Millions of people now ask AI platforms questions that directly affect purchase decisions. If your brand doesn't appear in those answers, you're losing opportunities you might not even know about. Here are 10 warning signs that your brand is invisible to AI — and what to do about each one.
1. AI Platforms Don't Mention You When Asked About Your Category
Try this: ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity "What are the best [your category] tools/brands?" If you're not in the answer, you have an AI visibility problem. The brands that appear have stronger authority signals, more citations, and better-structured content than you.
Fix: Start with a comprehensive AI visibility audit. Understand which competitors appear and why. Build a strategy to improve your authority and citation signals in your category.
2. Your Competitors Show Up Instead of You
When a potential customer asks an AI about your market and your competitors are recommended but you're not, every one of those interactions is a lost opportunity. The AI isn't biased — it's reflecting the signals available in its training data and retrieval sources.
Fix: Identify the source gaps — which sources cite your competitors but not you. Create comparison content that positions you alongside competitors. Earn mentions in the same publications and platforms that reference your competition.
3. You Have No FAQ Page
FAQ pages with structured data (FAQPage schema) are one of the most citable content formats for LLMs. A well-structured FAQ directly answers questions that users ask AI platforms. Without one, you're missing one of the easiest wins in AI visibility.
Fix: Create a comprehensive FAQ page covering product, pricing, technical, and industry questions. Implement FAQPage schema markup. Update it regularly with new questions from customer support.
4. Your Website Lacks Structured Data
JSON-LD schemas (Organization, Product, FAQ, HowTo, BreadcrumbList) help AI systems understand and accurately represent your content. Without structured data, AI models have to interpret your content from raw HTML — which means less accurate and less frequent citations.
Fix: Implement key schemas: Organization (who you are), Product (what you offer), FAQ (common questions), HowTo (how to use your product), and BreadcrumbList (site structure). Validate with Google's Rich Results Test.
5. You Have No Comparison or "vs" Content
When users ask "What's the difference between [Brand A] and [Brand B]?" or "Which is better, X or Y?", LLMs heavily reference comparison content. If you haven't created honest, detailed comparison pages, you're letting others frame the narrative.
Fix: Create comparison pages that honestly compare your offering to key competitors. Include feature tables, pricing comparisons, and clear differentiators. Be honest — LLMs can detect and discount biased content.
6. Your Content Doesn't Directly Answer Questions
AI models prefer content that provides clear, direct answers to specific questions. If your content is vague, overly promotional, or buries the answer in lengthy paragraphs, LLMs will cite a competitor who provides clearer answers.
Fix: Audit your key content pages. Does each page clearly answer a specific question? Use clear headings (H2, H3) that match common questions. Provide direct answers in the first paragraph, then elaborate.
7. You Haven't Published Original Research or Data
Original research and unique data are among the most citable content types. When an AI model needs to support a claim with evidence, it references sources with original data. Brands that publish industry reports, surveys, or unique analyses get cited disproportionately.
Fix: Identify data you uniquely have access to. Publish annual reports, surveys, or benchmark studies in your domain. Even simple data visualizations and statistics from your platform can become citable assets.
8. Your Technical SEO Has Issues
If AI crawlers can't access your content, they can't cite it. Blocked robots.txt directives, slow page speeds, JavaScript rendering issues, incomplete sitemaps, and broken links all reduce your AI visibility.
Fix: Run a technical audit. Ensure AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) are allowed in robots.txt. Optimize page speed. Fix broken links. Ensure your sitemap is complete and current.
9. You Don't Monitor AI Mentions
If you're not monitoring how AI platforms mention (or don't mention) your brand, you're operating blind. You can't improve what you don't measure. Many brands discover they have AI visibility problems only after a competitor points it out — or after lost revenue becomes undeniable.
Fix: Use an AI visibility monitoring platform like Batwise to systematically track your brand's presence across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and other platforms. Monitor citation frequency, sentiment, and context.
10. Your Brand Narrative is Inconsistent
LLMs synthesize information from dozens of sources. If your brand messaging varies significantly across your website, social media, press releases, and third-party mentions, the AI model receives conflicting signals. This leads to vague, inconsistent, or absent mentions.
Fix: Audit your brand messaging across all channels. Ensure consistent positioning, value propositions, and key differentiators everywhere your brand appears. Consistency builds clarity for AI models.
The Checklist
Use this as a quick diagnostic. If you checked three or more of these signs, you likely have a significant AI visibility gap:
- AI platforms don't mention your brand for category queries
- Competitors appear instead of you
- No FAQ page with schema markup
- Missing or incomplete structured data
- No comparison content
- Content doesn't directly answer questions
- No original research or data published
- Technical SEO issues (crawlability, speed, sitemap)
- Not monitoring AI mentions
- Inconsistent brand narrative across channels
The good news: every one of these problems is fixable. The brands that address them now will have a significant head start as AI search continues to grow.