Brands can appear in AI-generated answers and still not come across as believable, according to an analysis from communications agency Burson.
The report, called “The Credibility Paradox,” says getting mentioned in AI answers isn’t the whole picture. Burson argues that brands should care about how convincing those answers actually are.
For transparency, Burson sells reputation consulting and GEO services. The report was produced with Profound, an AI marketing platform, and uses Decipher, a model Burson built to predict how convincing each answer would be.
What The Report Found
Concrete claims tended to be rated higher than abstract ones. When AI platforms responded to questions about a company’s products or workplace culture, those answers often felt more believable compared to responses about governance or leadership.
Business people were more easily convinced. The model rated AI responses 10% more credible for business audiences than for others. Business audiences cared most about innovation, while consumers were most interested in a company’s workplace culture and products.
How The Analysis Worked
Burson asked seven AI platforms questions about 85 companies, then ran the answers through Decipher, a model that predicts how believable each response would be. That produced more than 55,000 scores.
The scores are predictions, not responses from people who read the answers. The report doesn’t publish its prompts, company list, or how Decipher’s scoring works.
Why This Matters
If you’re tracking your brand’s presence in AI answers, you’re measuring the easy part. This analysis suggests that what the AI says about you might matter more than the mention itself.
Google recently called GEO “still SEO.” This report makes the case that there’s a layer people aren’t looking at yet, and that’s if the answer is convincing.
Looking Ahead
The predictions haven’t been tested against how people actually react, which limits what the findings can tell us.
The findings suggest that paying attention to what AI says about you, not just that it mentions you, is worth watching as it plays a bigger role in how companies get discovered.
Featured Image: elenabsl/Shutterstock
