Buyers ask AI about you before they ever talk to sales, and marketing now owns the answer.

A few months ago, I got on a call with the CMO of a plastic surgery clinic network whose marketing campaigns I run. Conversion rates from leads to sales calls, and from sales calls to closes, had both dropped recently, and the CMO wanted to know why.

I checked their Google Analytics and noticed a growing share of traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI search engines. Curious, I asked ChatGPT about the brand and nearly jumped out of my seat. The answer was largely negative. It pulled from salacious but false claims posted on Reddit, plus a particularly biting review on an obscure website.

This is an award-winning clinic with a stellar reputation among its patients. It opened my eyes: a brand that doesn’t monitor its online reputation and proactively seek out reviews is gambling with it, and the consequences show up in the pipeline. I think marketing needs to own that problem.

G2’s 2026 research found that 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% a year earlier. More striking, 69% said chatbots surfaced information that pushed them toward a different vendor than they’d planned on.

Consumers aren’t far behind. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found that 42% of consumers trust AI recommendations for local businesses as much as traditional reviews.

AI tools don’t just form opinions from your website. They lean on what other people say about you. Peec AI analyzed 30 million citations and found Reddit was the most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI features, with G2 and Yelp showing up often in recommendation queries.

That’s what happened to this clinic: without it realizing, a handful of Reddit posts and one obscure review became the AI’s definitive summary of its brand.

Here’s what I’d do about it.

1. Audit Your AI Reputation Monthly

Start by asking the tools what your buyers are asking. Run “Is [brand] legit?”, “[brand] reviews” and “[brand] vs. [competitor]” through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode. Screenshot the answers, but pay closer attention to the sources each tool cites. That list becomes your to-do list for step two.

2. Fix The Sources Behind The Answers

An AI’s answer is only as good as what it reads, and some of what it reads is fixable. If an old Reddit thread keeps showing up, reply in it under your real name and title. Instead of getting defensive, lay out the facts and offer to fix the problem. People reading the thread will appreciate the proactive response.

Next, clean up the boring stuff: stale G2 and Google Business Profile listings, outdated pricing, and the executive who left two years ago but is still listed on your directory pages.

3. Make Review Requests Routine

Your happiest customers are usually your quietest. Unhappy ones are usually the most vocal. The fix is volume and recency. The same BrightLocal survey found that 74% of consumers only care about reviews from the last three months, and 83% of people who were asked to leave a review did so. Ask right after a delivery or a solved problem, and automate it so the request goes to every customer instead of expecting customers to remember.

4. Publish Proof AI Can Use

A 5-star is nice, but nowhere near as impactful as a case study from someone in the buyer’s industry, with real numbers. Publish those, organize them by use case, and write honest “[brand] vs. [competitor]” pages. These are catnip for AI models and have a good chance of getting cited.

Add “Where did you find us?” to your demo form. If AI search or online reviews never appear in a pipeline report, they’ll never get taken seriously.

Managing one’s online reputation can feel like a thankless job that no one wants to own. Marketing would much rather focus on driving leads. Sales would rather devote their energy to scripts and closing sequences. But buyers are increasingly asking AI about your business, and if you don’t control the conversation, it will work against you.