Buyers Ask AI About You. AI Gets It Wrong. You Are Already Eliminated.
The article argues that B2B buyers now use AI assistants as their primary research tool before ever visiting a vendor's site. If an AI doesn't know your business or misrepresents it, you lose the deal before a human ever looks you up. The recommended first step is asking two or three AI assistants what they already know about your company.
This illustrates the concept of algorithmic intermediation, where your buyer no longer reads your website directly but instead consumes an AI's summary of you. The mental model is simple: you no longer optimize for humans reading pages. You optimize for machines interpreting meaning. If the intermediary gets you wrong, the human never arrives.
The piece is aimed at B2B companies whose buyers conduct purchase research through AI assistants. No specific companies are named, but the method is universally applicable.
- Open ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini and ask each one 'What does [your company] do?' Note where each gets it right and where each hallucinates or omits key information.
- For each inaccuracy or gap, update your website's About page and homepage with clear, plain-language descriptions of your product, services, and target market.
- Re-ask the same assistants in one week. The goal is to see whether the corrected information has propagated into their responses.