The short answer: To find out if AI recommends your business, ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity the questions your buyers ask, without your name in them, and write down who gets named. Do each question three times, because the answers change. If you are not named, the fix is usually on your own site: a clear page for each real buyer question, the same business details everywhere, and reviews that say what you actually do.
Most owners I speak to have the same worry. A customer told them, “I asked ChatGPT and it gave me your competitor.” Then they go quiet and wonder what to do.
Here is the good news first. You can find out where you stand in an afternoon, and you do not need a tool or an agency to do it. This guide shows you how, what the results mean, and what to change when your name does not come up.
Why this matters for a Kenyan business
When someone searches on Google, they get a list and choose. When someone asks an AI assistant, they often get one or two names and call one of them. If yours is not there, you were not in the running, and you will never see that lost customer in your reports.
How to check if AI recommends you
Do this in four steps. It takes about an hour the first time.
- Write ten questions your buyers really ask. Use their words, not yours. “Who can fix a slow WordPress website in Kenya?” is better than “WordPress optimisation services”. Leave your business name out of eight of them. Put it in the other two.
- Ask each one on four assistants. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Also run the same search on Google and read the AI answer at the top.
- Ask each question three times. The same question can give a different answer each time. One run is a guess. Three runs start to show a pattern.
- Write down three things for every answer: were you named, were you recommended, and was a link to your site shown. Also write down who was named instead.
Keep the sheet. In a month you ask the same questions again, and then you can see if anything moved. For a faster version built around Nairobi buyers, see our 30-minute AI test for Nairobi businesses.
What we found when we tested ourselves
We did not want to write this guide and skip the test. On 30 October 2026 we asked five AI tools 30 questions about SEO and AI visibility in Kenya, three times each. Twenty of the questions did not have our name in them. Ten did. We got 444 usable answers out of 450.
It varied a lot by tool. Perplexity named us in 19 of 60 answers and Gemini in 14. ChatGPT named us in 2 of 60. Google’s AI answer named us in 3 of 60.
One agency was named in 79 answers across the whole test. That is the sort of gap you can only see by writing the answers down.
Source: SEO Smart’s own test using DataForSEO, 30 October 2026. 30 questions, 3 runs each, on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI answer. Claude and Gemini did not accept the Kenya location setting, so they ran without it. Six Claude calls failed and are left out.
Check what AI says about you, not only whether it names you
When we used our name in the questions, some answers were wrong. One said we were founded in 2004. We were founded on 16 April 2020. Two said Mehul Shah is the CEO, when the title is Founder and Managing Director. Three gave an address on Kabete Lane, Spring Valley. Ours is Msapo Close, Nairobi.
If an assistant gets your address or your prices wrong, a buyer may never reach you. So when you run your test, read the detail as well as the name. Wrong facts usually come from old directory listings and pages that disagree with each other. We cover that in the fix list below.
What to do when AI does not name you
Do not try to fix everything. Pick the first three from this list, in this order.
- Make your business details match everywhere. Name, address and phone should be identical on your website, your Google Business Profile and every directory. Mismatches are the main reason AI repeats old or wrong facts.
- Write one page for each real buyer question. Answer it the way you would across the counter: how you do the job, what goes wrong, who it suits. Use the buyer’s own words in the heading. A page that only a business like yours could write is the one an assistant can quote. We explain this in how to get AI to mention your brand.
- Get honest reviews that describe the work. “Great service” tells an assistant nothing. “They fixed our slow checkout in two days” does. Our guide on Google reviews and local ranking shows how to ask without breaking Google’s rules.
- Let the bots in. Check your robots.txt does not block AI crawlers. Ours allows them. This takes five minutes.
- Fix the slow pages. Our own site loaded the main content in 10.7 seconds on a mobile test on 30 October 2026 (DataForSEO Lighthouse). That is a fail, and we are fixing it. If your site is slow, it hurts you in Google and in AI.
None of this is magic, and nobody can promise an assistant will name you. What you can do is give it clear, consistent, useful pages to draw from. For the wider picture, read Generative Engine Optimisation: the AI search authority playbook and how Google’s AI Overviews decides who to quote.
How long until it changes
Be careful with anyone who gives you a date. AI answers shift from week to week. What I can say is that few Kenyan businesses are doing this work yet, which is why the window is still open. We wrote about that in the first-mover window for AI search in Kenya. Test, change one or two things, then test again in a month.
Key points
- Check AI by asking the questions your buyers ask, without your name, on several assistants, three times each.
- Write down who is named, who is recommended, and who is linked. Also note who is named instead of you.
- Read what AI says about you. Wrong dates, titles and addresses are common and fixable.
- Fix business details first, then write one clear page per buyer question, then collect specific reviews.
- In SEO Smart’s own test on 30 October 2026, SEO Smart was mentioned in 48 answers to questions without its name, and the result differed a lot between tools.
Questions people ask
How do I know if ChatGPT recommends my business?
Ask it the questions your customers ask, with no business name in them, and read who it names. Repeat each question three times, since the answer can change. Do the same on Gemini, Claude and Perplexity.
Why does AI name my competitor and not me?
Usually because their details are clearer and more consistent across the web, or they have pages that answer the buyer’s question directly. Compare your pages with theirs and look for what they say that you do not.
Can I pay to be recommended by AI?
No. You cannot buy a place in an assistant’s answer. You can make your business easier to find, read and trust, and that is what the work involves.
How often should I check?
Once a month is enough for most businesses. Use the same questions each time so you can compare.
Does Google still matter?
Yes. Most people still search on Google, and Google now shows AI answers too. Good pages help in both.
Come and see where you stand
If you would like to know whether AI names your business, let us sit down together in Nairobi.
Bring the questions your customers ask before they buy. We will put them to the AI assistants in front of you, and you will see for yourself who gets named.
Mehul Shah, Founder and Managing Director, SEO Smart Limited
Mehul Shah is the Founder and Managing Director of SEO Smart Limited, a specialised SEO, GEO and AEO agency based in Kenya. With nearly 20 years of experience, Mehul helps agencies and businesses build scalable SEO strategies, performance-optimised websites, and conversion-driven content marketing frameworks.