Now that you know what AI looks for, let’s talk about how a piece of content actually makes its way into an AI-generated response. The process isn’t magic — it follows a fairly predictable path.
When someone asks a question, the AI model searches through its training data, real-time sources, or a mix of both. If it needs to pull in fresh information (as with Google’s AI Overviews or tools like Perplexity), it looks across the web for the clearest, most relevant content to build its answer.
Here’s how that often plays out:
The AI identifies relevant sources.
Posts on Reddit or Quora, entries on Wikipedia, and videos on YouTube tend to be high on the list because they already match the qualities we covered in the last lesson — clarity, structure, and credibility.
It pulls specific excerpts.
Instead of using an entire article or thread, the AI selects short, digestible pieces that directly answer the question. That’s why leading with a clear definition or summary in your own contributions makes such a difference.
The AI assembles a response.
These excerpts are then combined, paraphrased, or directly quoted to form the conversational answer a user sees. In some cases, tools like Google AI Overviews or Perplexity will include clickable citations so the reader can visit the original source. In others, like ChatGPT, your content may be paraphrased without a direct link.
Your firm benefits through visibility.
Even if not every answer includes a link, being cited or quoted as a source establishes authority. Over time, that visibility can reinforce your reputation with both AI systems and the human prospects who encounter them.
The important thing to understand is that AI doesn’t just summarize content randomly. It’s intentionally pulling from sources that match its criteria and then weaving them into an answer. By writing in a way that fits those criteria, you improve your chances of showing up in that final response.