Test: do AI assistants recommend your business?
Customers increasingly ask an AI assistant “which plumber should I call in Laval?”. This test gives you the ten questions to ask and a grid to score the answers.
To find out whether AI assistants recommend your business, ask them the questions your customers would ask, with your trade and city, and note whether your name appears. This test generates 10 typical questions; repeat it monthly in six assistants, because their answers change with the day, the person and the wording.
In short
- 10 questions adapted to your trade and city, asked in 6 assistants: up to 60 answers to score.
- Pilotiko does not query any AI on your behalf: you see exactly what your customers see.
- A score of 0/10 is common for an SMB: it is a starting point, not a failure.
How do you run the test properly?
- 1
Enter your trade and city
Use your customers' words (“plumber”, not “building mechanics company”).
- 2
Open a private window
Logged out if possible: personal history influences answers.
- 3
Ask each question as written
In ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Google's AI Mode.
- 4
Tick when your business is named
Also note the competitors named and the sources shown: those are the pages the AI read.
- 5
Repeat on the same day each month
Compare scores: the trend is what matters.
How do you score the results?
| Assistant | Questions where you are named | Competitors named | Sources cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 2/10 | 3 | Yellow Pages, a competitor's site |
| Gemini | 1/10 | 4 | Google listings |
| Perplexity | 3/10 | 3 | Your site, a directory |
| Claude | 0/10 | 2 | — |
| Copilot | 1/10 | 3 | Bing Places |
| Google AI Mode | 2/10 | 4 | Google listings, reviews |
Fictional example: 9 mentions out of 60 answers, a 15% share of voice.
What if you are never named?
Start with the visibility audit: it flags blocked AI crawlers and missing structured data. Companies that publish their crawlers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity) explain how they read sites [2][3][4], and Google describes how its AI features rely on indexed pages [1].
Frequently asked questions
Why do answers change from one time to the next?
Assistants generate a fresh answer for each question, sometimes with a live web search. Wording, language, location and the person's history all influence the result, so measure often and watch the trend.
Can Pilotiko run the test automatically?
No, not at this time. Pilotiko does not query any AI assistant on your behalf. The manual test has one advantage: you see exactly what your customers see.
What is the difference between being named and being cited?
Being named means appearing in the answer. Being cited means your site appears among the sources shown. Track both: a citation shows the assistant read your page.
How long before I see a change?
There is no guaranteed delay. Assistants that search live can reflect a site change within weeks; those relying on older data can take much longer.
Should I test in French too?
Yes, if you serve French-speaking customers. Results can differ greatly between languages; this test is also available in French.
Sources
- Google Search Central, Fonctionnalités d'IA et votre site Web (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- OpenAI, Overview of OpenAI Crawlers (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Perplexity, Perplexity Crawlers (accessed on October 15, 2026).
- Anthropic, Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler? (accessed on October 15, 2026).
Read next
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Check in 20 seconds whether your site is ready for Google and AI assistants: title, structured data, FAQ, sitemap, llms.txt, AI crawlers and mobile readiness.
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Which AI crawlers to let in, how to write robots.txt and what content AI engines can actually cite. A practical guide for Quebec service businesses.
Measuring your visibility in Google and AI engines, without fooling yourself
Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and a fixed set of questions tested monthly: a simple way to see whether Google and AI assistants cite your business.
GEO: what is generative engine optimization?
Generative Engine Optimization explained: where the term comes from, what research and Google say about AI answers, and a scored page check for a Quebec SME.