Someone could be asking ChatGPT for a company exactly like yours right now.
They’re describing the service they need, the budget they’ve got, the industry they work in, and the uber specific problem that’s been annoying them for the last few months.
ChatGPT thinks about it. Then recommends three of your competitors. Oof.
This is why AI search visibility has become a pretty big deal. People are now using ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI features, Perplexity, Copilot, and other platforms to research businesses.
They’re asking who’s best. Who’s trustworthy. Who works with companies like theirs. Who offers a specific service in their location. Who has the right experience.
And the answers they get can shape their entire shortlist.
Want to make sure you’re on that shortlist? I’ll show you how to check your AI visibility across the main platforms, and what to do when the robots have either ignored you completely or got the wrong end of the stick.
First, a lil’ explainer: What does AI search visibility mean?
AI search visibility is how often your business appears in AI-generated responses, how accurately it’s described, and whether you’re being included when someone asks about the products, services, or expertise you offer.
It also covers whether those responses are positive, current, supported by decent sources, and helpful enough to make someone curious about you.
Basically: Does AI know who you are?
And does it have anything good to say?
Why businesses need to pay attention to AI Search Visibility now
Using AI for research isn’t a weird little habit reserved for tech bros and people who’ve affectionately named their ChatGPT.
It’s mainstream.
I mean, just look at these stats:
McKinsey found that 50% of consumers intentionally use AI-powered search. Of those users, 44% said it was their primary and preferred source of information.
Google also reported in June 2026 that AI Overviews had more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, while Google AI Mode had passed one billion!
So, yeah. The impact of AI search isn’t just a “we’ll keep an eye on this” thing.
People are already using these features to find information, compare options, and decide which businesses should get a closer look.
Also, look at the kinds of questions AI can answer
People are asking much more detailed questions than they used to.
Instead of searching: Private dermatologist London
They can ask: Which private dermatologist in London specialises in adult hormonal acne and won’t send me home with the same cream I’ve already tried three times?
Bit more to go on there.
These longer, conversational searches give AI platforms a lot of context. They can use that information to recommend companies that appear to match the exact problem, sector, location, or use case.
Or at least the companies they understand well enough to recommend.
That last bit is super important.
Your company could be a brilliant fit. But if your website is vague, your services are described differently across five platforms, and the wider internet barely mentions you, an AI tool may have no confident way to connect you to the question.
AI can’t recommend what it doesn’t understand.
People are making decisions before they click onto a website
A few years ago, the usual journey went something like this:
Someone searched on Google. They skimmed the search results. They opened a ridiculous number of tabs. They read a few websites, forgot which one said what, and eventually filled in a contact form somewhere.
Now, a chunk of that early research can happen inside AI answers.
Pew Research Center found that users clicked a traditional result in just 8% of visits where an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when no summary appeared.
Links inside the summaries received clicks in only 1% of visits.
One percent!
So yes, your website is still really important. You still very much need one. But people may already have formed an opinion about your business before they arrive there.
They might know:
- What you offer
- Who you work with
- How you compare with another provider
- Whether your services appear suitable
- What customers seem to think of you
- Whether you’ve got experience in their industry
OR they might have been told absolutely nothing about you because somebody else keeps getting recommended instead.
If you’re wondering how all of this fits with search engine optimisation, read SEO vs AEO vs GEO: What the Heck’s the Difference?.
How to check your brand’s AI search visibility
Okay, explainers over. Now let’s get to the good stuff.
#1 Search your brand name & review the answers
Start with the most obvious questions.
Open each platform and ask:
- What does [company name] do?
- Who does [company name] work with?
- What services does [company name] offer?
- Where is [company name] based?
- What is [company name] known for?
- Is [company name] a credible business?
- What makes [company name] different?
Now, don’t just look for your name and congratulate yourself when it appears. Read the full answer.
- Does it explain your services correctly?
- Does it understand your target audience?
- Does it mention the areas of expertise you’re trying to be known for?
- Has it included an offer you removed from your website three years ago?
- Has it mixed you up with another company?
- Has it described your specialist service as “general marketing support,” which is technically a sentence but emotionally devastating?
Check the factual accuracy first. Then look at the overall impression.
Is the description confident, positive, and specific? Or does it sound like someone glanced at the footer of your website and had a guess?
You want the answer to sound recognisable.
Your team should be able to read it and say, “Yes, that’s us.”
Rather than, “Who on earth are they talking about?”
#2 Search for your services without using your brand name
Someone who already knows your name can search for it directly. The bigger question is whether you appear when someone knows what they need but hasn’t heard of you yet.
Think about the questions your ideal client might ask.
For example, if you’re in tax, the questions could look like:
- Which tax firm helps Americans living abroad file US taxes?
- Who offers financial planning for self-employed creatives in Ireland?
- Which accountant works with small ecommerce businesses in the UK?
- Who can help a growing company prepare for an external investment round?
- Which financial adviser specialises in retirement planning for business owners?
- Who helps startups manage cash flow and build financial forecasts?
Try to go with a mix of more general and more detailed prompts.
Add:
- The service
- The customer type
- The industry
- The location
- The specific problem
- The outcome they want
Good keyword research can help here, but so can the information sitting right under your nose.
Look at sales calls, enquiry emails, customer interviews, website forms, FAQs, reviews, and conversations with your client-facing teams.
- What language do people use before they buy?
- What do they ask when they’re confused?
- What do they compare you with?
Those are the questions worth testing.
If your business appears when you search its name but disappears during service-led research, the platform knows you exist. It just hasn’t connected you strongly enough to the category you want to be known for.
Ouch.
But also: good intel to have.
#3 Check whether AI recommends your competitors instead
Now for the section that’ll really build character.
Write down which competitors appear when you don’t.
Look for patterns across the different answers:
- Is the same company recommended repeatedly?
- Do certain companies dominate specific services?
- Are large organisations winning the broad prompts?
- Are niche specialists appearing for detailed queries?
- Are directories influencing the recommendations?
- Does one company have much clearer proof or positioning?
Try not to take it as a personal attack.
ChatGPT hasn’t got a tiny grudge against your marketing department.
AI models pull together information from websites, review sites, articles, directories, media mentions, social platforms, online communities, and whatever else they can access.
If a competitor has clearer service pages, more third-party coverage, better reviews, stronger case studies, and consistent business information across the web, they’re giving the platform a much easier job.
Because AI likes confidence. If it sees that “several credible sources appear to agree on what this company does,” you’ve got a better shot at showing up.
#4 See if the info is accurate, positive, and up-to-date
Create a basic scoring system for each prompt.
You could record whether your company was:
- Mentioned or missing
- Described accurately or inaccurately
- Presented positively, neutrally, or negatively
- Supported by reliable sources
- Connected to the right services
- Linked to current information
- Recommended or simply acknowledged
Because “I think Gemini mentioned us once” isn’t particularly helpful six months later.
Pay attention to small inaccuracies too.
Maybe the platform has the wrong location. Maybe it describes your team as much smaller than it is. Maybe it lists an outdated service, old job title, former partner, or pricing model you haven’t used since everyone was making banana bread in 2020.
Search the exact incorrect wording online.
You might find it sitting on:
- An old directory listing
- A forgotten company profile
- An outdated press release
- A partner website
- A scraped business database
- An old interview or podcast bio
- A page nobody remembered to update
#5 Look at the sources AI tools are pulling from
Where the platform shows citations, open them.
Yes, all of them.
Don’t look at the little source icons and think, “Interesting,” before closing the tab and returning to your inbox.
Record:
- Which domains appear
- Which pages get cited
- Whether the sources are recent
- Whether your own site is included
- Which third-party publishers keep showing up
- Which types of sources influence recommendations
McKinsey reports that a company’s own website may account for only 5% to 10% of the sources used in AI-powered search.
The rest can come from review platforms, media publications, directories, affiliates, Reddit discussions, YouTube videos, interviews, partner sites, or other third-party sources.
That’s why some companies with a strong wider online presence can have better AI visibility than brands with lovely websites but no footprint anywhere else.
The citations tell you which sources the platforms already trust. They also tell you where you’re missing.
It could be that industry directories are being cited and you don’t have a profile. Maybe competitor case studies are showing up because yours don’t explain the outcomes clearly. Sometimes it’s a publication that wrote a really good comparison article and your company isn’t included.
There’s your clue.
#6 Find the content gaps stopping your brand from showing up
Now compare the answers with what your website says. Or, more importantly, what your website says clearly.
The information might exist somewhere. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for an AI tool to find, understand, or quote.
Your most important service might be mentioned once in paragraph nine of your About page Your target audience may be described as “ambitious organisations seeking meaningful growth.”
Okay.
Which organisations? What growth? What do you offer them?
Go through your main pages and check whether the content clearly explains:
- What you do
- Who you help
- Which problems you solve
- Which locations or sectors you serve
- What’s included in each service
- How your process works
- What makes your approach different
- What credentials your team has
- What outcomes you’ve delivered
- What happens after someone gets in touch
Look at whether your most important parts are described consistently too. That includes the business, founders, experts, products, services, industries, and locations connected to you.
If your homepage calls it “executive education,” your course page calls it “leadership development,” and LinkedIn calls it “management capability training,” the machines aren’t the only ones who’ll be confused.
Your readers will be right there with them.
For a deeper look at improving the pages themselves, read How To Optimise Content for AI Search in 2026.
#7 Turn your findings into a fix list
By this stage, you’ll probably have a spreadsheet containing:
- Missing brand mentions
- Strange descriptions
- Competitor recommendations
- Incorrect facts
- Old sources
- Weak service connections
- One answer that’s confused you with a roofing company in Dublin
- Group the findings by priority.
Urgent fixes
Start with anything inaccurate, damaging, or likely to mislead potential customers.
That might include:
- Wrong business information
- Outdated offers
- Incorrect locations
- Negative or misleading descriptions
- Confusion with another company
- Important service prompts where you’re completely absent
Important improvements
Next, deal with areas where the information is mainly right but too weak, vague, or inconsistent to inspire much confidence.
That could mean:
- Rewriting a service page
- Adding stronger proof
- Clarifying your audience
- Publishing FAQs
- Updating team bios
- Improving your company descriptions
- Adding case studies
- Correcting inconsistent listings
Longer-term visibility work
Some improvements take time.
That includes:
- Earning credible media coverage
- Building more reviews
- Publishing original research
- Securing podcast or interview opportunities
- Sharing expert opinions
- Strengthening your wider digital presence
- Getting included in relevant comparisons and directories
You don’t have to become the internet’s leading authority on every possible question connected to your industry.
You do want to show up for the ones that could lead someone to hire you.
Want to know what AI is saying about you?
You can carry out a basic review yourself.
You can also discover that it involves dozens of prompts, several platforms, competitor analysis, source checking, gap analysis, and a level of spreadsheet admin you hadn’t emotionally prepared for.
Our AI Visibility Audit checks what AI tools say about your company, where you appear, who gets recommended instead, what sources shape the answers, and which gaps are holding you back.
Then our very human content strategists turn the findings into a clear plan of action.
Don’t worry, you won’t end up with an 80-page automated report full of alarming red arrows that leaves you with more questions than you started with.
We do everything by hand, think strategically, and give you advice based on 16+ years of search-friendly copywriting experience.
