Emerging Terms
Source Attribution (AI)
The mechanism by which AI platforms credit specific websites when using their content to generate an answer.
What it means
Source attribution is the process AI platforms use to cite sources in their answers — Perplexity's numbered citations, ChatGPT Browse's footnoted links, Gemini AI Overviews' source bubbles. The presence of attribution means a buyer can click through to the original source. Merchants want their content structured and authoritative enough to be chosen as a cited source, not just used anonymously in the model's background reasoning.
Why it matters for Shopify
Shopify stores that appear as cited sources with clickable links in AI answers get the full referral benefit — the citation, the traffic, and the sale.