Does YouTube view count affect how often AI engines cite a video?

No. OtterlyAI's 2026 citation study found that 41% of YouTube videos cited by AI platforms had fewer than 1,000 views at the time of citation. Popularity metrics -- views, likes, subscribers -- show near-zero correlation with citation frequency. Structure, transcript quality, and topical relevance are the dominant signals.

Which AI platforms cite YouTube most often?

Perplexity (38.7%) and Google AI Overviews (36.6%) drive roughly 75% of all YouTube citations combined. ChatGPT drives just 4.4% of YouTube citations, despite being the largest AI platform by user volume. Gemini cites YouTube in only 0.2% of responses, and Copilot in 0.5%.

Do YouTube Shorts get cited by AI engines?

Rarely. YouTube Shorts account for approximately 5.7% of AI citations despite being the platform's dominant content format by volume. Long-form videos (5 minutes or longer) account for 94% of AI citations. If your goal is AI citations, short-form video is not the right vehicle.

What is the ideal video length for AI citations?

The peak citation cluster in OtterlyAI's dataset falls in the 10-20 minute range (32.1% of cited videos), followed by 5-10 minutes (26.1%) and 20 or more minutes (17.6%). Aim for 8-20 minutes with clear chapter structure. Depth and specificity matter more than hitting an exact length.

Does VideoObject schema actually help AI engines cite your videos?

Yes. VideoObject schema gives AI engines a machine-readable summary with named properties (title, description, duration, transcript) they can cite directly without parsing the full page. It is especially important for videos embedded on your own domain, where the AI engine may not otherwise know a video exists.

Can I get AI citations from videos on Vimeo or other platforms?

Rarely, and not reliably. YouTube is cited 200x more than any other video platform by AI engines, partly because of its auto-generated, indexable transcripts and its integration into Google's data infrastructure. Hosting video on YouTube and embedding on your own domain is the highest-leverage combination.

How often should I update video descriptions for AI visibility?

Refresh descriptions every 90 days at minimum. Update when statistics change, when terminology evolves, or when new competitor context emerges. Freshness is a directional positive signal for AI retrieval. A description last updated in 2023 is competing against content updated in 2026.

If I can only do one thing, what matters most?

Upload a manually corrected transcript. AI engines cannot process audio or video -- they process text. A video without an accurate transcript is effectively invisible to AI. If you have existing high-value videos without transcripts, correcting those is the single highest-ROI action you can take this week.

How to Optimize YouTube and Video Content for AI Citations