Do buyers trust ChatGPT's recommendations?

Do younger buyers trust ChatGPT more than Google?

For product research, many already do.

Spreedly's survey with Talker Research covered 2,000 Americans with internet access, surveyed online in September. Spreedly found that among Gen Z, 31% selected ChatGPT as the source they trust most for product research, compared with 12% for Google Search.

For those buyers, the assistant is not only a quick first step before the real research in search; it is the advisor they trust most. Whatever the assistant says about your category, and whether it names you at all, carries the weight that a first page of search results used to carry.

Do people buy on an assistant's word?

Some already complete the purchase without leaving the chat.

Omnisend found that 38% of Americans say they completed a purchase directly inside ChatGPT without being redirected to another website. When the answer and the purchase happen in the same place, the shortlist in the answer is effectively the store shelf.

For a company, the practical point is simple. If the assistant does not name you for the need the buyer described, there may be no later visit to your website where you could still win the sale.

Do buyers check what the assistant told them?

Many do, and they check in search.

Raptive surveyed 3,083 U.S. consumers about AI use, source attribution and trust. Raptive found that among people who double-check AI answers, 76% turn to Google or another search engine. The recommendation starts in the assistant, but the confirmation often happens in a search box a few minutes later.

That makes consistency important. If the assistant describes your company one way and the first search results describe it another way, the buyer notices the gap at exactly the moment they are deciding whether to trust you.

What makes an AI answer about your company easier to trust?

Clear facts, visible sources and the same story everywhere a buyer looks.

1. Step 1Plain facts on your own pages. State what you sell, to whom and where in the first lines of your homepage and about page, so an assistant has something precise to repeat.
2. Step 2Sources that back the answer. Note which publications, review sites and directories the assistants cite when they talk about your category, and make sure the ones that mention you describe you correctly.
3. Step 3Search results that confirm it. Check that the first results for your company name and your category tell the same story as the assistant.
4. Step 4Current information. Remove or update old pages with retired products or old prices, because an assistant can repeat them as if they were true today.

How can a company check what assistants say and what stands behind it?

Run a fixed test before you change anything.

1. Step 1Write the questions your buyers ask. Keep most of them free of your company name, so the answers show whether the assistant brings you up on its own.
2. Step 2Ask them in several assistants. Use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity, with a fresh conversation for each question.
3. Step 3Record the sources next to each answer. Note which pages the assistant cites when it names you and when it names a competitor.
4. Step 4Search the same questions. Look at the first results a buyer would see when checking the answer, and note where they contradict the assistant.
5. Step 5Start with the gaps that cost trust. Work first on answers that describe you wrongly and on answers that name a competitor while citing your own page.

How does EntityRise measure this for a company?

EntityRise is an AI visibility audit for agencies and companies that shows how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and Perplexity describe and recommend a company and what to improve first.

Each audit uses up to 40 buyer questions across five AI assistants: 15 high-priority questions go to all five and up to 25 more to one each, for up to 100 answers kept with their sources. Before anything is measured, the business profile, the buyer topics and the question set are confirmed and then locked. The AI Visibility Index weighs recommendation at 30%, mention at 20%, prominence at 20%, citation support at 15% and description accuracy at 15%, so whether an answer is backed by a source and describes you correctly are both part of the score.

The result is a PDF report of around 40 pages with the visibility analysis assistant by assistant, the competitor comparison and the ordered list of what to improve. You can start the audit for your own company, and agencies can run it for their clients under their own name. EntityRise measures and guides; the improvements happen on your own pages and in your own marketing work.