@ekuzevska's Latest X Threads

The 5-Minute Test That Reveals Your AI Search Blind Spots Three weeks ago, a SaaS founder called me in a panic. His company had just lost a $400K deal. The prospect told him directly: "We asked ChatGPT for recommendations, compared the top three, and went with the one that had the clearest information. You weren't in the results." He couldn't understand it. They ranked on page one of Google for their main keywords. They had a 4.8 rating on G2. They'd been in business for seven years. I asked him to send me his website URL. Thirty seconds later, I found the problem. His robots.txt file had been blocking ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity from accessing his site for 18 months. His IT team added the block when GPTBot first launched in 2023—"just to be safe"—and never told marketing. For a year and a half, while his competitors were being recommended to buyers, AI couldn't even read his website. He's not alone. And the fix takes five minutes. Why This Matters Now Let me share what the research shows. The G2 B2B Software Buyer Report surveyed over 1,000 buyers in August 2025. Half now start their vendor research in ChatGPT instead of Google—a 71% increase in just four months. Source: G2: How AI Chat is Rewriting B2B Software Buying 6sense surveyed nearly 4,000 B2B buyers globally. The vendor buyers contact first wins 80% of deals. And 95% of the time, the winning vendor was already on the buyer's shortlist before they ever reached out. Source: 6sense: B2B Buyer Experience Report 2025 If AI is shaping those initial shortlists—and the data says it increasingly is—then being invisible to AI means you never make the consideration set. But here's the part that should concern you most. Originality.AI analyzed the robots.txt files of the top 1,000 websites. 35.7% now block OpenAI's GPTBot—up from just 5% when it launched. That's a seven-fold increase in one year. Source: Originality.AI: GPTBot Blocking Study Many of these companies blocked AI crawlers to protect their content. What they didn't realize: they also made themselves invisible to the AI systems their buyers are now using to find solutions. The 5-Minute Test Here's exactly how to find out if you have the same problem. No technical skills required. Minute 1: Check Your robots.txt Open a browser. Type your website URL followed by /robots.txt Example: yourcompany.com/robots.txt You'll see a plain text file. Look for these lines: User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / If you see Disallow: / after GPTBot, you've blocked ChatGPT from reading your entire site. Now search the same file for: ClaudeBot (Anthropic's Claude) Google-Extended (Google's AI features) PerplexityBot (Perplexity) Bytespider (TikTok's AI) If any of these show Disallow: /, that AI system cannot access your website. What you want to see: Either these bots aren't mentioned at all (which means they're allowed), or they show Allow: / Minute 2: Check Your Competitor Run the same test on your top competitor's website. competitor.com/robots.txt In my experience, about 60% of the time, you'll find that your competitor allows the AI crawlers you've blocked. That's why they're getting recommended and you're not. Minute 3: Ask AI About You Open ChatGPT. Ask: "What is [Your Company Name] and what do they do?" Then ask: "What are the best [your category] solutions for [your target customer]?" Note whether you appear. Note how you're described. Note who appears instead of you. Minute 4: Ask AI About Your Competitor Ask the same questions about your top competitor. "What is [Competitor Name] and what do they do?" Compare the responses. Is their description more detailed? More accurate? Does AI seem to know more about them than about you? Minute 5: Document the Gap Write down three things: Which AI crawlers you're blocking (if any) Whether you appear in AI recommendations for your category How your AI description compares to your competitor's You now have your baseline. This is what you're working with—or against. What I See When Companies Pass This Test When a company has strong AI visibility, here's what the ChatGPT response looks like: "[Company Name] is a B2B sales intelligence platform designed for mid-market companies with 50-200 employees. They're known for their integration with HubSpot and Salesforce, with pricing starting around $99 per user per month. Customers typically cite their implementation speed—most are live within two weeks—and their customer success team as key differentiators. They compete primarily with [Competitor A] and [Competitor B], with their main advantage being [specific capability]." That level of detail doesn't happen by accident. It happens because: AI crawlers can access the site The content is specific, not generic marketing speak Schema markup helps AI understand the information structure Third-party sources (reviews, articles, comparisons) mention them consistently What I See When Companies Fail This Test Here's what a failing response looks like: "I don't have detailed current information about [Company Name]'s specific features or pricing. For accurate information, I'd recommend checking their website directly or looking at recent reviews on G2 or Capterra." That's the AI equivalent of "I've never heard of them." When I investigate these cases, I almost always find the same pattern: robots.txt blocking AI crawlers (the most common culprit) No Schema markup, so AI can't parse the content structure Website copy full of vague phrases like "industry-leading" and "best-in-class" instead of specifics Few third-party mentions with concrete details The founder I mentioned at the beginning had all four problems. The robots.txt block was just the most obvious one. The Fix If you're blocking AI crawlers: This is the easiest fix with the biggest impact. Send this to your web team or IT: "Please update our robots.txt file to allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, and PerplexityBot to access our site. Change any 'Disallow: /' lines for these bots to 'Allow: /' or remove the blocks entirely." This takes five minutes to implement. The impact shows up within days to weeks as AI systems re-crawl your site. If you're allowed but still invisible: The problem is likely your content structure. AI can access your site but can't understand it. This requires: Adding Schema markup (Organization, Product, FAQ) Rewriting vague marketing copy with specific details Publishing comparison content that explains your positioning factually Building third-party mentions on review sites and industry publications This takes longer—weeks to months—but compounds over time. The Uncomfortable Math Let's say you're a B2B company with an average deal size of $50,000. If AI is now influencing 50% of buyer shortlists (per the G2 data), and you're invisible to AI, you're potentially missing half your addressable opportunities. For a company doing $5M in annual revenue, that's $2.5M in pipeline you never see. The founder I mentioned? He did the math after our call. Based on his win rates and average deal size, he estimated the 18-month block cost him somewhere between $800K and $1.2M in closed business. For a fix that takes five minutes. What To Do Right Now Right now: Run the robots.txt test. Takes 60 seconds. Today: Ask ChatGPT and Claude about your company and your category. Screenshot the results. This week: If you're blocking AI crawlers, get them unblocked. If you're allowed but invisible, that's a content structure problem—and a bigger project. Ongoing: Run this test monthly. AI systems change. Your visibility can shift. Make it a regular check. The companies winning in AI search aren't doing anything magical. They're just not blocking the door and hoping buyers find another way in. Get Your Free AI Visibility Audit Find out exactly where you stand—which AI systems can see you, how you're being described, and how you compare to competitors. aeovisibility.revenueexpertsai.com Sources G2 Research (October 2025): "How AI Chat is Rewriting B2B Software Buying." Survey of 1,000+ B2B software buyers. learn.g2.com/ai-search-surging-for-b2b-buyers 6sense (2025): "B2B Buyer Experience Report 2025." Survey of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers globally. 6sense.com/science-of-b2b/buyer-experience-report-2025 Originality.AI (August 2024): "Websites That Have Blocked OpenAI's GPTBot – 1000 Website Study." originality.ai/ai-bot-blocking About the Author Elizabeta Kuzevska is Co-Founder of Revenue Experts AI, specializing in AI Engine Optimization (AEO) for B2B companies. Revenue Experts AI has assessed over 200 websites for AI visibility and helps companies become discoverable when prospects search AI platforms. [img:W0sJ_qxLx]