You've been in business for five years. You have happy customers. You rank decently on Google. Then you ask ChatGPT "what are the best tools for [your exact category]" and... you're not there. Not even mentioned. Not even in the "other options include" section.
You just got ghosted by AI.
What AI ghosting actually means
AI ghosting is when AI-powered tools completely skip over your brand in situations where you'd reasonably expect to appear. It's not that they said something negative about you. They didn't acknowledge you exist at all.
This is different from traditional SEO, where you might rank on page 2 or page 5. In AI answers, there's often no "page 2." You're either in the answer or you're not. Ghosting is being completely absent.
Why it happens
AI tools aren't trying to be mean. They're working with the information they have and the patterns they've learned. If you're getting ghosted, it's usually one of these reasons:
They don't know who you are. Your brand isn't mentioned enough across the sources AI pulls from. You exist on your own website, but you're not in the broader conversation.
They're not sure what you do. Your positioning is unclear or inconsistent. AI needs confidence to make recommendations. If it can't clearly categorize you, it won't confidently recommend you.
Your competitors have better signals. Someone else in your category has more mentions, more reviews, clearer positioning. AI went with the safer bet.
You're too new. AI training data has cutoffs. If you launched recently, you might not be in the model's knowledge base yet. (Though RAG-based systems that browse in real-time should still find you.)
How to know if you're being ghosted
The only way to know is to check. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini. Ask the questions your potential customers would ask:
- "What's the best [your category]?"
- "Which [product type] should I use for [your target audience's situation]?"
- "Compare the top [your category] tools"
Are you showing up? If not, you have a ghosting problem.
Doing this manually gets tedious fast. That's exactly why AI visibility tracking tools exist. They automate these checks across multiple prompts and platforms so you can see where you're visible and where you're getting ghosted.
What to do about it
Getting un-ghosted isn't a quick fix. It requires building up the signals that AI uses to decide who to recommend:
Get mentioned elsewhere. Industry publications, review sites, relevant directories, podcasts, guest posts. AI needs to see your brand in multiple trusted places.
Clarify your positioning. Make sure every mention of your brand consistently describes what you are and who you help. Confused signals lead to no mentions.
Create content that answers questions. When someone asks "best X for Y," there should be content out there that includes you in that discussion. Comparison posts, listicles, roundups.
Track your visibility. You can't fix what you can't measure. Monitor your AI visibility regularly to see if your efforts are working.
The emotional reality
Getting ghosted stings. Especially when you see less-established competitors getting recommended instead of you. It feels arbitrary and frustrating.
But here's the thing: AI visibility is a learnable game. The brands showing up have done specific things to get there. You can do those things too. It just takes understanding the rules and putting in the work.