What is AI reputation monitoring?

AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude now recommend specific businesses when customers ask "who should I hire?" or "best plumber near me." AI reputation monitoring tracks what these platforms say about your business — whether you're being recommended, what claims are being made, and how you compare to competitors. Most businesses have zero visibility into this new channel.

Which AI platforms does Pulse monitor?

Pulse monitors the six major AI platforms that consumers use to find businesses: ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), Claude (Anthropic), Grok (xAI), Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Each platform has different data sources and ranking signals, so what one recommends may differ from another.

How does Pulse know what AI says about my business?

Pulse sends real customer-style queries to each AI platform — the same kinds of questions your potential customers are asking. It captures the actual responses, extracts who gets recommended, identifies citation sources, and analyzes whether the information about your business is accurate, outdated, or missing entirely.

How is this different from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO tools monitor your Google search rankings and website traffic. Pulse monitors a completely different channel: what AI assistants say when customers ask conversational questions like "who should I hire for kitchen remodeling in Denver?" These AI recommendations are becoming a major source of leads, and the signals that influence them — citation consistency, content authority, structured data — overlap with but are distinct from traditional SEO ranking factors.

Can I see what my competitors are doing differently?

Yes. Pulse tracks which competitors get recommended alongside or instead of your business, reveals the citation sources AI platforms trust, and shows you exactly why competitors may be ranking higher. You can see their mention frequency, the authority signals they've built, and get specific recommendations to close the gap.

How quickly will I see results?

Your first scan completes in minutes, giving you an immediate snapshot of your AI visibility across all six platforms. The recommendations engine generates a prioritized action plan right away. Most businesses that follow the roadmap see measurable score improvements within 2-4 weeks, as AI platforms update their knowledge bases regularly.

Do I need technical expertise?

No. Pulse provides plain-language recommendations with specific, actionable steps anyone can follow — like "update your business name on Yelp to match your Google listing." For technical tasks like schema markup or structured data, our vetted providers can handle implementation for you.

What if AI already recommends my business?

That's great — but AI recommendations shift constantly as platforms update their models and data sources. Pulse helps you protect your position by monitoring for changes, alerting you when competitors gain ground, and identifying new opportunities to strengthen your recommendation profile. Think of it as ongoing insurance for your AI visibility.

Is there a free trial?

You can run a free scan right from our homepage to see how AI platforms currently perceive your business. Paid plans start at $29/month per location and include ongoing monitoring, the full recommendation engine, competitor tracking, and priority support.

Can I monitor multiple locations?

Yes. Pulse supports per-location scans with aggregated dashboards, so you can see how each branch or service area performs across AI platforms. Team collaboration features include role-based access (viewer, editor, manager) and invitation management, making it easy to coordinate across locations.

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Guide8 min read

What Is AI Reputation Management? The Complete Guide for 2026

AI assistants now recommend businesses to millions of users daily. Learn what AI reputation management is, why it matters, and how to take control of what AI says about your business.

February 15, 2026Pulse Team

When a customer asks ChatGPT "who's the best plumber in Austin?" or tells Claude "I need a reliable accountant near me," they're not searching Google. They're getting a direct recommendation from an AI assistant — and that recommendation is based on a completely different set of signals than traditional search.

This is AI reputation management: the practice of monitoring, understanding, and improving how AI assistants perceive and recommend your business.

Why AI Reputation Matters Now

The shift is already happening. Millions of people use AI assistants daily to find businesses, compare services, and make purchasing decisions. Unlike Google, which shows a list of links, AI assistants give a direct answer — often recommending just one or two businesses.

If your business isn't the one being recommended, you're invisible in this channel.

Here's what makes this different from traditional online reputation:

AI answers are authoritative. Users treat them as trusted advice, not just search results.
There's no page two. AI either recommends you or it doesn't.
The signals are different. AI draws from directory listings, structured data, review signals, content authority, and citation consistency — not just backlinks and keywords.

What AI Assistants Look At

Each AI platform (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Perplexity, Copilot) uses different data sources, but they all look for similar signals:

Citation consistency — Is your business name, address, and phone number identical across directories?
Content authority — Do you have clear, structured content that answers the questions AI is being asked?
Review signals — What do your reviews say, and how recent are they?
Structured data — Does your website use schema markup that AI can easily parse?
Data freshness — When was the information about your business last updated?

The Three Pillars of AI Reputation Management

1. Monitoring

You can't improve what you can't see. The first step is understanding what AI assistants currently say about your business. This means running real queries across multiple platforms and capturing the actual responses — who gets recommended, what claims are made, and which sources are cited.

2. Analysis

Once you have visibility, you need to understand why. Which competitors are being recommended instead of you? What citation sources do they have that you don't? Where are the gaps between what AI knows and what it should know?

3. Optimization

With clear insights, you can take targeted action. This typically involves:

Fixing citation inconsistencies across directories
Adding structured data and schema markup to your website
Creating content that directly answers the questions AI assistants are being asked
Building authority signals through reviews, mentions, and expert content

How Pulse Helps

Pulse automates all three pillars. It scans six major AI platforms simultaneously, analyzes the results against 13 audit categories, calculates an AI Optimization Score across 5 dimensions, and generates a prioritized roadmap of specific actions you can take to improve your recommendations.

The key insight is that AI reputation management isn't a one-time fix — it's ongoing. AI platforms update their models and data sources regularly, so the business that was recommended last month might not be recommended today. Continuous monitoring lets you catch changes early and respond before you lose ground.

Getting Started

The fastest way to understand your current AI reputation is to run a scan. You can do this for free on the Pulse homepage — enter your business name and see how AI perceives you across all six platforms in minutes.

From there, the recommendation engine will show you exactly what to fix first, ranked by impact. Most businesses see measurable improvements within 2-4 weeks of following the roadmap.

AI reputation management is still early. The businesses that start monitoring and optimizing now will have a significant advantage as AI-driven discovery becomes the norm.

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