How AI chooses which companies to recommend

Short answer: AI assistants mention the companies they either learned about during training or find when they search the web at the moment of the question. In both cases, the companies that win are described clearly, in many places and consistently. It has less to do with what you say about yourself and more to do with what others say about you.

AI has two sources: memory and search

A large language model, or LLM, knows things in two ways.

• From training. The model has read enormous amounts of text up to a certain date. If your company was mentioned often in that text, you are in the model's "memory". If you are new or rarely mentioned, you barely exist there.
• From search. For current questions, AI services fetch information from the web and build the answer on it. Google describes how search grounding connects the model to up-to-date content, so it can answer beyond its knowledge cut-off and show sources (Google AI for Developers).

The difference shows in how AI companies send out their crawlers. OpenAI, for example, has one crawler for training, GPTBot, and another for ChatGPT search, OAI-SearchBot. Sites that block OAI-SearchBot do not appear in ChatGPT's search results (OpenAI).

How ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Perplexity search

All four have this in common: a question like "which accountant in Manchester is best?" becomes one or more ordinary searches. If you do not appear in those searches, you will struggle to appear in the answer. That is why the basics of SEO are still the basics of appearing in AI. Read also Google AI Overviews.

Six things that decide whether you are mentioned

1. How often others mention you

Ahrefs studied around 75,000 brands and what correlates with being mentioned in Google's AI Overviews. The strongest correlation was brand mentions on other websites, at 0.66. The number of backlinks had a much weaker correlation, 0.22 (Ahrefs). That is a correlation, not proven causation, but the pattern is clear: what is said about you around the web weighs more than what you say about yourself.

2. Visibility in ordinary search

Because AI services search before they answer, it helps to rank for the questions your customers ask. Google says there are no extra requirements for AI Overviews and that the same fundamental SEO applies (Google Search Central).

3. Content that can be cited

Researchers including a team from Princeton tested what makes generative search engines use a text. Adding quotations, statistics and source references raised visibility by 30 to 40 percent. Stuffing in more keywords had almost no effect (GEO, KDD 2024). Microsoft gives the same advice for Copilot: clear headings, lists and self-contained answers that can be lifted out, not long blocks of text or text baked into images (Microsoft Advertising).

4. Reviews and your Business Profile

For local questions, Google bases its results on relevance, distance and prominence, and more reviews and positive ratings can help your local ranking (Google). When ChatGPT compares products, it summarises reviews from public websites (OpenAI). Read Google reviews for business.

5. Crawlers can reach your site

A common and avoidable mistake: the site's robots.txt or firewall blocks the AI services' search crawlers, so pages cannot be fetched when someone asks. Check that OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Bingbot and Googlebot are allowed in.

6. Clear information about who you are

Your name, location, services and contact details should be the same on your site, your Business Profile and directories. Organization structured data helps Google understand which company you are and tell you apart from others with similar names (Google Search Central).

What you can do

1. Write down the questions customers ask, such as "best agency for X in Y" or "how much does Z cost", and make sure you have pages that answer them directly.
2. Start every important page with the answer. One or two sentences an AI can lift out word for word.
3. Use your own figures and sources. Prices, timelines, results from client projects. That is what sets you apart.
4. Get mentioned where your customers read. Trade media, comparison sites, interviews, partnerships and case studies on your clients' sites.
5. Collect reviews on Google and on the sites that matter in your industry.
6. Let the crawlers in and add structured data for your business.

If you are missing from answers entirely, we cover the most common reasons in How to appear in ChatGPT.

How to see whether AI mentions you

Ask the questions your customers ask, in several AI services, and note which companies are mentioned and which sources are shown. Repeat the test every month, because answers change. The sources in the answers show where you need to be visible.