When ChatGPT named other consultants
We measured ourselves first. This is one exploratory observation, including what did not work.
An independent-consultant scenario asked who could investigate how AI describes professional expertise and recommends competing specialists. ChatGPT proposed a one-time audit and named Anthony Keal, SEO Evaluate and Kern Media as candidates to interview. It also mentioned Otterly.AI and Profound as monitoring tools. Neither Ekaterina Shalel nor Legibi appeared in the answer.
The exact question
I am an independent consultant. I want to know what AI tells potential clients about my expertise and why it recommends other specialists. Who can help me investigate that?
This wording was reconstructed for research. It is not a quotation from a private customer query, and its use here does not establish market demand.
What the answer supports
The visible answer favors a one-time audit for this need. It describes relevant scope: an individual's expertise, competing specialists, saved answers, sources and practical corrections. It names candidates, not a verified winner or independently endorsed providers.
What remains unknown
The answer does not tell us whether ChatGPT found or considered my audit page. We cannot reconstruct a hidden shortlist or establish the reason for my omission. My public service has relevant scope, but that alone does not explain the observed choice.
Conditions and failed attempts
The request was submitted in ChatGPT's consumer web interface on October 17, 2026 at 14:07:00 UTC. The English answer was captured at 14:08:49 UTC. Unpersonalized mode was confirmed before sending; the post-answer mode check was incomplete. Exact model version and exit geography were not independently verified. This observation is excluded from a strict T0 baseline.
Of three planned scenarios, two were sent and one answer was preserved. The platform-discovery answer could not be extracted; its result is unknown. The manual-check-versus-subscription question was blocked before sending because the session check failed. Neither failure counts as an absent recommendation.
The decision this enables
Keep the relevant personal audit offer. Check unbranded discovery separately from a test that explicitly supplies the audit URL. First establish whether the page can be found and understood; then test a specific change under comparable conditions. There is no measured improvement, selection frequency or causal claim in this record.
This is a research capture with analyst review, not evidence that every step already runs autonomously in the Legibi product.
Read the full original answer
Read the full original answer
The specialist you're looking for is an AI visibility auditor or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) consultant—ideally someone experienced with individual experts, independent consultants, and professional services rather than just large brands.
Your question is more sophisticated than traditional SEO. You're trying to understand:
AI's perception of your expertise: How ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity describe your qualifications, specializations, and credibility.
Competitive recommendations: Which other consultants AI recommends for work you're qualified to do, and why.
Missing or misleading information: Whether AI misunderstands your experience, overlooks important achievements, or associates you with the wrong specialties.
Sources of influence: Which websites, publications, professional profiles, and third-party references appear to support its recommendations.
Corrective action: What evidence and positioning changes could improve the accuracy of your representation and your likelihood of being recommended.
I would begin with a one-time AI reputation and competitive visibility audit, rather than sign up immediately for ongoing SEO services.
Specialists worth considering
These are actual providers advertising relevant services, although their effectiveness for individual consultants still needs to be established.
Anthony Keal – AI Search Visibility Audit
Independent digital consultant · Australia
A particularly relevant option for a fellow independent consultant. His advertised audit records what AI says about you, identifies who is recommended instead, examines cited sources, and proposes corrective actions.
Anthony Keal
SEO Evaluate – AI Visibility Audit
AI search and SEO agency
Offers a structured investigation using repeated AI queries, dated answer logs, competitor comparisons, and analysis of possible causes of omissions or inaccurate descriptions.
SEO Evaluate
Kern Media – AI Visibility Audit
AI visibility and digital marketing agency
Advertises one-time audits covering approximately 50–100 potential-client prompts across six AI platforms, followed by a prioritized improvement plan.
Kern Media
These are candidates to interview, not independently verified endorsements.
What I would require from an investigator
Ask for a written report containing:
A record of what several AI systems actually say about you.
A comparison against five to ten relevant specialists.
An assessment of which parts of your expertise are correctly represented, missing, or inaccurate.
An analysis of cited evidence and plausible reasons competitors appear more often.
Prioritized recommendations for improving your professional positioning.
The investigator should repeat tests because AI recommendations vary between sessions and over time. They should also distinguish observable evidence from speculation about how a model internally makes decisions. No outside consultant can reliably guarantee an AI recommendation.
Software you could also consider
Otterly.AI and Profound offer AI visibility monitoring. Such tools can help collect evidence, but software alone may not give you the nuanced competitive and reputational analysis you're seeking.
Otterly
+1
One question that would help me narrow this down
What kind of consulting do you specialize in? For example, management strategy, organizational development, technology, finance, healthcare, leadership, or another field.
That matters because I would look for someone who can investigate individual professional authority and expert recommendations, not merely whether a company gets mentioned by ChatGPT. Depending on your specialty, the right investigator could be a GEO consultant, a digital reputation researcher, or a specialist in professional-services positioning.Download the public record (JSON) · Download the original answer (TXT)
Links observed in the answer
These URLs were present in the answer DOM. Citation panels were not opened. A Profound label appeared, but its URL was not captured. This list is not a complete record of what the model retrieved.