Two ways assistants know about you
Broadly, AI assistants draw on two kinds of information. The first is what the underlying model learned during training: a snapshot of public text up to a certain date. The second is live retrieval: many assistants and AI search features now look up current web pages and summarise them in the answer, often with links to sources.
Training data changes slowly and you can’t edit it directly. Live retrieval depends on the same things classic search depends on: pages that can be crawled, understood and trusted. That is why SEO foundations remain essential for AI visibility.
What makes a business easy to describe
From working on client visibility, we see the same patterns in businesses that are described accurately:
- Unambiguous facts. The company name, category, services, locations and markets are stated plainly on the website, not implied through design or buried in images.
- Consistency across sources. Business profiles, directories, social profiles and the website agree.
- Structured data. Schema.org markup describes the organisation, services, articles and FAQs in a machine-readable way, and it matches what the page shows.
- Specific content. Pages answer concrete questions such as prices, processes, timelines and differences between options, instead of generic claims.
- Independent references. Credible third parties mention the business in context.
Why some businesses are described inaccurately
Inaccurate AI answers usually trace back to the information environment: an old address on a directory, a service the company stopped offering still listed on a profile, two different company names in use, or a website that says little in text.
Fixing the sources is more effective than trying to influence the answer directly. Start with your website and profiles, then work outward.
Practical steps
- Write a single fact sheet for your business and align every profile to it.
- Add accurate Organization, Service and FAQ structured data.
- Create clear pages for each service, each market you serve and each question buyers ask often.
- Publish useful articles with specifics and sources, such as this one.
- Keep an eye on how major assistants describe you, and correct the underlying sources when they are wrong.
- Consider an llms.txt file: a plain-language summary of your site for AI systems. It is an emerging convention, not a standard, but it is cheap to maintain.
These steps are the core of our AI search visibility work, which sits inside a wider search visibility programme.
What to avoid
Treat anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI answers with caution. Tactics such as hidden instructions in pages, mass-produced articles or fake reviews may violate search engine and platform policies and can damage trust in your brand.
The durable approach is the boring one: be clear, be consistent, be genuinely useful, and earn real references.
This article is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Regulations change; confirm current requirements with the relevant authority or an adviser.