By Stuart Kerr, Technology Correspondent
Published: 23/08/2025
Last Updated: 23/08/2025
Contact: [email protected] | Twitter: @LiveAIWire
Author Bio: About Stuart Kerr
When Google introduced AI Overviews in its search results earlier this year, the tech industry was left scrambling to understand how sources were chosen, cited, and displayed. Now, new research by Semrush has revealed a surprising leader: Quora is ranked as the #1 most-cited site within Google’s AI-generated search summaries, overtaking traditional media outlets and even Wikipedia in visibility.
According to PR Newswire via The Wire, Quora now appears more often in AI Overviews than any other domain. The report underscores how Google’s AI is reshaping what sources dominate user attention. For years, SEO professionals focused on backlinks and keyword optimization; now, AI-driven summarization is creating a new hierarchy of trust.
Why Quora?
The findings, published in the Semrush Blog, show Quora consistently outperforms competitors like Reddit and LinkedIn. Researchers suggest this dominance is partly due to Quora’s long-form, Q&A format, which provides structured answers that AI systems can easily summarize. Unlike social platforms with fragmented threads, Quora offers context-rich discussions that feed neatly into Google’s AI-generated narratives.
Business Standard notes that while Quora leads, Reddit ranks second, boosted by its new licensing deal with Google. However, Reddit’s conversational style may be harder for AI to distill cleanly, giving Quora a structural advantage.
Implications for SEO and Content Strategy
For marketers and publishers, the implications are profound. As Business Insider points out, Google’s partnership with Reddit ensures visibility, but it’s Quora’s organic structure that propels it to the top. This shift challenges brands to rethink content strategies—favoring clear, authoritative answers over traditional keyword stacking.
The development echoes themes from AI Exodus: Automation & the Jobless Future, where the pace of automation was shown to disrupt long-standing business models. Just as AI displaced predictable workflows in industry, it is now rewriting the rules of search visibility.
Trust, Authority, and the New Gatekeepers
This transition raises bigger questions about trust. For years, Wikipedia served as the default citation backbone for search engines. Now, Quora—home to both experts and casual contributors—is becoming the primary voice in AI-curated answers. Can AI reliably discern authority when user-generated content dominates?
The debate mirrors concerns in New AI Model Mor Succeeds Transformers, where the sheer scale of AI models raised new questions about bias, accuracy, and context. Similarly, if AI consistently elevates platforms like Quora, it risks amplifying community biases while marginalizing specialist publications.
The Next Phase of AI Search
Looking ahead, it’s clear that AI Overviews are no passing experiment. Google is betting big on generative summaries as the future of search. That means the battle for citation dominance will intensify—not just for Quora and Reddit, but for any publisher aiming to be the default reference point in an AI-shaped web.
For content creators, the message is unambiguous: adapt to AI Overviews or risk invisibility. As highlighted in AI & Autism — Neurodiverse Communication, technology reshapes accessibility and visibility simultaneously. In search, that dynamic now determines whose voices dominate the digital conversation.
About the Author
Stuart Kerr is the Technology Correspondent for LiveAIWire. He writes about artificial intelligence, ethics, and how technology is reshaping everyday life. Read more.