That blind spot is expensive. 66% of senior decision-makers now use AI tools during procurement research. If your business isn't appearing in those answers, you're not losing a ranking. You're losing the conversation entirely.

Here's how to find out where you stand.

How do you check if AI search engines mention your business?

Open ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google Gemini. Type in the questions your ideal buyer would ask when looking for a business like yours. Read the responses. See if your company appears.

That's it. No tools required. No subscription needed. The platforms are free to use and the results are immediate.

What you're looking for in each response:

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  Cited with a linkThe platform names your business and links to your website. This is the strongest form of AI visibility.
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  Mentioned by nameThe platform references your business but doesn't link to you. You're on the radar but not a primary source.
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  AbsentYour business doesn't appear at all. Competitors might. Or the AI might recommend a category of businesses without naming anyone specific. Either way, you're not in the conversation.

Record what you find for each platform and each query. The pattern will tell you more than any individual result.

Which AI platforms should you test?

There are six platforms worth checking. Each one draws from different sources and uses different signals to decide who to cite.

• 01.
  ChatGPTThe most widely used AI platform for general queries. Draws heavily from Bing's index (87% correlation with Bing's top 10 results). Referring domains are its strongest signal.
• 02.
  ClaudeAnthropic's AI assistant. Emphasises methodology transparency, primary sources, and well-attributed claims. Growing rapidly in professional and technical use cases.
• 03.
  PerplexityThe research-focused AI. Weights freshness at approximately 40% of its ranking signal. Leans heavily on Reddit, Wikipedia, and YouTube as sources.
• 04.
  Google Gemini and AI OverviewsGoogle's AI features, appearing above organic results. Favour multi-modal content (text plus images plus video) and strong E-E-A-T signals. 96% of AI Overview citations come from sources with verified authority.
• 05.
  Microsoft CopilotIntegrated into the Microsoft ecosystem. Requires Bing indexing as a prerequisite. Citation rates decay by 97% over 91 days, making freshness critical.
• 06.
  GrokX's AI platform. Cross-references web content with X posts and academic sources. Most useful if your industry has an active presence on X.

What queries should you use to test AI visibility?

Don't test with your company name. That tells you whether the AI knows you exist. It doesn't tell you whether the AI recommends you when a buyer is looking for what you sell.

Use these five query types:

• 01.
  Recommendation queries"Who are the best [your service] companies in [your location]?" These directly drive buying decisions. If you don't appear here, buyers who use AI are building shortlists without you.
• 02.
  Problem queries"How do companies solve [the problem you solve]?" These test whether the AI associates your business with the problems you fix.
• 03.
  Comparison queries"[Your service] vs [alternative approach]?" Buyers ask these when weighing options. The businesses that appear get considered. The ones that don't, don't.
• 04.
  Category queries"What is [your industry term]?" These test whether the AI cites you as a knowledge source, not just a service provider.
• 05.
  Trust queries"[Your company name] reviews" or "Is [your company] any good?" These test what the AI says about you when someone asks directly. Conflicting information across the web can make the AI express uncertainty instead of confidence.

Write two queries for each type. Run all ten through all six platforms. That gives you 60 data points, enough to see where you're strong, where you're absent, and which competitors are taking the citations you're not.

What does it mean if you are not visible?

If your business doesn't appear in AI search results, it doesn't mean your business is bad. It means the AI doesn't have enough reason to cite you.

AI platforms build responses from the information available to them. If your website has thin content, no schema markup, no author attribution, and no third-party mentions, the AI has no material to draw from. It will cite businesses that do have those signals, regardless of whether those businesses are actually better than yours.

The most common reasons for low AI visibility:

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  Not enough contentOne blog post and a few service pages doesn't give the AI enough material. Topical authority, which correlates at r=0.41 with AI citation (the strongest single predictor), requires depth. 80% of URLs cited by AI don't rank in Google's top 100 (Ahrefs). Traditional SEO rankings aren't the issue. Content depth is.
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  No third-party validationAI platforms weight what others say about you 6.5 times more than what you say about yourself. If your business isn't mentioned on industry directories, review platforms, or discussion forums, the AI has no external validation to draw from.
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  Technical barriersIf your robots.txt blocks AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot), they can't read your site. If your content is rendered only through JavaScript, many AI crawlers can't access it at all.
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  No structured dataSchema markup improves AI citation rates by 44-73%. Without it, the AI has to work harder to understand what your page is about and what your business does.
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  Brand entity confusionIf different platforms describe your business differently (outdated directories, old company descriptions, name variations), the AI becomes less confident about citing you. Consistency across the web matters.

The good news: these are all fixable. None of them require rebuilding your website from scratch.

What is an AI visibility score?

An AI visibility score is a standardised measure of how often and how prominently your business appears in AI-generated responses across multiple platforms and query types.

1DOT's scoring model works across seven categories: AI citation rate (how often you appear), platform breadth (how many platforms cite you), citation quality (mentioned vs linked vs recommended), competitor share of voice (your visibility relative to competitors), technical readiness (crawler access, schema, rendering), content extractability (whether your content is structured for AI to cite), and brand entity consistency (whether your information is accurate and consistent across the web).

The score isn't academic. It maps directly to action. A business scoring below 30 has fundamental gaps (typically content volume and technical access). A business scoring 30-60 has the foundation but needs targeted work on specific platforms and query categories. A business above 60 is in optimisation mode, refining what's already working.

What to do if your AI visibility is low

If your quick test shows you're not appearing, here's the sequence that matters.

• 01.
  Check crawler access firstOpen your robots.txt and verify GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended are allowed. Blocking them doesn't make you invisible (AI platforms can still cite you based on third-party sources and training data), but it prevents your own content from being a direct source. Allowing access gives you control over what gets cited. Five-minute fix.
• 02.
  Look at your content volume honestlyHow many substantial pages does your site have? If the answer is fewer than 20, the AI simply doesn't have enough material to build confidence in your authority. Topical authority requires depth. One blog post and a few service pages won't get you cited.
• 03.
  Check your third-party presenceSearch for your business name across Google, LinkedIn, Clutch, G2, and industry directories. Is the information accurate? Is it consistent? Are you listed at all? Third-party mentions drive AI citations 6.5 times more effectively than your own website content.
• 04.
  Review your content structureAre there clear, self-contained passages that an AI could extract and quote? Are there FAQ sections? Are statistics cited with sources? AI platforms don't rank pages. They extract passages. Your content needs to be built for extraction.
• 05.
  Consider a proper auditThe quick test tells you whether the problem exists. A proper audit tells you why, how severe it is relative to competitors, and exactly what to fix first. 1DOT's audit covers seven categories across all six AI platforms, including technical readiness, content extractability, brand entity consistency, and competitor share of voice. It's the difference between knowing you're invisible and knowing what to do about it.

Next steps

You now know how to check. The question is what the results tell you.

If you appeared consistently across platforms: you're ahead of most UK B2B companies. The focus shifts to maintaining and extending that position.

If you appeared on some platforms but not others: there are platform-specific gaps to close. Each platform has different signals, and targeted work on the weak ones can shift results within weeks.

If you didn't appear at all: that's the most common result. It's also the clearest signal. The buyers using AI to research suppliers in your space are not finding you. Every week that continues is a week your competitors build citations you'll need to displace later.

Pricing depends on your scope and goals. The initial audit is free. 1DOT's free AI visibility audit maps the full picture across six platforms, seven scoring categories, and your specific competitive landscape. It takes 48 hours and costs nothing.