How to Fix What AI Gets Wrong About Your Business

In this episode of AI Search Explained by Rank4AI, founders Adam Parker and Jimmy Connoley discuss how to identify and correct misinformation about your business across AI systems.

Adam Parker and Jimmy Connoley explore why AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot often misrepresent businesses, from describing premium consultancies as budget services to stating incorrect opening hours in Google AI Overviews. They provide practical strategies for UK businesses to audit what AI systems are saying about them and implement systematic fixes through environmental signal strengthening.

This episode is designed for UK business owners who want practical guidance on improving visibility inside AI generated answers.

Key questions answered in this episode:

Where do businesses start when checking what AI systems say about them?

How do you fix AI misinformation when you can't directly contact the systems?

What counts as authoritative sources to AI systems?

How long does it take for corrections to appear in AI responses?

Useful links:

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AI Search Audit

AI Meaning Clean Up

Rank4AI is a UK based AI search consultancy founded by Adam Parker and Jimmy Connoley, helping service businesses and growing brands strengthen clarity and become recommendable within AI generated responses.

Visit https://rank4ai.co.uk to learn how AI systems see your business.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to AI Search Explained by Rank 4 AI. I'm Adam Parker, and I'm here with my co-founder Jimmy Connolly. Today we're tackling something that keeps coming up in our audits when AI systems get your business fundamentally wrong. We've seen ChatGPT describe a premium consultancy as a budget service. Perplexity completely miss what industries a company serves, and Google's AI overviews confidently state incorrect opening hours.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

It's painful to watch, isn't it? A business owner searches for their own company and sees AI telling potential customers completely wrong information. But here's what I find interesting. Most businesses don't even know it's happening because they're not systematically checking what these systems say about them. Exactly. In my research into how these AI interpretation systems work, I've found they're incredibly confident about information that's often pieced together from fragments across the web. They don't distinguish between a throwaway comment on Reddit and your official company description. So where do businesses even start? If you're running a company in Birmingham or Edinburgh, you can't be checking every AI system every day. What's the practical first step? Start with the big five: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Copilot. Ask each one the same basic questions about your business. What do we do? Where are we located? What services do we offer? You'll be surprised how different the answers are. And write down exactly what they say, word for word. Don't just mentally note that it's roughly right or close enough. These systems are feeding information to potential customers who don't know the truth. The patterns we see in our audits are fascinating. AI systems often struggle with businesses that have evolved over time. They might describe you based on what you did five years ago, because that information has more digital footprint than your current focus. That makes sense for a lot of UK businesses, especially after COVID. Companies pivoted, added new services, changed their target markets, but the old information is still out there, and apparently that's what AI is finding first. There's also the regional issue. We've audited businesses where US-focused AI systems completely misunderstand UK market positioning. They'll describe a premium UK service using American budget market language, or miss entirely that a company serves the European market. Right. So once you've identified what's wrong, how do you actually fix it? You can't exactly send a correction request to ChatGPT like you would to a directory listing. This is where it gets strategic. These systems are drawing from your digital ecosystem, your website, social media, news mentions, directory listings, even employee LinkedIn profiles. The fix isn't direct, it's environmental. Environmental, I like that term. So if perplexity says you're in the wrong industry, you need to look at where it might be getting that information and strengthen the correct signals. Precisely. In one audit, we found a consultancy being described as a software company because their case studies heavily featured technology implementations. The AI systems weighted those case studies more heavily than their actual service descriptions. That's actually quite logical from the AI's perspective, isn't it? It's thinking they talk about software all the time, they must be a software company, but completely wrong from a business perspective. The AI interpretation logic is consistent, but it's not business logic. This is why we see such systematic misunderstandings. The systems are pattern matching, not truly comprehending business models. So what did that consultancy need to do? Completely rewrite their website? Not completely, but strategically. We helped them add clear service category statements, restructure their about page to lead with their consulting expertise, and most importantly, balance their case studies with more explicit descriptions of their role as advisors, not implementers. How long did that take to show up in the AI systems? That's the frustrating part. It's inconsistent. Perplexity picked up changes within weeks, but ChatGPT took months. Each system has different refresh cycles and different weights for various information sources. Months? That's a long time for incorrect information to be circulating. Are there any ways to accelerate the process? There are some tactics. Fresh, structured content helps.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Think news releases, updated LinkedIn company pages, new directory listings with consistent information.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

The key is creating multiple authoritative sources that all tell the same correct story. The AI systems seem to trust question and answer formats.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

The structured format gives the AI systems clearer signals about what information is definitively about your business. It's not having to infer or interpret context as much.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

This sounds like something businesses could actually implement without hiring consultants. What would you recommend as the DIY approach?

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Start with your website. Create or update an FAQ section with the specific questions you want AI systems to answer correctly. Make sure your about page leads with clear, unambiguous statements about what you do and who you serve.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

And be specific about location and service area, especially for UK businesses. Don't just say we serve clients globally if you're primarily focused on the UK market. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

We've seen AI systems recommend London-based businesses to people asking for local services in Manchester because the business description was vague about their actual service area.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

That's a missed opportunity and probably frustrated customers on both sides. What about the more complex cases? When do businesses need professional help with this?

SPEAKER_03 5:42

When the misinformation is systematic across multiple AI systems, or when the correct information keeps getting overwritten by stronger incorrect signals elsewhere in your digital ecosystem, that usually requires a full audit of how your business appears across the web. At rank4ai.co.uk, we see this a lot with businesses that have been through mergers, rebrandings, or significant pivots. The old information has more digital weight than the new reality. Those situations often need what we call signal rebalancing, systematically strengthening the correct information sources while identifying and addressing the incorrect ones. It's detective work as much as it is marketing. Let's talk about monitoring. Once you've made these changes, how do you keep track of whether they're working? Set up a monthly check across the main AI systems. Same questions, document the answers, track changes over time. It sounds tedious, but it's the only way to know if your efforts are having the intended effect. And don't just check your company name, search for the problems you solve, the services you provide, see if you're appearing in AI responses when potential customers ask relevant questions. That's crucial. Being described correctly when someone searches for your business name is baseline. The real opportunity is appearing in AI responses when people ask about your industry or needs you can solve. Before we wrap up, what's the biggest mistake you see businesses making with this? Assuming that because their website is correct, AI systems will automatically get it right. These systems are pulling from hundreds of sources about your business. Your website is just one voice in that conversation. And the FRIP side, thinking it's too technical or complex to influence, most of the fixes we recommend are straightforward content and communications improvements, not technical wizardry.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

It's really about taking control of your business narrative across the entire digital ecosystem, not just your own properties.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

So to summarize for our listeners, check what AI systems are saying about you, identify the patterns in any incorrect information, strengthen the correct signals across multiple authoritative sources, and monitor the changes over time. And remember, this isn't a one-time fix.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

As AI systems evolve and your business grows, you need to maintain that accuracy.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

The businesses that start paying attention to this now will have a significant advantage as AI search becomes more prevalent. If you're dealing with systematic misinformation about your business across AI systems, or you want a comprehensive audit of how you appear in AI Search, check out our detailed case studies and services at rankforai.co.uk. Thanks for listening to AI Search Explained. I'm Adam Parker. And until next time, keep an eye on what AI is saying about your business, because your customers certainly are.