# Literature search: earlier audits of what AI assistants cite for Malaysian questions

The paper says that a small earlier Malaysian study exists, and that we found no pre-registered, two-window, two-engine audit of AI citations for Malaysia with a published dataset. This is the search behind that statement.

**When:** 27 September 2026, 05:54 to 05:59 Kuala Lumpur time (26 September 2026, 21:54 to 21:59 UTC), by the AI research assistant that gathered the paper's sources. Every result that looked relevant was opened and read at source.

## Searches

The search strings are given as recorded; "…" marks where the record shortened a longer string.

1. "study audit which sources ChatGPT Gemini cite Malaysian queries…"
2. "generative engine optimization" Malaysia study/survey/audit university/journal
3. "we asked ChatGPT best digital marketing agency Malaysia…"
4. In Malay: "kajian sumber rujukan ChatGPT Gemini jawapan AI carian Malaysia perniagaan PKS petikan laman web"
5. Malaysia "AI visibility" report … marketing-interactive / digitalnewsasia / thestar
6. studio.aliqgroup.com ChatGPT Gemini Malaysia citations panel
7. "Malaysia" "AI Overviews" study prevalence/citations Malaysian keywords 2026

## Found

Search 7 found one earlier Malaysian study: aimode.my, "State of AI Search in Malaysia 2026: What Commercial Queries Reveal About Who AI Cites", published 21 July 2026 (page modified 19 August 2026), https://aimode.my/state-of-ai-search-malaysia-2026/. It checked 8 commercial queries (7 in English, 1 in Bahasa Melayu) on Malaysia-localised Google results in one snapshot on 21 July 2026. The paper cites it as prior work.

## Read and rejected

- cheers.tech: covers metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada.
- [agency], two pages: summaries of other organisations' reports, with no data of their own.
- theactionelite.com: a guide, with no data.
- ALIQ Studio's own blog posts on AI search: no original panel data.
- A 2019 paper in the Universiti Teknologi MARA repository (item 30962) on financial audit quality: matched the word "audit" only.
- An article on hadis.uis.edu.my comparing ChatGPT and Gemini responses on hadith research: rejected on its search-listing title, not opened.

## Not searched

Chinese-language sources, and paywalled academic databases (Scopus, Web of Science).