Drill into the AI answers that leave you out, and find out why.
Proofsource lists every buyer question whose current answer names competitors and not you. Open one to see who won, the pages and searches behind each engine's answer, the reasons it found, and one next step. It covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
What's the best way to drill down into specific AI assistant responses to find out why my product isn't getting recommended?
Start from the questions you lost, not from a score, and read each lost answer against the pages it leaned on. In Proofsource that is one screen, Why you lost, under Actions. It lists every question whose current answer names competitors and not you, grouped by topic with the biggest loss first, and it works from the first scan.
Open a question and the panel answers four things in order:
- Who won. Each competitor named, the position it was named in and the engines that named it, plus the engines that did name you.
- Why. The reasons it found in the answers, per engine. For example: the answer cited pages that do not name you; the searches behind it named competitors and not you; it credited a competitor with something your own facts on file say you offer too; it cited your page and still did not name you; or no page of yours was cited for any question in the topic.
- What to do. One next step: get listed on a site the answers cite, say plainly on your site what the answers credit a competitor with, publish a page that answers the question and compares you, add a section to an existing page, or review the draft already waiting in Fixes.
- The evidence. Each engine's answer, with the competitors named instead of you, every source it cited (marked as yours, a competitor's, a list, a review or a forum, and whether each page mentions you) and the searches behind it. One click opens the full answer.
What if I used to be recommended and stopped?
That is a different question, and it needs history. The second half of Why you lost lists questions whose answers named you clearly less often, or further down, than before, and puts what changed around the drop on one timeline:
- answers that moved, and an engine that stopped naming you;
- a competitor that started being named;
- citations of a page that started or stopped;
- edits to a cited page, or to a competitor's page;
- a new source that appeared in the answers.
It names a likely cause with a confidence label (strong match, likely, possible, or no clear cause) and the basis for it, and it says plainly that a match in timing and in the answers is not proof. It needs seven days of answers on the same questions before it starts, and says when it will start rather than showing an empty screen.
What does each engine show?
The reason you lose is often different per engine, so the panel gives each engine's answer its own reasons. In the public Tesla example the same brand was named in most answers on one engine and few on another.
| Engine | What each answer opens to | In the public Tesla example |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The answer text, the tracked brands it named with their positions, the pages cited, and the web searches it reported running. | Named Tesla in 16 of 25 buyer answers. It named Tesla first for whole-house backup batteries. |
| Google AI Overviews | The same record, plus the related questions and related searches Google showed after the answer, kept apart as follow-ups, never counted as searches. | Named Tesla in 16 of 25 buyer answers. Across the 25 questions it cited youtube.com 20 times, reddit.com 15 times and tesla.com once, and it left Tesla out of the whole-house backup answer. |
| Claude | The answer text, the tracked brands it named with their positions, the pages cited, and the searches it reported running. | Named Tesla in 11 of 25 buyer answers. On solar panel installation it named Tesla in 0 of 5 answers, where Google AI Overviews named it in 4 of 5. |
| Perplexity | The same record, plus the related questions Perplexity showed after the answer, kept apart as follow-ups. | Named Tesla in 10 of 25 buyer answers, the fewest of the four. |
Three causes, three different fixes
The cited pages leave you out
Lists, reviews and comparison pages the answers read name your competitors and not you. Get onto those pages.
Your page is read, not used
The answer cited your site and named someone else. State plainly what you are, who it is for and how you compare.
Nothing of yours is read
No page of yours is cited for the topic. Publish one that answers the question directly.
How do other AI visibility tools handle this?
Several tools publish gap analysis or recommendations. Here is each one's own description and the fixes it publishes, read from its pricing page. Whether each traces a single lost answer to the pages and searches behind it is not published on the pages we read; ask on a demo.
| Tool | What it says it does | Fixes or actions it publishes |
|---|---|---|
| Proofsource | AI intelligence platform that shows which buyer questions name your brand, who gets named instead, and drafts the fix for each gap. | Each gap names the pages the engine cited instead and comes with a draft held for your approval |
| Peec AIsource | AI search analytics for marketing teams and agencies: visibility, position, sentiment and sources. | Gap analysis, ranked recommended actions and agent actions |
| Otterly.AIsource | Self-serve AI search monitoring for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with GEO audits. | Recommendations (3 a week on Lite) and GEO audits (1,000 a month on Lite) |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkitsource | AI visibility add-on to the Semrush SEO suite: brand performance, prompt tracking and an AI search site audit. | AI-generated strategic recommendations |
| Ahrefs Brand Radarsource | AI mention tracking inside Ahrefs, built on a database of hundreds of millions of prompts plus your own. | Finds the pages AI cites and mention opportunities |
| Scrunchsource | AI search monitoring plus an Agent Experience Platform that serves AI agents an optimised version of your site. | Insights and recommendations, 1 page optimisation a month on Core, content generation |
- Peec AI pricing peec.ai/pricing
- Otterly.AI pricing otterly.ai/pricing
- Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit
- Ahrefs pricing ahrefs.com/pricing
- Ahrefs Brand Radar ahrefs.com/brand-radar
- Scrunch pricing scrunch.com/pricing
Sources read on . Some rows re-read on 5 Oct 2026
What does Proofsource do here, and what does it leave to you?
Proofsource finds the lost answers, reads the reasons out of them and proposes one next step for each. Fixes keeps a drafted page for a lost question, held for your approval; nothing is published for you. Deciding which losses matter, and making the change, stays with you. After a change, ask the same questions on the same engines again, and count it only once the change is bigger than the interval.
To read the answers behind any number, see the AI answers and citations behind your visibility; to compare your mentions with a competitor's, see competitor mentions in AI answers. The fixes themselves are covered in the AI visibility guide.
What buyers ask about why AI leaves them out
What's the best way to drill down into specific AI assistant responses to find out why my product isn't getting recommended?
Start from the questions you lost, not from a score. In Proofsource, Why you lost lists every question whose current answer names competitors and not you. Open one and you see who won and where, the reasons per engine (pages cited that do not name you, searches that named competitors, your own page cited without your name), one next step, and each full answer with its sources and searches.
Why does ChatGPT recommend my competitors and not me?
Usually because the pages it reads for that question name them and not you. Check the pages the answer cited and the searches it ran. If a list or review site it cites leaves you out, that page is the fix; if it cites your own page and still does not name you, the page does not answer the question plainly enough.
Does Proofsource say what to do about a lost question?
Yes. Each lost question carries one next step: get listed on a site the answers cite, state a fact on your site that answers credit a competitor with, publish or extend a page that answers the question, or review the draft already waiting in Fixes.
Can it tell why I stopped being recommended?
When a question's answers named you clearly less often than before, Why you lost puts what changed around the drop on one timeline: answers that moved, an engine that dropped you, a competitor that gained, citations that started or stopped, page edits and new sources. It names a likely cause with a confidence label, and says plainly that a match in timing is not proof.
How many answers do I need before a lost question means anything?
More than one. A single answer is one draw. Read one lost answer as a lead, and act on questions that stay lost across engines and days. Proofsource puts a 95% interval on every rate for that reason.
Can I see this before I pay?
Yes. The free trial is 2 days of full AI visibility, today and tomorrow: 25 questions on 4 engines, no card, and the answers you lost show from the first scan.
Related
Find out why AI leaves you out.
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