- Why can't anyone promise a ChatGPT recommendation?
- What can you influence about how AI assistants describe you?
- What does a fair promise from an AI visibility provider look like?
- Red flags in AI recommendation pitches
- How do you check what ChatGPT says about you now?
- If you're considering me for AI visibility work
- Frequently asked questions
No. Nobody can guarantee ChatGPT will recommend your business, because nobody outside the AI company controls its answers, and those answers shift with the wording, the location, the model and whether it searches the web. What you can do is make your business easier to find, understand and cite. I'm Lilach Bullock, I've spent 21 years in marketing, and I help small businesses with that groundwork as one option among many.
Last checked: October 2026.
If someone has told you they can get ChatGPT to recommend your business by a certain date, I'd love you to read this before you sign anything. It's a fair thing to want. More people ask AI assistants which accountant, coach, software or agency to choose, and it's unsettling when your business isn't in the answer. But wanting it badly is exactly why these promises land, so let's look at what's really possible.
Why can't anyone promise a ChatGPT recommendation?
ChatGPT doesn't keep a fixed list of recommended businesses that someone can get you onto. Each answer is written fresh, from a mix of what the model learned in training and, often, what it finds when it searches the web at that moment. That means the answer depends on things nobody selling you a service controls.
- The exact wording: "best bookkeeper for a small bakery" and "who should do my books" can produce different names.
- The run itself: ask the same question twice and you may get two different lists.
- Location: the assistant may tailor answers to where the person asking seems to be.
- The model: different versions of ChatGPT, and different assistants such as Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, behave differently.
- Web search: when the assistant searches live, it leans on whatever pages it finds and trusts in that moment.
Put those together and you can see why a guarantee doesn't hold up. Even the AI companies don't promise which businesses their assistants will name.
What can you influence about how AI assistants describe you?
Quite a lot, as it happens. You can't control the answer, but you can make it much easier for an assistant to find you, understand what you do and feel confident naming you. Most of this is good marketing practice that helps with Google too.
- Answer-first pages. Put a clear, plain answer to your buyers' main questions in the opening lines of the relevant pages.
- Consistent naming. Use the same business name, description and details across your site, social profiles and listings.
- Reviews and listings. Keep your profiles on review sites and directories complete and current, and ask happy customers for reviews.
- Structured data. Add schema markup so machines can read your business name, what you offer and where you work.
- Third-party mentions. Earn coverage, interviews and mentions on sites AI assistants already trust and cite in your field.
- Crawler access. Check that your site doesn't block the crawlers AI assistants use to read the web.
If you'd like a feel for how one assistant chooses sources, my notes on getting cited by Perplexity walk through it step by step. The same thinking carries over to ChatGPT.
What does a fair promise from an AI visibility provider look like?
A fair promise is about the work and the reporting, never the outcome inside someone else's product. Here's what an honest provider can reasonably commit to.
| What they can fairly promise | What that looks like in practice |
|---|---|
| The work they'll do | A clear list of pages to rewrite, listings to fix and mentions to pursue. |
| The questions they'll track | A fixed set of buyer questions, agreed with you, checked across several assistants. |
| Honest reporting | The raw answers, including the weeks you weren't named, with notes on what changed. |
| Their reasoning | Plain explanations of why each change should help, and what they'll try next if it doesn't. |
Notice that none of these says "you'll be recommended". That's not a weakness in the offer. It's the honest shape of this kind of work, and it's how you'll spot the people worth trusting.
Red flags in AI recommendation pitches
Most people selling AI visibility mean well. A few don't, and their pitches tend to share the same tells. Be wary of anyone who:
- Offers guaranteed placement in ChatGPT, Gemini or any other assistant, or a fixed date for it.
- Claims a secret partnership or special access with OpenAI, Google or another AI company.
- Offers to buy mentions, fake reviews or bulk listings on low-quality sites to sway the answers.
- Won't show you the questions they're tracking or the full answers behind their report.
- Talks only about ChatGPT and dismisses every other assistant your customers might use.
- Promises to "train" ChatGPT on your business by submitting something to it.
Bought mentions and fake reviews are the riskiest of these. They can damage trust with real customers, break the rules of the sites involved and leave a mess you'll have to clean up later.
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How do you check what ChatGPT says about you now?
Before you hire anyone, spend half an hour looking for yourself. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and ask the questions your customers would ask, in their words. Try a few variations and write down who gets named and which sources are mentioned. Ask each one directly what it knows about your business, too. If the description is vague or wrong, that's a useful starting point, because it usually points to unclear pages or patchy details elsewhere online.
Repeat the same questions in a month. You'll see the wobble for yourself, and you'll have a simple baseline to judge any provider against. It also helps to understand where AEO and SEO differ, since much of the groundwork overlaps.
If you're considering me for AI visibility work
I won't promise you a ChatGPT recommendation, because I can't, and neither can anyone else. What I do is look at how AI assistants describe your business today, explain what's behind it in plain English, and help you fix the pages, details and mentions that make you easier to cite. I bring 21 years in marketing and a habit of honest reporting. I'm a good fit for small business owners and marketing leads who want one person to talk to. I'm not the right fit if you're after a guaranteed outcome or a large content team. You can see the AI search work I do and decide for yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Can you buy a recommendation from ChatGPT?
No. There's no official way to buy a place in ChatGPT's answers. Anyone offering guaranteed recommendations is selling something the AI company doesn't offer.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitors and not me?
Usually because their details are clearer, more consistent or more widely mentioned online. Check your answer-first pages, reviews, listings and third-party mentions, and compare them with the businesses being named.
How long does it take for ChatGPT to start mentioning my business?
There's no fixed timeline. Assistants that search the web can pick up clearer pages fairly quickly, while what a model learned in training changes only when a new version is released.
Is it worth hiring someone to improve how AI assistants see my business?
It can be, if they're honest about what they control. Look for someone who promises clear work and transparent reporting rather than a guaranteed recommendation.
Does Google ranking help with ChatGPT recommendations?
Often, yes. When ChatGPT searches the web, it tends to read pages that are already easy to find and trusted, so good search practice and AI visibility work support each other.
