Why AI Is Much Bigger Than You Think on Get Discovered Podcast
Key Takeaways
AI is bigger than you think. AI traffic is 4-5x larger than reported numbers suggest, because 75-86% of usage happens in mobile apps, not on the web.
AI prompts are not searches. Prompts are longer, more complex, and more intent-driven than search queries. 60% of AI prompts run 10+ words, compared to just 4% of searches. That length signals higher intent and a later stage in the funnel, which is why AI traffic is incremental.
Citations are heavily fragmented. The top 10 cited domains account for less than 5% of all citations. Which domains get cited varies by niche, so find the ones that appear for your specific prompts. Then build presence across video, social, affiliates, blogs, and help centers.
The long tail is the AEO opportunity. The biggest help center gap isn't poor answers. It's questions that were never answered at all. Expand into mid and long-tail prompts: integrations, features, X vs. Y comparisons, niche use cases. Because prompts are longer than search queries, long-tail content gets disproportionate AEO coverage.
Measuring conversions. Most AI answers are zero-click. Users open a new tab and go direct, or find you through branded search on Google. To measure impact, ask "How did you hear about us?" Anecdotally, Ethan shared that 5-15% of conversions come from AI, versus less than 2% from referral clicks.
Summary
Ethan Smith — CEO & Co-Founder of Graphite — joins the Get Discovered podcast for a 50-minute walkthrough of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): the discipline of getting recommended inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
AI is actually four to five times larger than what's been reported... 75 to 86% of the usage of AI is in mobile apps.
Ethan Smith, CEO of Graphite
Ethan also walks through his 5% framework and explains why most of your SEO/AEO work is probably wasted. The conversation dismantles the most common myths in the space: that search traffic is declining (it isn't), that Reddit and Wikipedia dominate citations (together they account for roughly 3% of all cited domains, not half), and that LLMs require markdown (they don't).
Ethan shares new data showing AI is a far bigger channel than reported — four to five times larger once mobile app usage is counted, putting it at over half the size of search worldwide and a third in the US.
