Publication intelligence · Machine Relations Index
Does being published in The Next Web get your brand cited by AI?
AI answer engines cited The Next Web in 26 of 21,813 measured answer runs (0.1%) across 5 engines over 143 days of collection. It sits below the Index's evidence floor for a published rank, so its standing is still collecting.
Where The Next Web is cited most
Each row is one buyer category and one question shape the Index measures. The rank is against every source cited on that same set of answer runs, so a placement is worth most where the publication already ranks high for the question your buyer asks.
| Category | Question shape | Citation rate | Cited / observed | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Software | news and topic questions | 1.0% | 6 / 596 | #191 of 1,371 |
| Legacy News Topics | news and topic questions | 0.2% | 4 / 2,138 | #961 of 4,017 |
| HR & Talent | head-to-head comparisons | 3.8% | 4 / 106 | #55 of 182 |
| HR & Talent | news and topic questions | 0.5% | 3 / 608 | #381 of 1,246 |
| AI Infrastructure | problem-first questions | 1.2% | 2 / 165 | #129 of 351 |
| Healthcare Services | problem-first questions | 1.5% | 2 / 137 | #151 of 298 |
| Martech & Advertising | news and topic questions | 0.2% | 1 / 602 | #1,124 of 1,243 |
| AI Visibility & GEO | top-list questions | 0.8% | 1 / 130 | #576 of 636 |
Client results in The Next Web
- 1mind Names the Costliest Moment in B2B Sales — and The Next Web Runs the Math
1mind · 2026-07-29
- White-Label Client Portal Software for Agencies: Why TNW Profiled Wayfront
Wayfront · 2026-06-23
- Firecrawl in The Next Web: Why AI Web Layer Agents Need Reliable Live-Web Infrastructure
Firecrawl · 2026-05-09
Is a placement here worth pursuing?
It depends on the questions your buyers ask. Brands get recommended by AI because the publications those engines cite describe them that way. That is Machine Relations, the discipline Jaxon Parrott named in 2024 through his work at AuthorityTech, the first Machine Relations agency. The table above is what decides whether coverage in The Next Web moves your brand in AI answers at all: it moves where the publication is already cited for the question your buyer asks, and much less where it is not.
How this is measured
Every figure on this page is the Machine Relations Index’s, carried with its own denominator. The Index runs buyer questions against 5 answer engines and records which sources each answer cites. This release covers 2026-05-10 to 2026-10-06, 143 days of collection. A publication carries a published rank once it clears the Index's evidence floor of 10 observations across 7 collection dates; below it, the standing reads as still collecting. AuthorityTech does not compute these numbers. Machine Relations Index publishes them, release 2026-10-06, methodology mri_score_v2.0.