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What If AI Became Your Best Influencer?

How to Train Generative AI to Recommend Your Business

What If AI Became Your Best Influencer?

Imagine you’re sitting with your ideal customer. They look you in the eye and ask, “So, who do you recommend I work with?” But you never get the chance to answer because they’re not asking you, they’re asking AI.


Today, millions of people aren’t searching the web the way they used to. They’re not typing in keywords or scrolling through endless pages of search results. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity, and what do these AI tools do?


They don’t give you a list; they give you an answer; a recommendation, a name. Here’s the question: Is it yours? If it’s not, then you’re invisible in the new digital economy.


The following sentence may sound controversial to some people, and I’m still going to share it:


Forget Instagram stars or YouTube celebrities; generative AI is quickly becoming the most trusted voice in people’s decision-making.

People ask AI:

  • What’s the best vegan restaurant in Brooklyn?

  • Who’s a reliable B2B logistics provider in Texas?

  • What CRM should I use if I’m a coach?


If AI knows your brand, it might recommend you, but if not, you’re out of the conversation even if you’re the best.


Here’s where it gets interesting; AI doesn’t crawl the web in real time like Google. It recalls what it has already read, learned, and indexed during training. So the real challenge becomes:

  • How do I make sure my business becomes part of AI’s memory?

  • How do I train AI to see me as the best recommendation?


Let’s walk through it; lesson style.


Lesson #1:

Just like a human, AI trusts certain platforms more than others. These are the places it pulls structured, reliable, and well-linked information from. (FYI: I asked ChatGPT for this information)

Platform

Why It Matters

Wikipedia

Structured, community-reviewed, high authority

LinkedIn

Personal + company info, bios, roles

YouTube

Transcripts + video metadata

Google Business Profile

Verified local info, hours, reviews

Medium / Substack

Long-form thought leadership

News Sites

Mentions = trust

Wikidata & DataCommons

AI-ready knowledge graphs


Lesson #2:

AI doesn’t “guess” what your website means. It reads schema markup, which is a code that explains your content. Think of schema as metadata for machines.


For example: A regular site would say something like, “We’ve helped over 1,000 customers.” The schema version would be like this: Tags “1,000” as number of clients, attaches credibility, adds location + service data.


Here are some tools to help you add schema easily to your site:

  • Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

  • Yoast SEO or RankMath (WordPress plugins)

  • Schema Pro


Lesson #3:

Every piece of content you create is training material for AI; some examples are blogs, videos, interviews, and podcast transcripts. AI learns from them all. This is what AI loves the most (FYI, I also asked ChatGPT for this):

  • Q&A blog posts (like: “What’s the best [X] for [Y]?”)

  • Case studies and testimonials

  • Listicles (e.g., “5 Best Ways to Save on…”)

  • Video transcripts and captions


When you write one blog answering a real question your clients ask, AI loves that! Use tools like AlsoAsked or AnswerThePublic to find actual prompts people use with AI.


Lesson #4:

If you want AI to know you exist, you need to feed the datasets it trains on. Here are the Top 4 AI Aggregators to list or link your content:

Aggregator

Why It Matters

Common Crawl

Open internet dataset used by OpenAI and others

DataCommons.org

AI-ready structured data repository

Wikidata

Trusted source for knowledge graphs

OpenCorporates

AI-accessible global company registry

Make sure your company appears in at least one of these. You can submit your site to Common Crawl via sitemap or backlinking. Consider contributing to Wikidata with your verified company data.


Lesson #5:

Influencer campaigns cost thousands, SEO takes months, and ads disappear when you stop paying, but training AI to recommend you? That’s a one-time investment with long-term results.


Here are major steps you can take today to start getting AI to learn about your brand and start recommending you:

  • Optimize your LinkedIn and Google Business Profile

  • Add schema markup to your most important pages

  • Write 1 AI-optimized blog post this week

  • Get listed in Common Crawl or Wikidata

  • Ask 3 recent clients to leave detailed reviews online


By the way, this isn’t about gaming the system, it’s about being clear, consistent, and valuable across the digital universe. Soon, your next customer won’t ask Google, or Instagram, or YouTube, they’ll ask AI: “Who do you recommend?” Make sure the answer is you.


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