Ask the AI tools directly. Run the questions your buyers ask into ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and note who gets named and which sources get cited. If competitors appear and you do not, they usually sit inside the third-party sources AI trusts, the listicles, reviews and threads. Find those sources, then get into them.
This is one of the most uncomfortable questions in modern marketing, because the loss is invisible. When a buyer asked Google, you could at least see the rankings. When a buyer asks ChatGPT "who is the best option for my situation" and the answer is a competitor, no impression is logged, no click is missed in your analytics, and you never know it happened. The good news is that you can audit it directly, and it does not require a budget.
Run the Audit Yourself
You do not need a tool to start. You need the questions your buyers actually ask. Write down ten to twenty of them in plain language, the way a real person would type them into a chatbot. Mix the types: category questions ("what is the best [your category] for [your ideal customer]"), comparison questions ("[competitor] alternatives" or "[you] vs [competitor]"), and problem questions ("how do I solve [the problem you fix]").
Then run each one through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and write down what you see: which brands are named, in what order, which sources the answer cites, and whether you appear at all. Perplexity is especially useful here because it shows its sources openly, so you can see exactly which pages it trusts for your category. Record it in a simple table of query, brands named, sources cited, and whether you were present. That table is your baseline.
The Three Things to Measure
Once you have run your prompt set, three numbers tell you where you stand.
Mention frequency. Across your fixed list of questions, how often does your brand get named at all? Zero is common for businesses that have not started this work, and it is a clear starting line.
Share of voice. Of all the brands named across your questions, what percentage are you, versus each competitor? This is the number that answers the actual question in the title. If one competitor takes half the mentions and you take none, you have your answer.
Sentiment and accuracy. When you are mentioned, is the description correct and is it flattering? Being named inaccurately can be worse than being absent, so this matters as much as frequency, especially in regulated or trust-heavy categories.
Why AI Picks Them and Not You
When a competitor keeps appearing and you do not, it is almost never because the AI has judged their product better. It is because they are present in the sources the AI draws from, and you are not. Look at the citations in your audit and you will usually see the same culprits: they appear in the "best X for Y" listicles for your category, they have reviews on the platforms AI trusts, they are discussed by real people on Reddit and Quora, and they have a clear, consistent entity footprint so the model recommends them with confidence. This is the practical reality behind The Human Algorithm: the brand other people vouch for is the brand AI repeats.
How to Close the Gap
Your audit hands you the plan, because it shows you the exact sources AI cites for your category. Closing the gap means getting into those sources, in priority order.
- Map the cited sources. List every page and platform the AI cited across your prompt set. Those are the rooms your buyers are being advised in.
- Pursue the listicles. For the "best X for Y" articles where competitors appear and you do not, reach out to the authors and make the case for inclusion. This is the single highest-leverage move.
- Build the reviews and community presence. Earn reviews on the platforms in your citations, and contribute genuinely in the communities where your category is discussed.
- Fix your entity. One name, one descriptor, consistent everywhere, with Organisation schema, so the model can recommend you without ambiguity.
- Re-run the audit monthly. Watch your share of voice move, and double down on whatever shifts it.
For the full method behind step two and three, see how to get your startup mentioned in ChatGPT.
Tools That Track This For You
Manual auditing is free and it is genuinely the right place to start, because it forces you to read what the AI actually says. Five minutes a week beats any dashboard you never open. When you want to track more questions, more often, and across more engines, dedicated AI visibility trackers exist that run large prompt sets automatically and chart your share of voice over time. Our own free AI Citation Checker and AI Visibility Report give you a fast baseline without a subscription, so you can see where you and your competitors stand before deciding whether a paid tracker is worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see the actual ChatGPT conversations my buyers have?
No. Those conversations are private, so you cannot see real buyer chats. What you can do is sample the same questions yourself, run a fixed prompt set every month, and track how often you and your competitors are named. That sample is a reliable proxy for what your buyers are being told.
How often should I check whether AI recommends my competitors?
Monthly is a sensible rhythm for most founders. AI answers shift as sources change, so a single check is only a snapshot. Running the same prompt set each month lets you see trends, prove what your work moved, and catch a competitor pulling ahead before it costs you pipeline.
What should I do if AI describes my business inaccurately?
Treat it as urgent. An inaccurate description can do more damage than absence. Fix the source of the error first, usually your own pages and your entity signals, then build correct, consistent information across the third-party sources the AI cites. Over time the model updates to reflect the corrected picture.
Is there a free way to check if AI recommends competitors instead of me?
Yes. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, type the questions your buyers ask, and record who is named and which sources are cited. It costs nothing but your time. Our free AI Citation Checker speeds up the baseline if you would rather not do it by hand.