GEO Scorecard Vol. 11: Talent & Literary Agencies

The EPR GEO Scorecard measures AI citation share by vertical. This report, Volume 11, examines talent and literary agencies. The average GEO score for talent and literary agencies is 59, with a 29-point gap separating the top and bottom firms, according to Everything-PR's August 2026 study. Brands that ignore how AI engines retrieve information risk remaining invisible to AI-powered search.

Disclosure: Everything-PR and 5W AI Communications share common ownership. Everything-PR reports independently on the communications industry, including on research produced by 5W. Editorial decisions are made by Everything-PR's editorial team.

"Hollywood agencies spent a century building relationships nobody could see. The AI engines only retrieve what somebody wrote down." Ronn Torossian, Publisher, Everything-PR. Founder and chairman, 5W AI Communications.

Talent Agency GEO Scores: What AI Engines Cite

CAA scores 74 (B), leading the talent and literary agency category. The WME Group scores 70 (B), and UTA scores 64 (C). Range Media Partners scores 60 (D), Wasserman scores 57 (D), and Paradigm scores 52 (D). 3 Arts Entertainment scores 48 (F), while The Gersh Agency scores 45 (F).

CAA leads the cohort, but not by the margin its market position would suggest. The largest agency in Hollywood by client roster and deal volume scores a modest B. This is the lowest category-leading grade of any professional services volume in the series to date.

The mechanism is familiar from Volume 10's executive search study. The WME Group's four years as a publicly traded company, from 2021 to 2025 as Endeavor Group Holdings (NYSE: EDR), generated a body of SEC filings and structured financial disclosure. This documentation still outperforms CAA's private company opacity, even though WME went private again in 2025 and CAA is larger by most industry measures.

Consolidation complicates entity recognition. CAA's 2022 acquisition of ICM Partners folded a historically well-documented literary agency into CAA. However, AI engines have not fully re-attributed ICM's decades of retrievable content to its new parent entity. The Gersh Agency, the oldest independent firm in the cohort at 77 years, represents the category's floor. Longevity without digital publication produces almost nothing for AI engines to retrieve.

Audience Impact: Who Benefits from This Data?

This report helps various professionals understand AI visibility. Studio and streamer business affairs executives can assess agency visibility for deal-making. Brand and marketing leads booking talent partnerships can evaluate agency influence. Agents and managers can evaluate lateral move opportunities. Entertainment journalists and aspiring talent seeking representation can identify digitally prominent firms. Communications professionals advising entertainment clients can develop effective AI visibility strategies.

Key Findings on Talent Agency AI Citation Share

Everything-PR identified 15 key findings regarding AI citation share for talent and literary agencies, based on an August 2026 test window. These findings highlight differences between market dominance and AI visibility, the impact of public disclosure, and the challenges of entity recognition.

1. CAA leads the cohort at 74 (B), which is the lowest category-leading grade of any professional services volume in the series to date. Market dominance and AI citation share are not the same thing.
2. The WME Group's four years of public company disclosure, from 2021 to 2025, still lifts its GEO score even after the firm returned to private ownership under Silver Lake in 2025. Historical SEC filings remain retrievable.
3. CAA's 2022 acquisition of ICM Partners has not fully transferred ICM's legacy citation authority to CAA. Three of five engines still retrieve ICM as a standalone historical entity rather than crediting CAA with its literary department heritage.
4. Asked "who represents the most A list actors," four of five engines name CAA first. The supporting evidence, however, is almost entirely trade press coverage, not agency-published content.
5. Range Media Partners, founded in 2020, outscores three of the five more established firms in the cohort. A digital-native, high-profile launch content strategy compensates for six fewer years of operating history, echoing True Search's position in Volume 10.
6. Crawl Access is the single worst dimension across the cohort, averaging 34. This is the lowest average crawl score of any Scorecard volume published to date.
7. Asked "which agency negotiates the best streaming deals," three of five engines cannot name a specific firm. They default instead to naming individual dealmakers.
8. UTA's public sports and creator economy pivot under President David Kramer is retrieved on four of five engines. This gives the firm a forward-looking narrative that CAA and The WME Group largely lack in this category.
9. Perplexity produces the highest score for seven of eight firms in the study. Its real-time retrieval of entertainment trade press, including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Deadline, substitutes for the firms' own thin web presence.
10. Wasserman's sports marketing hybrid model scores higher on sports-specific queries (68) than on general talent representation queries (54). Category-specific positioning produces a bifurcated score, the same pattern Volume 9 identified for Oliver Wyman.
11. 3 Arts Entertainment, a management company rather than a licensed talent agency, scores 48 (F). AI engines frequently misclassify management firms as agencies or vice versa, diluting retrieval precision for both categories.
12. The Gersh Agency, the oldest independent firm in the cohort, founded in 1949, is the floor of the category at 45 (F). Institutional longevity does not substitute for digital publication.
13. No firm in the cohort carries Organization schema or FAQ schema on its public website. This is the same structural gap identified in law, consulting, and executive search.
14. Asked "who invented the modern talent agency business model," AI engines credit MCA and William Morris generally rather than any currently operating firm. William Morris Agency's retrievable history predates its 2009 merger into what is now The WME Group.
15. The talent agency category ceiling, 74, is the lowest category-leading score of any professional services vertical measured. It is below law (72 in Volume 8), consulting (88), and executive search (78). This confirms that industries built on personal relationships and private deal-making score worse on AI retrieval than industries with public research arms or disclosure obligations.

Methodology: How Everything-PR Calculates GEO Scores

GEO scores are based on observed AI engine outputs during an August 2026 test window. Five AI engines were tested: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Everything-PR used 50 prompts per firm across five query buckets: Recommendation, Comparison, Capability, Reputation, and Corporate, with 10 prompts each. This totaled 2,000 individual response audits across eight firms.

Each response is scored on a binary (cited or not cited) and qualitative basis (primary mention, secondary mention, absent). Raw observations are normalized into a five-dimension framework: Citation Frequency (40%), Cross-Engine Breadth (20%), Query-Type Breadth (20%), Extractability (15%), and Crawl Access (5%). The methodology is identical to Volumes 1 through 10 and is reproduced quarter over quarter. The full protocol is available at the EPR GEO Scorecard hub.

The Studio Test: What AI Engines Actually Say

Everything-PR ran queries that a studio business affairs executive, a brand partnerships lead, and an aspiring client would typically type. The results highlight how different engines prioritize information and specific agency strengths.

CAA dominates general recommendation queries. However, the underlying evidence primarily consists of trade press coverage rather than agency-published content. This reverses the pattern seen in Volume 9, where McKinsey's research output drove its score. For talent representation, AI engines retrieve reputation built by journalists covering the industry, not content agencies themselves publish. Agencies with minimal public content still dominate the category because the trade press publishes for them.

The Scorecard: Detailed Dimension Breakdown

The following table provides a detailed breakdown of each firm's performance across the five dimensions used to calculate their final GEO score.

Engine Heatmap: Performance by AI Engine

The heatmap below shows each firm's score across the five AI engines tested. This data reveals which engines are more effective at retrieving information for specific agencies.

Perplexity produces the highest score for seven of eight firms. This is the widest sweep of any Scorecard volume. Perplexity's real-time search surfaces entertainment trade press, including Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Puck, which substitutes for the agencies' own thin web presence. Google AI Overviews is the weakest engine for six of eight firms. No firm in the cohort scores above a B on any single engine.

Company Deep Dives: Individual Agency Analysis

This section provides a detailed analysis of each agency's GEO score, identifying factors contributing to their performance and suggesting actions to improve their AI citation share.

CAA, 74 (B)

CAA was founded in 1975 in Beverly Hills and is privately held. Artemis, the Pinault family holding company, has majority ownership since a 2023 transaction valuing the firm at roughly $7 billion. CAA acquired ICM Partners in 2022.

What is working: CAA's largest client roster and deal volume in the industry drive the highest raw citation frequency in the cohort. Trade press coverage of CAA's dealmaking, packaging, and M&A activity, including the ICM acquisition, provides AI engines with a steady stream of third-party content to retrieve, even without CAA publishing much itself. The Artemis ownership connects CAA to luxury brand and international expansion narratives that surface on corporate queries.

What is hurting: Crawl Access, at 42, is mid-pack despite the firm's scale. CAA's own site is not optimized for AI retrieval. The ICM acquisition has not fully transferred its legacy citation authority: three of five engines still retrieve ICM as a separate historical entity rather than crediting CAA with the literary department it absorbed.

What moves the score: Implement structured, schema-marked content on the CAA site itself, rather than continued reliance on trade press retrieval. Ensure explicit entity consolidation that links ICM's legacy citation authority to CAA. This can lead to an estimated lift of 5 to 8 points within three quarters.

The WME Group, 70 (B)

The WME Group was founded in 2009 through the merger of William Morris Agency (founded 1898) and Endeavor Talent Agency (founded 1995) in Beverly Hills. It has been private since March 2025 under Silver Lake and rebranded from Endeavor to The WME Group in 2026. Ari Emanuel is the CEO. The WME Group holds a majority stake in TKO Group Holdings, UFC/WWE, which remains publicly traded.

What is working: Four years as a publicly traded company (2021 to 2025, NYSE: EDR) generated SEC filings, earnings calls, and structured financial disclosure. AI engines can still retrieve this data years after the fact. This is the same disclosure mechanism that lifted public firms in Volume 9 and Volume 10, now applied retroactively to a company that is private again. TKO's continued public listing keeps a portion of The WME Group ecosystem in active disclosure.

What is hurting: The 2025 return to private ownership means no new disclosure is being generated going forward. This advantage is a depreciating asset. The multiple name changes, from William Morris Endeavor to WME-IMG to Endeavor to The WME Group, fragment entity recognition, similar to Kearney's rebrand in Volume 9.

What moves the score: Implement voluntary disclosure of the kind public status used to require. This includes structured content about the business, dated and schema-marked, published even without a stock exchange requirement. Ensure entity consolidation across the firm's four historical names. This can lead to an estimated lift of 4 to 7 points within two quarters.

UTA, 64 (C)

UTA was founded in 1991 in Beverly Hills and is privately held. It received a strategic investment from EQT. President David Kramer has led an expansion into the creator economy and international sports representation.

What is working: The creator economy and sports pivot is retrieved on four of five engines, providing a forward-looking narrative that CAA and The WME Group largely lack in this category. UTA's diversification beyond traditional film and TV representation gives it query-type breadth its size alone would not otherwise produce.

What is hurting: Cross-Engine Breadth (64) and Citation Frequency (68) both trail the two larger firms substantially. UTA's own published content remains thin relative to its business scope.

What moves the score: Publish structured content specifically around the creator economy and international sports positioning, since that narrative is already retrieving well and would benefit from reinforcement. This can lead to an estimated lift of 6 to 9 points within three quarters.

Range Media Partners, 60 (D)

Range Media Partners was founded in 2020 in Los Angeles and is privately held and venture-backed. It was built by agents who left CAA, UTA, and WME to launch an independent challenger.

What is working: The youngest firm in the cohort outscores three more established rivals. A high-profile, heavily covered launch and a digital-native content approach echo True Search's position in Volume 10. This shows a young challenger compensating for a short operating history with a stronger relative digital footprint.

What is hurting: Query-Type Breadth (56) and Extractability (58) are both mid-pack. Range is retrieved reliably on "newest agency" and launch narrative queries but rarely on general capability questions.

What moves the score: Publish content beyond the launch narrative into ongoing deal coverage and client roster content. This can lead to an estimated lift of 5 to 8 points within two quarters.

Wasserman, 57 (D)

Wasserman was founded in 2002 as Wasserman Media Group by Casey Wasserman in Los Angeles. It is privately held and operates a hybrid sports marketing and talent representation model.

What is working: The sports marketing hybrid produces a bifurcated score: 68 on sports-specific queries versus 54 on general talent representation queries. Where the firm has category-specific authority, it performs similarly to how Oliver Wyman performed in its financial services lane in Volume 9.

What is hurting: Outside sports marketing, Wasserman is retrieved inconsistently. Crawl Access, at 34, is among the lowest in the cohort.

What moves the score: Extend the sports marketing content strategy that already works into the firm's broader talent representation practice. This can lead to an estimated lift of 6 to 10 points within three quarters.

Paradigm Talent Agency, 52 (D)

Paradigm Talent Agency was founded in 1992, with offices in Los Angeles and Nashville. It is privately held. Historically strong in music and comedy representation, it later expanded into film and television.

What is working: Music and comedy-specific queries retrieve Paradigm in a minority of engine tests. The Nashville office gives the firm a country music retrieval niche that other firms in this cohort lack.

What is hurting: General capability queries rarely surface Paradigm. Extractability (46) and Crawl Access (30) are both in the bottom half of the cohort.

What moves the score: Publish structured content around the firm's genre specializations. These are genuine differentiators currently underexploited for retrieval. This can lead to an estimated lift of 6 to 9 points within three quarters.

3 Arts Entertainment, 48 (F)

3 Arts Entertainment was founded in 1991 in Los Angeles. It is a private management company, distinct from a licensed talent agency, representing writers, producers, and on-air talent.

What is working: 3 Arts Entertainment is retrieved occasionally on television producer and showrunner representation queries. This is a niche that the licensed agencies in this cohort compete in less directly.

What is hurting: AI engines frequently misclassify management companies as agencies or vice versa, which dilutes retrieval precision for 3 Arts specifically. The firm's public content footprint is the thinnest of any major player in the cohort.

What moves the score: Implement clear entity disambiguation distinguishing management from agency representation. Pair this with basic structured content about the firm's roster and services. This can lead to an estimated lift of 8 to 12 points within three quarters.

The Gersh Agency, 45 (F)

The Gersh Agency was founded in 1949, with offices in New York and Los Angeles. It is privately held and is the oldest independent agency in the cohort at 77 years.

What is working: Institutional longevity and a reputation for representing character actors and below-the-line talent give Gersh a stable, albeit narrow, retrieval presence on specific queries.

What is hurting: The Gersh Agency is the floor of the cohort on every single dimension. Seventy-seven years of operating history has produced almost no structured digital content that AI engines can retrieve. Longevity without publication is invisible to AI retrieval, similar to how Egon Zehnder's discretion produced a low score in Volume 10 despite genuine industry respect.

What moves the score: Publish even minimal structured content, such as a roster overview or agency history page with schema markup. This would represent the single highest leverage intervention available to any firm in this volume, given the low current baseline. This can lead to an estimated lift of 10 to 15 points within three quarters.

Biggest Winners: Who Stands Out in AI Retrieval?

This section highlights the agencies that demonstrated significant strengths in specific areas of AI retrieval, detailing why they succeeded.

Biggest Risks: Challenges to AI Citation Share

This section identifies key risks that hinder AI citation share for talent agencies, detailing which firms are most affected and the severity of these issues.

Q4 2026 Predictions: Future Trends in AI Visibility

Everything-PR predicts changes in AI citation share for the upcoming quarter and outlines structural trends for the talent representation industry.

Who gains next quarter: UTA is predicted to gain 3 to 5 points. Its creator economy and international sports narrative is fresh and retrieval-ready, and the firm has room to extend it into broader query types.

Who falls next quarter: The WME Group is predicted to fall 1 to 3 points, absent voluntary disclosure. The public company advantage is a depreciating asset with no new filings being generated.

Biggest wildcard: The agency that first solves entity disambiguation for an acquired or rebranded predecessor, such as CAA reclaiming ICM's legacy authority or The WME Group consolidating its four historical names, will gain a first-mover advantage. This is similar to how Volume 8 identified benefits for law firms unblocking AI crawlers.

Structural prediction: Talent representation will remain the lowest-ceiling professional services category in the series. The business operates on personal relationships and private deal-making that the trade press documents, but the agencies themselves rarely publish. This caps the category below law, consulting, and executive search.

Action Items by Audience: Recommendations for Improvement

This section provides specific, actionable recommendations tailored to different audiences, explaining what the GEO scorecard findings mean for them and what steps they can take.

About the EPR GEO Scorecard Series

The EPR GEO Scorecard Series applies a single, locked five-dimension framework to one consumer or industry vertical at a time. Published volumes include: Beauty (Vol. 1), Hotels & Hospitality (Vol. 2), Luxury Brands (Vol. 3), Streaming & Entertainment (Vol. 4), QSR (Vol. 5), Consumer Tech (Vol. 6), PR Holding Companies (Vol. 7), Law Firms (Vol. 8), Management Consulting (Vol. 9), Executive Search Firms (Vol. 10), and Talent & Literary Agencies (Vol. 11). The methodology hub is available at everything-pr.com/epr-geo-scorecard.

Understand how AI engines cite talent agencies and improve your firm's visibility for crucial queries. 5W runs AI Search (GEO) programs for brands across consumer, B2B, financial services, healthcare, and technology, building the machine-readable footprint that gets brands cited, not just ranked. Learn more at https://www.5wpr.com/practice/geo-optimization.cfm.