See exactly what AI says about your business, free
A diagnostic that shows you where your business stands in AI-generated answers, alongside three competitors of your choosing. One page. One verdict. No commitment.
Get the free AI Visibility Heatmap from It's a Shovel. We query your business, competitors and keywords across the biggest AI platforms to give you a snapshot of where you stand — and the single most important thing to fix first.
Most founder-led businesses have never seen what AI says about them
89% of B2B buyers consult an AI assistant during vendor research, and 41% say AI recommendations directly influenced their shortlist.1 When buyers ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Google Gemini or Google's AI Overview to recommend the best firms in your category, your business is either in the answer or it is not. Most aren't.
89%
of B2B buyers consult an AI assistant during vendor research1
41%
say AI recommendations directly influenced their shortlist1
<3%
of client businesses appear in AI responses, in our audits to date
The shortlist now forms before the buyer ever picks up the phone. Buyers run a trust funnel across peer networks, AI assistants, search engines, LinkedIn, and the press, narrowing options at every gate.1 By the time three firms make the cut, the validation work has already been done. The founder who does not get the call rarely sees the filter that screened them out.
You keep the free heatmap whether or not we ever work together again. It is the cleanest way to find out whether you have a visibility problem worth fixing, before spending anything on solving it.
The AI Visibility Audit shows you the filter. It tells you whether AI assistants currently know your business exists, whether they understand what you do, and whether they recommend you when buyers in your sector ask.
[1] Demand Gen Report / Forrester composite research, 2024–2025.
The AI engines now shaping B2B shortlists
The AI Visibility Audit covers the six AI engines most likely to be queried by your buyers: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Google Gemini and Google's AI Overview. Together these account for the overwhelming majority of generative-AI search activity now influencing B2B buying decisions in the UK.
Each engine produces different answers, draws on different sources, and weighs authority signals differently. A business that appears in one is not guaranteed to appear in any of the others. The audit tests all six so the heatmap shows you the real picture, not a partial one.
ChatGPT
The largest generative-AI assistant by reach, with around 800 million weekly active users globally and the most likely first stop for senior B2B buyers running early-stage vendor research.
Claude
The assistant most commonly used by senior knowledge-economy buyers in professional services, advisory, and finance. Distinct citation behaviour and a different authority-signal weighting from ChatGPT.
Perplexity
The AI engine that most resembles a search engine, with live web retrieval and explicit source citations. Often used by buyers who want to verify what they have heard from peers.
Copilot
The assistant embedded across Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, Windows, and Edge — especially relevant for buyers doing research inside everyday work tools rather than a standalone AI tab.
Google Gemini
Google's standalone assistant, increasingly used across Android, Chrome, Workspace, and the wider Google ecosystem. Buyers already inside Google's products can ask category questions without leaving the environment they work in.
Google's AI Overview
The AI-generated answer now sitting at the top of most Google search results — the place a buyer most often lands when they type a category question into the world's largest search engine.
A one-page visibility heatmap
The deliverable is a heatmap showing, for each of the six AI engines, whether you appear in the recommended answer or whether you are absent altogether. Alongside, a short written verdict names the single most important thing to fix first.
What's on the page
- Where you appear, and where you do not — with a plain-English summary of the heatmap
- Your visibility compared to three competitors of your choosing, across all six AI engines
- The most important gaps — the issues doing the most damage to your visibility
- The first action to close it — a practical, specific recommendation for what to do next
From form submission to heatmap, in two working days
You submit the form, including three competitors and the three things you want to be famous for. We run the queries across all six AI engines, build the heatmap, write the verdict, and email you the one-page PDF within two working days.
Submit the form
Tell us who you are, your business and website, three competitors with their websites, and the three keywords or key phrases you most want to be famous for. The form is short. We'll then get in touch with you for human confirmation that you want this done.
We run the audit
Within two working days, we personally query all six major AI engines for the keywords and phrases you have given us, capture who appears and how, and build the heatmap.
You receive the deliverable by email
A one-page PDF with the heatmap, the verdict, and the first action to take.
Sample heatmap — illustrative only
The Full AI Visibility Audit
Go deeper than the heatmap. Find out exactly why AI platforms ignore your business, what your best opportunities are, and get a prioritised plan to fix it.
The free heatmap shows you the problem. The full AI Visibility Audit explains it.
The free heatmap answers "do I have a visibility problem?" The full audit answers "why is the gap there, and what specifically should we do about it?"
Every finding is backed by verifiable evidence. You get the raw platform responses, the scoring methodology, and native Excel charts you can share with your board or your marketing team.
"The heatmap tells you where you stand. The audit tells you what to do about it."
The full report breaks down
- Where you're visible and where you're not — scored across every platform and keyword theme, with the evidence to prove it
- Who AI is recommending instead of you — the actual firms that appear when your customers ask for help
- Why some platforms cite you and others don't — the critical difference between training-data platforms and live-search platforms, and what that means for your strategy
- Your credibility score — how AI-ready your website actually is, rated on content depth, case studies, structured data, and accreditations
- The whitespace — keyword themes where nobody ranks, giving you a genuine first-mover advantage
- A prioritised 90-day action plan to move the needle on your visibility and your pipeline
Where the audit leads, depending on what it reveals
The verdict at the bottom of your heatmap names the most important gap and the first action to close it. Depending on what the gap is, the next step might be Discovery and Strategy, Foundation, or Growth. The audit itself is designed to tell you which, so you do not have to guess.
You don't appear anywhere, and competitors do
Likely issue: Positioning or authority
AI engines cannot recommend a business they cannot find or understand. The recommended next step is Discovery and Strategy — the two-to-four-week project that defines the optimal positioning, messaging, and content architecture to be cited, found and hired.
Learn about Discovery and Strategy →You appear in some engines but inconsistently
Likely issue: Visibility infrastructure
The strategic foundation is probably fine, but the website, LinkedIn, and content layer are not yet AI-readable enough to earn consistent citation. The recommended next step is Foundation — the six-week project that refreshes and augments your existing infrastructure.
Learn about Foundation →You appear consistently and want to turn visibility into pipeline
Likely issue: Cadence
Visibility shows up, but doesn't compound into a steady client stream. The destination is Growth — the monthly retainer that runs the reputation engine online and offline, turning consistent visibility into a measurable, repeatable pipeline.
Learn about Growth →One page. One verdict. Free.
There is no lower-friction way to find out whether your business has a visibility problem worth fixing.
Fill out the form below to get your free AI visibility heatmap
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime.
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Within two working days of submitting the form. Every audit is run personally, so you will always hear back within one working day with confirmation of your audit details, and the heatmap and verdict will follow within two working days of that confirmation.
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Yes. The heatmap costs nothing. No card details, no payment information required. You keep the heatmap regardless of whether you ever speak to us again. If, after reading it, you want to discuss the next step, you can book a 30-minute call.
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Because seeing the problem is the hardest part. Most founder-led businesses don't realise they have a visibility problem until they see one in writing. The audit is designed to give every founder who books it real, usable insight, whether or not they go on to work with us. The thinking behind it is the same thinking that turned the Reputation with Purpose framework into a published methodology in 2018: genuine authority earns citation; citation earns discovery; discovery drives growth.
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Most founders know who they would rather not lose a pitch or tender to. Those are the three. If you genuinely don't know, leave the competitor fields blank in the form, give us your keywords, and we will select three credible UK comparators in your space. The verdict will name them.
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The keywords or key phrases you would most want to appear under when a buyer asks an AI assistant for recommendations in your category. For a Manchester commercial law firm, that might be "commercial law firm Manchester SME", "commercial litigation North West", and "commercial lawyer Manchester". For a Bristol B Corp sustainability consultancy, "B Corp sustainability consultancy Bristol", "ESG advisory South West", and "sustainable business consultant UK". Three short, specific phrases. If you are unsure, give us your best draft and we will refine them with you before running the audit.
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Your details are added to our CRM (HubSpot) and used to deliver your audit and the occasional related communication from It's a Shovel about visibility, reputation, and the new shape of B2B trust. We do not sell or syndicate the list to any third party. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email, and you have the full set of UK GDPR rights: access, correction, deletion, and objection. The full privacy notice is linked from the form.
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Yes. The free heatmap is designed to show whether you have an AI visibility problem worth investigating further. If the result raises bigger questions about why competitors are appearing ahead of you, which platforms are causing the problem, or what to fix first in detail, the full AI Visibility Audit is the next step. It turns the snapshot into a proper diagnosis and a prioritised plan.
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Three options. You use the verdict yourself, with your in-house or external marketing provider, and that is the end of it. You book a 30-minute call to discuss whether Discovery and Strategy or Foundation is the right starting service, and what the path to Growth looks like from there. Or you sit with it for a few months and come back when the timing is right.
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The free heatmap is a quick diagnostic. It shows whether your business appears across the main AI platforms for your chosen keywords, compared with selected competitors, and it includes one clear verdict on the most important thing to address first.
The full audit goes much further. It explains why those results are happening, which authority and content signals are helping or hurting you, where competitors are outperforming you, and what to do over the next 90 days to improve visibility. In simple terms: the free heatmap shows the pattern; the full audit explains the cause and the remedy.
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The free heatmap tells you whether you are being surfaced or ignored. The full AI Visibility Audit tells you why. It investigates the underlying causes in much more detail: which platforms retrieve and cite you, which competitors are being recommended instead, where your authority signals are weak, how your website performs against AI-readiness criteria, and which opportunities are most realistic to win first. If the heatmap tells you there is smoke, the full audit helps you find the fire.
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There is no fixed fee for the full AI Visibility Audit as it depends on the scope of the analysis you want to do. It is, however, included in the Discovery and Strategy package so you could go straight to that step.
If you want a standalone audit, book a 30 min call after which we will quote you.