Here's a moment more founders are running into. A prospect asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google "who's a good [your service] for a business like mine?" Three or four names come back. Yours isn't one of them. You never find out, because nothing reports a recommendation you didn't get.
The good news: the reasons are usually ordinary and fixable. Below is how these answers get put together, the five most common reasons a solid business gets left out, how to check where you stand in about 30 minutes, and what to fix first.
What happens when someone asks an AI who to hire?
When an AI assistant answers a "who should I hire" question, it draws on what it can find and understand about the businesses in that space: websites, directory listings, reviews, articles, interviews, and other people talking about them. Some assistants search the web live and cite their sources; others lean more on what they learned in training. Either way, the assistant is trying to answer a simpler question first: what is this business, who is it for, and can I safely recommend it?
That's the shift. A traditional search page shows ten links and lets the buyer sort it out. An AI answer does the sorting for them. If the assistant can't confidently say what you do, the safe move is to leave you out, and the buyer never sees you at all.
Why would an AI leave my business out?
In our work, five reasons come up again and again:
- Your website doesn't say plainly what you do and who it's for. "Helping visionaries unlock their potential" sounds lovely to a person and means nothing to a machine. "Bookkeeping for independent veterinary practices in Ohio" is something an AI can repeat.
- Your details don't match from place to place. A different business name on LinkedIn, an old service list on a directory, a past positioning still floating around. Mixed signals read as uncertainty. If another organization shares your name, it gets worse.
- Nobody else is talking about you. Reviews, client stories, podcast guest spots, local press, association listings. Outside mentions are how an assistant confirms you're real and good at what you say you do.
- Your content doesn't answer the questions buyers ask. Buyers ask full questions: "how much does a fractional CMO cost?" If no page on your site answers that question directly, someone else's page gets quoted.
- Your site is hard to read. Key information locked in images, PDFs, or pop-ups, or a settings file that blocks AI search crawlers. OpenAI, for example, says sites that block its search crawler (OAI-SearchBot) won't be shown in ChatGPT search answers.
How can I check what AI says about my business today?
Before changing anything, take a baseline. It takes about 30 minutes and it's the most useful thing you'll do this week.
- Write five questions in your buyer's words. Not "best brand strategist." Try "who can help me figure out why my website isn't bringing in clients?" Include one with your city or niche and one that names you directly.
- Ask three assistants. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google (look for the AI answer at the top). Use a private or logged-out window so your own history doesn't color the results.
- Copy the answers into one document. Note who was named, how you were described (if at all), and which sources were cited.
- Mark three things: Were you named? Were you described correctly? Who was named instead, and what do they have that you don't?
- Repeat monthly with the same questions. Answers change. The baseline is how you'll know whether your fixes worked.
What should I fix first?
Work from the inside out. Google's own guidance for its AI features is refreshingly unglamorous: there are no special tricks or extra files required, and the same fundamentals that help people find you in regular search apply. That means the order of operations looks like this:
- Say it plainly on your homepage. One sentence: what you do, for whom, and the result. Put it where a first-time visitor sees it without scrolling.
- Make your details match everywhere. Name, description, services, location, and founders, the same on your website, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, and directories.
- Answer your buyers' real questions on your site. One clear page or post per question, with the answer in the first few lines.
- Earn a few outside mentions. Ask happy clients for reviews, pitch one podcast, join the association directory your clients actually use.
- Check that AI crawlers can read your site. Ask whoever manages your website to confirm nothing blocks them.
What doesn't help (and what to skip)?
- Anyone who guarantees a spot in ChatGPT's or Google's answers. Nobody controls those answers.
- Publishing a pile of generic AI-written posts. More words that say what everyone else says won't make you the one worth naming.
- Treating one technical file as the fix. Some files help AI tools read your site, but none of them replace a clear message and real proof.
- Changing everything at once with no baseline. You won't know what worked.
What did we find when we checked ourselves?
We ran this check on Seats at the Table before we ran it for anyone else. It was humbling. Several unrelated organizations use a name close to ours, including a UK consultancy and two podcasts, so the answers could easily mix us up with someone else. Search results were also still showing an old homepage title and positioning we had retired. None of that showed up on any dashboard we owned. We fixed what we controlled first: one plain description of what we do, matching details everywhere, and a page that tells AI tools exactly which "Seats at the Table" we are. Then we started measuring.
That's the whole idea. You can't fix what nothing reports, so the first step is simply looking.
