§ Press

‘Very rare and very curious’: Reddit, YouTube and TikTok citations collapse, but ChatGPT still recommends the same brands; Vale predictability and how about attribution?

By Malin Gaertig · August 21, 2026

A piece I contributed to Mi3: ChatGPT cut citations from Reddit, YouTube and TikTok, yet the brands it recommended barely changed. The real shift is toward company-owned, machine-readable surfaces.

§ Takeaways

—ChatGPT can change its cited sources overnight without changing the brands it recommends, making attribution unstable.
—The missing share went to company-owned websites and structured, machine-readable surfaces rather than to other social platforms.
—Read the full article on Mi3 via the link above.

§ About the author

Malin Gaertig

Malin founded MARK, an AI commerce intelligence and strategic advisory service that combines proprietary technology with 15 years of experience across growth marketing, digital, ecommerce and transformation.

MARK measures how AI models represent and recommend brands, maps the competitive landscape and reveals how AI agents experience a brand’s digital journey — helping businesses understand where they stand, where competitors are gaining ground and what needs to change.

Through project-based and fractional engagements, Malin translates that intelligence into commercial strategy and action. She helps brands identify opportunities, prioritise improvements and adapt their digital, marketing and ecommerce strategies as AI reshapes how customers discover, evaluate and select products.

MARK provides the intelligence. Malin brings the interpretation and strategic direction. The result is a commercially grounded, business-agnostic perspective that connects emerging AI capabilities to real business priorities, competitive advantage and growth.

Get your score →MARK product suite →The framework →

§ Briefing

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