An AI visibility audit checks what AI assistants say when a buyer asks them to recommend a business like yours.
The assistants are ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity. The audit records whether each one names your business and whether its description is correct. It also records the websites each answer relied on.
An AI search visibility audit, an AEO audit and a GEO audit are other names people use for the same work.
The first review is delivered within two business days. It's a real human analysis of your brand, not an automated PDF.
A buyer types a question into ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity:
“Which kitchen company in Toronto builds custom cabinets in under eight weeks?”
The assistant writes back with something like this:
Here are three companies to consider.
Websites linked in the answer: the first company’s website, the magazine article, a review website.
The audit records three things from every answer:
Most of the questions describe a need and a place without naming your business, and one asks for reviews of the business by name. These examples come from three fields.
Firefly works with owner-led businesses in Toronto and New York: hospitality groups, professional firms and independent brands. Three pages describe the audit for one field each.
In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 adults in the United States, 45% said they use ChatGPT or another AI tool for recommendations of local businesses. The figure a year earlier was 6%.
Yext studied 6.8 million sources cited in AI answers in July and August 2025. Businesses’ own websites made up 44% of those sources and business listings 42%. Reviews and social media made up 8%. The study covered retail, financial services, healthcare and food service.
Google states that a page needs no special markup to appear as a supporting link in its AI answers. The page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet.
OpenAI states that a website which blocks OAI-SearchBot, the program it uses to read websites for search, will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. The website can still appear as a navigational link.
Each step leaves a record, so every finding in the report points to the saved answer it came from.
The first review is free, and the full audit that follows is paid work at a fixed price of $1,500 for one location.
You send a short form. Saad Afsar reads it and reviews the business himself.
The first review is delivered within two business days. It's a real human analysis of your brand, not an automated PDF.
The full audit is the complete record of what the assistants say, with a check of the sources behind the answers.
The audit ends with a written list of fixes. Your own team or your agency can carry them out from the report.
Some owners prefer one person to carry out the fixes and lead the rest of the marketing. That is a fractional CMO engagement with Saad Afsar, and the standard terms are listed here.
If the engagement starts within 30 days of the audit, the $1,500 audit fee is credited toward the first month.
Saad has 15 years of marketing experience. He has led marketing for 40+ brands and has enterprise experience at Unilever and Samsung.
These are marketing results measured in each client’s own system, and none of them is a result of an AI visibility audit.
It is a check of what AI assistants say when a buyer asks them to recommend a business like yours. The audit records whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity name the business and whether they describe it correctly. It also records the websites each answer relied on, and it ends with a list of fixes in order of importance.
No. These are other names people use for the same work. AEO is short for answer engine optimization, and GEO for generative engine optimization.
No. Saad Afsar reads each request and writes the first review himself.
No. Each company decides what its own assistant says, and nobody outside the company can set that. The audit shows what the assistants say now and which websites they relied on. The fixes are made to those sources.
The full audit costs $1,500 for one location and $400 for each additional location. If a fractional CMO engagement starts within 30 days of the audit, the $1,500 is credited toward the first month.
The first review is delivered within two business days. It's a real human analysis of your brand, not an automated PDF.
It is for owner-led businesses in Toronto and New York: hospitality groups, professional firms and independent brands.
Send the details in the form. Saad Afsar reads each request himself.
The first review is delivered within two business days. It's a real human analysis of your brand, not an automated PDF.
To ask for the full audit as well, tick the box in the form.