● Case studies · Real audits, run 2026-06-20

What our own tool says about businesses we run

A tool that measures whether AI recommends you should be honest about its own numbers. So our first case studies aren't anonymous testimonials — they're real Recommd audits of two businesses we operate, with the real scores. The proof is that you can't fake it: run the same free audit on either business and you'll get the same result.

Case 1 · Local business
Pawpaw Cake — dog cake bakery, San Jose

A dog cake bakery we run. We asked: when someone in San Jose asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI for the best dog cake bakery near them, does Pawpaw Cake get named? Here's the unedited result.

50/100
AI-visibility score — “Visible
No
Named when asked for the best bakery?
5
Competitors AI recommends instead

● Auto re-checked 2026-06-21 — this number is live, not hardcoded. Run the same audit yourself for the same result.

Engines checked: Grounded AI search · ChatGPT · Perplexity. Across all three, the AI confidently named other bakeries and never mentioned Pawpaw Cake. That's a customer asking for a recommendation and being handed a competitor — with no missed call or lost-click report to show for it.

The plan we're running
  1. 1. Complete the Google Business Profile

    Every field — category, hours, services, photos, attributes. It's the single biggest local signal AI leans on, and it was thin.

  2. 2. Restart the review flow

    Recency counts as much as rating. We're asking recent happy customers for reviews that name specific cakes — the language AI quotes back.

  3. 3. Earn a spot in local “best of” roundups

    “Best dog bakeries in San Jose” lists are exactly what the engines quote. We're pitching local food writers.

  4. 4. Make name / address / phone identical everywhere

    Conflicting details make an engine unsure who you are — and an unsure engine names someone else.

The “after” — measuring, not inventing

We're applying the plan now. Rather than print a made-up “after” number, the score above re-measures itself automatically and shows the real, dated result as it moves. If it doesn't improve, you'll see that too. Check back — or run the audit on Pawpaw Cake yourself any time and watch it change.

Case 2 · Us, on ourselves
Recommd — we ran our own tool on us

It would be strange to sell an AI-visibility check and not run it on ourselves. So we did. The result is humbling and, we think, the most honest data point on this page.

40/100
AI-visibility score — “Barely visible
No
Does AI name Recommd yet?
6
Other tools AI names instead

● Auto re-checked 2026-06-21 — this is our own live score, re-measured automatically. It moves as we do the work below.

When you ask an AI for an AI-visibility checker, it names other tools and not us — yet. A brand-new product simply isn't in the sources these engines trust yet. So we're running the exact playbook we'd run for you, on ourselves — and the score above re-measures automatically as it works.

What we're doing to climb (and you can watch)
  1. 1. Get into the directories AI quotes

    Submitting Recommd to the AI-tool & software directories (There's An AI For That, Futurepedia, G2, Capterra, Product Hunt) that ChatGPT and Perplexity pull from when asked for “the best AI-visibility tools.”

  2. 2. Earn a place in the roundups

    “Best AI-visibility / AEO tools” listicles are exactly what the engines cite — we're reaching out to those authors to be included.

  3. 3. Show up where it's discussed

    Genuinely useful answers in the SEO and small-business communities the engines crawl — value first, never spam.

  4. 4. Build authoritative links

    Original data (see our study) and partnerships that earn citations from sources the models already trust.

Why first-party case studies?

Because you can verify them. A glowing anonymous quote proves nothing. A score you can reproduce in thirty seconds — by running our free audit on the same business — proves the tool works. For a product whose whole point is showing the truth about AI visibility, that's the only kind of proof worth printing.

See your own number

Enter your business and category. Recommd runs the same live grounded query across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI, scores your visibility 0–100, and shows who gets named instead — free, no signup.

Run my free AI-visibility audit →