Initial Review of How AI Understands Your Brand

One of the first things I do with any new client — and something I regularly do for my own businesses — is check how AI understands the brand.

Why? Because AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and soon Google’s AI Mode, are now shaping how people discover information. If they misunderstand or misrepresent your brand, that misinformation can ripple through search results and affect customer perception.

Step 1: Using ChatGPT to Research Your Brand

For this example, we’ll use ChatGPT (currently version 5). It’s widely used and has a strong understanding of the internet.

Here’s a sample prompt you can use:

Prompt: Please undertake deep research on the business [insert your business name] in [insert your country or location]. Its website is [insert URL]. Please report all you find on this brand. Report in Australian English.

Select the Deep Research option. (We’ll talk more about different modes later in the course.):

Step 2: Answer Clarifying Questions

Before the research begins, ChatGPT often asks follow-up questions. For example, it may ask whether you want information on:

• Business model and services
• Company history and founders
• Reviews and reputation
• Financial or business performance
• Marketing strategy and online presence
• Competitors and industry landscape

Your task: answer “yes” to all of them, or specify exactly what you want. Copy the questions, add your answers underneath each one, and then submit them back. if it asks other types of questions, then answer back.

Step 3: Let the AI Do Its Work

ChatGPT will then go off and investigate. It may take a few minutes to scan websites, press releases, articles, and social platforms. It shows you which sources it’s using, so you can track exactly where the information is coming from.

For a brand-new website like SmallBizToolbox.com.au, there won’t be many references at first — and that’s fine. Over time, as you build content and links, more signals will appear.

Step 4: Review the Report

When the AI finishes, it will generate a report summarising what it has found. This may include:

• Your website details
• Social media profiles
• Press mentions and links
• Information about you as the owner or founder
• Marketing activities (e.g. content, blogging, video, newsletters)
• Competitor mentions
• Financials
• legal aspects

Step 5: Capture and Log the Insights

Copy the report into a Word document (or your preferred editor) and read it carefully. Highlight anything that is inaccurate, out of date, or missing. Then start a simple log — an Excel sheet works perfectly — with:

• Date
• Observation (e.g. “ChatGPT listed the wrong price for X product”)
• Action (e.g. “Contact site owner to update details”)

Download a template:

This log will become your working record throughout the course.

Step 6: Think Beyond Your Brand

This same process works for competitors. Running a “deep research” prompt on a competitor can uncover:

• Their backlinks and mentions
• Their reputation and reviews
• Their content strategy
• The sentiment around their business

This intelligence can help you identify opportunities and gaps in the market.

Action Step

Run ChatGPT’s Deep Research on your own brand. Copy the output into a Word document, skim through it carefully, and set up your tracking log (Excel, Google Sheets, or similar). Highlight any errors or insights that stand out.

We’re not fixing anything just yet — this stage is about observation and awareness.