Blog · November 1 2026

A 10 minute test: ask ChatGPT and Google AI about your own business

You do not need a consultant to find out how AI sees your business. You need ten minutes, your phone, and the willingness to read the answer like a customer would. This is the exact self audit we suggest to owners in Hamilton and across the GTA, and it is often an eye opener.

Step one: ask who it recommends, without naming yourself

Open ChatGPT and ask the question your customer asks, in their words, with your city and your trade: who is a good roofer in Burlington, which physiotherapist in Hamilton takes new patients, recommend a dog groomer near me in Etobicoke. Then do the same in a Google search and read the AI Overview at the top. Write down every business named. If you are on the list, note where. If you are not, note who is, because those names are your real competition now, and their online presence is the bar. Repeat with a second question about your most profitable service, not just your trade in general.

Step two: ask about your business directly

Now name yourself: what do you know about my business, what services do we offer, what are our hours, are we well reviewed. Read the answer slowly. Most owners find one of three things. The tool knows almost nothing, and says so or guesses vaguely. The tool knows you but gets details wrong: old hours, a service you dropped, a phone number from years ago. Or the tool describes you accurately but thinly, with none of the services you most want to sell. Every one of those outcomes is information. AI is showing you exactly what the public record about your business contains, because that record is all it has.

Step three: check the facts it used

Ask a few specific questions and compare the answers against reality: your address, your service area, your prices if you publish them, how to book. Wherever the answer is wrong, there is an outdated or conflicting source out there with your name on it: an old directory listing, a stale profile, a website page nobody updated. Find it and fix it at the source. Wrong facts repeated by AI usually trace back to one neglected listing, and they keep repeating until that listing is corrected.

How to read your results honestly

• Not named at all: your business is not readable enough yet. The fix is foundations: website, profile, listings, reviews.
• Named, but described wrong: you have conflicting facts in public. The fix is consistency, one correct version everywhere.
• Named for some services, missing for others: your best services are not written down where machines read. The fix is service pages and a completed profile.
• Named and described well: protect it. Keep reviews coming, keep facts current, and check again every few months.

One caution: run the test in a fresh conversation, and do not lead the witness by describing your business first. And expect answers to vary a little between tools and days. You are looking for the pattern, not a single verdict.

Then fix in order

Start with the facts: name, address, phone, hours, identical everywhere. Then the foundations: a website that states your services and areas in plain text, and a completed Google Business Profile pointing at it. Then the proof: a steady flow of real reviews, answered. That order matters, because each layer makes the next one believable. Ten minutes of honest testing, repeated a few times a year, will tell you more about your visibility than any sales pitch, including ours.