How to Check if AI Is Recommending Your Brand
More people now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI overviews for recommendations than ever — “best tool for X,” “who should I hire for Y.” If those tools don’t mention you, you’re invisible in a growing slice of discovery. The good news: you can check, this week, for free. It’s just rarely done because people don’t think to ask the machines directly.
Build a prompt panel
List the real questions a potential customer would ask an AI to find someone like you — “best [category] for [need],” “how do I [problem you solve],” “alternatives to [competitor].” Twenty to thirty solid prompts is plenty. These are your test set, and the best source for them is the same question bank you’d use for content.
Run them across the engines
Put each prompt to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI overviews. For each, note three things: does your brand get mentioned, how accurately are you described, and who gets recommended instead of you. That third column — your competitors’ visibility — is often the most useful, because it shows who’s winning the space and which sources the AI trusts.
Track it over time
A single check is a snapshot; the value is in the trend. Run the same panel every few weeks and log the results. AI engines update slowly, so improvements from publishing better content show up over weeks and months, not days. Watching mention rate and accuracy move is how you know your AEO work is actually landing. (Dedicated AI-visibility tools automate this; a simple spreadsheet works to start.)
What to do with what you find
If you’re absent or described wrongly, the fixes are the ones that make you citable: clear, question-shaped content that answers what buyers ask, consistent and accurate information about who you are, and — often the hardest part — third-party mentions, since AI frequently leans on sources other than your own site. Measure first, then work on the gap.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if ChatGPT or Perplexity recommends my brand?
Ask them. Run the real questions your buyers would ask — "best [category] for [need]" — across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI overviews, and note whether your brand appears, how it’s described, and who gets recommended instead. Do it regularly to see the trend.
What’s a good AI visibility score?
There’s no universal number, but being mentioned in a meaningful share of relevant answers — and described accurately — is the goal. Early on, simply appearing at all is progress; over time you want to be one of the names that comes up consistently for your category.
Are there tools to track AI brand mentions?
Yes. Dedicated AI-visibility platforms (and some free graders) track how often your brand is mentioned and cited across AI engines. A manual prompt panel — the same questions tested weekly — works as a free starting point.