to read.
That's what Samoony does for you: we turn your posts into pages that answer the questions people actually ask, and keep them current. You keep creating. We get you named.
Read the full study, with the data and method, on OmniCite: Who AI trusts for local recommendations. Samoony is an OmniCite product.