Will structured data improve rankings or AI citations?

It may help, but it is no guarantee. Structured data helps software understand the information on a page and makes life easier for crawlers. Providing it does not automatically earn rankings or exposure. The value of the content itself still matters most.

Is structured data worth doing?

Very much so. It may not directly improve rankings, but implemented correctly, it is a potential benefit rather than a reason to lose points. There is no reason not to get it right.

Sometimes structured data improves how a result appears in the SERP rather than its ranking. Your position may stay the same while a richer presentation attracts a higher click-through rate.

In the AI era, this matters even more. Compared with Google’s established search systems, many AI tools are still relatively basic at retrieving information from the web. Anything that makes a site easier to read may give those tools more reason to use it. That is why I see even more value in structured data now.