Purple and blue graphic with the headline Does AI Even Know Your Business Exists? Here's How to Find Out.Hands typing on a laptop with a Chat AI window, with the headline Does AI Even Know Your Business Exists? Here's How to Find Out.

Does AI Even Know Your Business Exists? Here's How to Find Out.

St. Louis| Kansas City
November 04, 2026•4 min read

Right now, someone in your area is asking an AI who to call for the work you do. You have no way of knowing what it tells them, unless you ask.

So ask. The quick version takes about ten minutes, it costs nothing, and you do not need to be good with technology. Here is how.

What you need

A pen and paper, or a blank document, and free accounts with ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. Gemini works too, and so does Google if you search and look at the AI answer at the top.

The five questions

Type each one as a customer would, using your own service and city:

  1. "Who is the best [your service] in [your city]?"

  2. "What does [your business name] do?"

  3. "What are the hours and phone number for [your business name]?"

  4. "How much does [your service] cost in [your city]?"

  5. "Is [your business name] a good choice? What do customers say?"

Ask each one in each tool. Do not fix the wording to get a better answer. A customer will not.

What to write down

For every answer, note four things:

  • Were you named? If question 1 does not mention you, that tells you something.

  • Who was named instead? Write down every name. These are the businesses you are up against in the AI's answer.

  • Was anything wrong? Check the hours, phone number, address and services. Wrong details are a common problem when information about a business does not match from place to place.

  • What was it based on? If the tool shows sources, note where it looked. Those are the places that shape what customers hear.

How to read your results

If you were named and everything is right, good. Run the test again next month, because the answers change.

If you were named with wrong details, you have a list of things to fix.

If you were not named at all, you have found your starting point. That is not a verdict on your business. It usually means the AI cannot find a clear description of what you do, enough places talking about you, or consistent details across the internet.

In every case you now know something you did not know ten minutes ago.

Want the full picture? Run an audit

Five questions give you a snapshot. If you want to know where you really stand, there are two ways to go deeper.

Option 1: The manual audit (free)

Write a list of 10 to 20 prompts your customers would realistically use. Think of the questions you hear on the phone, such as "What is the best [your service] for [your type of customer] in [your city]?" Then run every prompt through the free versions of ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity.

Set up a spreadsheet and log three things for each answer:

  • Mentions: were you named, and where in the list?

  • Citations: which websites did the AI point to?

  • Tone: did it describe you warmly, neutrally or with doubt?

Plan on an hour or two for this one, not ten minutes. It is worth it, because you will see patterns you cannot see from a single question.

Option 2: Automated tools

If you have a lot of prompts, or you want to track changes every week, there are tools built for this:

  • Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit tracks how your brand shows up in AI answers, compares you with competitors and monitors prompts over time. It is a paid tool.

  • LeadBurst's AI Brand Visibility Audit is free. You enter your business name and website, and it reports how AI describes you and checks whether your site is open to AI crawlers. LeadBurst is a marketing agency, so expect an offer for its services afterward.

  • Rank Prompt shows how several AI tools describe your business and which sources they rely on. The first visibility report is free, and the deeper audit needs a paid plan.

Most small businesses can learn what they need from the free audit first. Use the tools when you want to track changes over time.

Then what?

This test is step 10 of the ten steps I walk through in my live workshop on Tuesday, November 10 at 2:00 PM Central. We run your customers' questions through ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google together, and I show you how to read the answers and track them over time. Then we work on the other nine steps, so you leave with a finished piece for each one.

Do the test first if you can. Bring your notes and your audit results, and we will turn them into your next steps.

Details and registration are at metronetworkingevents.com/workshop.

Lisa Kempton
Booked & Staffed

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