They change how teams verify work
Without citations, verification means repeating the retrieval step manually. With citations, the system has already done the finding work and handed the reviewer a direct path to the source. That changes the economics of review because the cost of checking the output drops sharply.
They lower the cost of escalation
When a reviewer needs to challenge or escalate a finding, citations mean the evidence is already attached. This helps legal, compliance, finance, and operations teams move faster because the discussion can focus on significance rather than document hunting.
They create better downstream trust
Structured outputs are more useful when a downstream team can inspect the proof behind a field or summary. Citations make integrations safer because the receiving system is not disconnected from the originating evidence.