The AI Search Briefing Special Report #5

Houston, we have a problem.
If your business is just now beginning to think about AI Search, the problem may be bigger than you thought.
Why?
Because your AI authority may have already been developing for years.
And much of that authority may have been developing in places you don’t directly control.

AI Doesn’t Learn About Your Business Only From You

For years, businesses have focused heavily on what they publish on their own websites.
That’s still important.
Your website should clearly explain who you are, what you do, where you operate, who you serve, and why someone should choose your company.
But there’s a bigger picture.
AI systems can encounter information about your business from many sources across the internet, including:

• Customer reviews
• Business directories
• News articles
• Industry websites
• Community discussions
• Social media platforms
• Other independent websites and sources

Those mentions can accumulate over time.
That’s important because, as Duane Forrester discussed in a recent Search Engine Journal article, part of a brand’s authority in the AI era may come from years of independent sources describing and discussing that brand.
In other words, your business isn’t the only one telling your story.
And it may not have been for a very long time.

You Can’t Just Tell AI You’re the Greatest

Imagine publishing 50 new blog posts proclaiming:
“We’re the greatest company in town!”
Does saying it 50 times make it true?
Of course not.
And we shouldn’t expect an AI system to conclude:
“Well, they said it 50 times. It MUST be true!”
What we want is evidence.
If your website says you’re experienced, are there other sources that support that?
If you say you’ve served your community for decades, does information elsewhere reinforce that history?
If you say customers love you, what do your customer reviews say?
If you say you provide a particular service in a particular community, do your Google Business Profile and other business listings tell the same story?
That’s where trust becomes important.

Houston, the Problem Is Bigger Than We Thought

Here’s the kicker.
Some of the information available to AI systems today may have been created years ago.
That means your business may have information scattered across the internet that is:
Old.
Incomplete.
Inconsistent.
Or simply: Wrong.
Maybe an old directory contains an outdated phone number.
Maybe an old business description lists services you no longer provide.
Maybe your hours changed years ago.
Maybe you’ve expanded into new communities that older sources don’t mention.
Maybe your company name or branding changed.
Maybe an old website is still online.
Maybe one source says one thing and another says something completely different.
A human being might look at two conflicting sources and figure out which one is current.
But why make Google or an AI system figure it out?

You Can Start Fixing It Today

You can’t go backward and rewrite everything that’s been published about your company during the past ten years.
But you can start improving the information available about your business today.
Start with your own digital foundation.
Make sure your website clearly explains who you are and what you do.
Keep your Google Business Profile accurate and active.
Earn legitimate customer reviews.
Look for opportunities to be mentioned by trusted websites, organizations, associations, news sources, and community resources.
Create genuinely useful content that people want to reference and talk about.
And then do something businesses frequently overlook:

Search for your own business.

Look beyond your website.
Look for old listings.
Old addresses.
Old phone numbers.
Old descriptions.
Old websites.
Incorrect services.
Duplicate profiles.
Conflicting information.
In other words: See what AI might see.

The Goal Isn’t to Manipulate AI

This is an important distinction.
We’re not trying to manufacture a fake reputation so an AI system will recommend a business that doesn’t deserve to be recommended.
We’re trying to make the digital representation of a legitimate business accurately reflect the business that exists in the real world.
If you’ve spent 20 or 30 years becoming excellent at what you do, that’s valuable.
If hundreds of customers have had great experiences with you, that’s valuable.
If you’re involved in your community, that’s valuable.
If other trusted organizations recognize your expertise, that’s valuable.
The goal is to make those signals easier for customers, Google, and AI systems to discover, understand, and verify.
And ultimately, you want to become the kind of business other people WANT to recommend.

Wait! Here’s an Interesting Apollo 13 Fact

We’ve been saying:
“Houston, we have a problem.”
for more than 30 years.
There’s just one problem.
Nobody aboard Apollo 13 actually said those exact words during the real mission.
When the problem aboard Apollo 13 occurred in April 1970, astronaut Jack Swigert reported:
“Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”
After Mission Control asked for the transmission to be repeated, Commander Jim Lovell responded:
“Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
Then came the 1995 movie Apollo 13.
The line became:
“Houston, we have a problem.”
And that’s the version that entered popular culture.
For more than 30 years, we’ve repeated it.
Movies.
Television.
Articles.
Websites.
Videos.
Social media.
Millions of people.
Over and over again.
Today, if you ask many people what the astronauts aboard Apollo 13 said, they’ll confidently tell you:
“Houston, we have a problem.”
Think about that for a second.
The version that became culturally dominant isn’t the wording from the actual 1970 transmission.
And that brings us right back to AI Search.

What Happens When AI Learns From What We’ve Been Repeating?

AI systems have access to an enormous amount of human-created information.
And humans repeat things.
Sometimes we repeat accurate information.
Sometimes we repeat outdated information.
Sometimes we repeat incomplete information.
And sometimes we repeat something so many times that eventually almost everyone assumes it must be true.
That’s why businesses need to start paying attention not only to what they say about themselves, but also to the broader information environment surrounding their brands.
What has the internet been saying about your business?
Is it accurate?
Is it current?
Is it consistent?
Does it reinforce the business you’ve become today?
Because in the age of AI Search, those questions matter.
Houston… we may have another problem.

The Bottom of the Bottom Line

Your AI Search strategy doesn’t begin and end with optimizing your website.
Your digital reputation may have been developing for years.
So start looking at the bigger picture.
Be Found.
Make it easy for Google, AI systems, and prospective customers to discover and understand your business.
Be Trusted.
Make sure your website, Google Business Profile, reviews, business listings, content, and independent sources consistently reinforce the truth about your company.
Be Recommended.
Build the clarity, consistency, evidence, and real-world reputation that give people and AI systems reasons to confidently recommend your business.

As always, think BIG! Be trusted! Be Recommended!