A growing share of customers no longer look for a supplier through ten blue links, they ask directly.
ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews give them a ready-made answer with two or three recommended companies, and the buying decision increasingly happens right there, without a single click on your website.
Whether your company appears in those answers is something you can test in 30 minutes, for free.
In this article, we'll show you how and what to do if AI doesn't recommend you.
What changed and why it affects B2B and local businesses too
Search is going through the biggest change since its inception. Google shows AI Overviews above the results, ChatGPT and Perplexity answer questions directly and recommend specific companies.
The key difference from classic SEO: AI doesn't give a list of ten links, it gives an answer.
Two or three companies appear in it, the rest don't exist.
A common misconception: "this only affects e-commerce and young people." The reality from our practice is different. Business owners ask AI too ("what system for tracking orders", "reliable agency for a website with payments"), and so do local customers ("English courses in Košice", "accountant for an LLC in Prešov"). It's precisely with local and specialised queries that the AI answer is at its narrowest — and who appears in it matters most.
And one more important mechanism: even a customer who eventually arrives via Google or a referral often verifies you through AI ("what do you know about company X?"). If AI knows nothing about you, or only fragments, your credibility drops before you even pick up the phone.
The 30-minute test: is your company in AI answers?
You don't need tools or an agency. Here's the process:
- Write down 8 queries your customers use. Not your company name, but the questions asked by a customer who doesn't know you yet. Combine:
- local queries ("[your service] [your city]"),
- problem queries ("how to solve [the problem you solve]"),
- comparison queries ("best [category] in Slovakia"),
- specific queries for your strongest disciplines.
- Ask three systems. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google (AI Overviews). Ideally in an incognito window, so your history doesn't skew the results.
- Record three things for each query: Are you in the answer? Who is there instead of you? Where does the AI cite from (Perplexity shows its sources directly)?
The result is an 8 × 3 table that tells you more than an hour-long presentation. The typical result for a company with a solid business and an older website: 1-2 hits out of 8, with competitors appearing in the answers, not because they're better, but because their website answers questions directly.
Why AI recommends your competitors instead of you
AI systems select sources by different criteria than classic Google. In practice, four causes of invisibility come up again and again:
- Your website talks about you, not about your customers' problems. With copy like "We are a dynamic company with an individual approach", AI can't answer anything. But with "How much does [your service] cost and what determines the price" it can.
- Concrete, quotable facts are missing. AI prefers content with numbers, prices (at least indicative), names, years of experience and specific locations. "A team of experienced professionals" is not a quotable fact; "14 branches, operating since 2003" is.
- Structured data (schema.org) is missing. The invisible layer of your website that tells AI systems what you are: a local business with an address and city, a service/product with a price, an FAQ page with questions and answers. Machine-readable = preferred.
- Nobody writes about your company anywhere else. AI assembles its picture from multiple sources: directories, reviews, industry articles, mentions. A company that exists only on its own website is a weak signal for AI.
What to do about it and in what order
The good news: most of your competition isn't addressing this, so the ranking in AI answers is currently an open contest with a low cost of entry. A sequence that makes sense:
- Visibility test (above), so you know where you stand and who's ahead of you.
- Content that answers questions - pages and articles structured as direct answers: question in the heading, answer in the first paragraph, details after.
- Structured data - schema.org markup for your company, services, FAQ and branches.
- Consistent entities - the same company name, addresses and services across your website and external sources.
- Measurement and iteration - repeat the test from step 1 quarterly, because AI answers change faster than Google results.
Exactly how we went through this process ourselves, including what worked and what didn't, is covered in a separate article: GEO in action - how AI started recommending us.
Conclusion
Whether AI recommends you is being decided right now, while most of the market isn't paying attention. The 30-minute test will tell you where you stand. If the result isn't flattering, it's not a reason to panic, it's a reason to follow the steps above.
And if you want both the test and the fix from someone who has been through it on their own website, get in touch. We always start with a visibility test, not a sales pitch.
FAQ
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)? Optimising your website and content for AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) so they include your company in their answers and recommendations. While SEO optimises your position in a list of links, GEO optimises your presence in the finished answer.
How do I find out whether AI search engines recommend my company? Write down 8 questions your customers ask (local, problem-based, comparison), and ask them in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google in an incognito window. Record whether you're in the answer, who is there instead of you, and which sources the AI cites. The test takes up to 30 minutes.
Why doesn't AI recommend my company even though we've been on the market for years? Most often because your website talks about the company instead of the customers' problems, and it lacks quotable facts (prices, numbers, locations), structured data (schema.org) and mentions beyond your own website. AI picks sources that answer questions directly and are machine-readable.
Is GEO a replacement for SEO? No, it's an extension. The technical foundations (a fast website, clean structure, indexability) remain a precondition; GEO adds content in the form of direct answers, structured data and consistent entities. Good GEO usually improves classic SEO as well.
