AI citation-gap investigation

Run this investigation when AI shopping answers omit a product, cite a competitor, or state the merchant's facts incorrectly.

Inputs

• Fixed question set
• Named model or answer system
• Products and markets
• Timestamped answers
• Relevant competitors
• Merchant-owned product sources

Output

• Product-visibility and citation table
• Incorrect or unsupported statements
• Patterns in cited sources
• Merchant-owned pages or data that may need work
• Retest plan

Steps

1. Group questions by buying intent.
2. Record answers, citations, merchant attribution, and competing products.
3. Compare cited pages with merchant-owned product facts.
4. Compare absent products with the products the system selected.
5. Write a testable explanation involving content, catalog data, or entity identity.
6. Change one merchant-controlled source when there is a sound reason.
7. Run the same questions again and record the difference.

Checks

• Whether the product appears
• Accuracy of product facts
• Merchant attribution
• Cited pages
• Competing products
• Market, model, and timestamp consistency

Limits