What to do when an AI gets your business wrong

Wrong hours, an old price or a false closure notice can cost you enquiries. Start by saving the answer and tracing its sources, then correct the records you control and report the error through the relevant platform.

Reviewed October 1, 2026 · 8 min read

An assistant says you close at five when you close at nine. It quotes an expired promotion or confuses your business with another one. Before rewriting your site, save the exact question, answer, date and any linked sources. You need a record of what went wrong.

Next, investigate the source of the claim. It may come from an outdated listing, a misread page, model knowledge or a mixture of sources. You cannot always identify the cause from the answer alone, but you can usually find a useful next step. To catch common errors before customers do, work through our 30-minute checklist for making your business AI-ready.

Start with the evidence you can inspect#

These are working categories for an investigation, not a way to diagnose the model's internal process with certainty:

Do not assume that most errors have the same cause. A citation is a lead to investigate, not proof that the page supports every sentence. An assistant can cite a current page and still give an incorrect answer.

Fixing a source is worthwhile even if it does not change the next response immediately. It removes a known error from your public information. Keep the platform report and the source correction as separate actions you can track.

Open the sources, not just the citation labels#

Repeat the customer's question and ask for sources where the product supports them. Open each relevant link and look for the specific claim. Follow redirects and check whether it describes the right location. Do not assume a newly supplied citation proves how the original answer was generated.

• The cited page contains the wrong fact: correct it if you control it, or request a correction from its owner.
• The page is correct but the answer is wrong: preserve both and report the mismatch. Review whether your wording could be clearer without blaming the page for every model error.
• No usable source appears: record that limitation and use the product's feedback route. Lack of a citation does not reveal whether training data or retrieval caused the claim.
• The answer describes another business: check names, locations and profile links. The business identity guide covers that investigation.

Correct the source record#

For a local business, inspect the relevant profile as well as your own site. If the wrong source is a directory or an old location page, fix that record rather than assuming the main profile is responsible.

Google explains the accepted, pending and not-approved states in its Business Profile edit guidance. Reviews usually take up to ten minutes but can take up to thirty days. Check the status and any requested evidence instead of assuming that submission means publication.

Correct your own pages and the important profiles that disagree with them. Prioritize the sources actually cited or used by customers. The local search guide helps organize that review without assuming a universal source ranking.

Check notifications about changes to your business profile. A suggested or platform-applied update may be correct, or it may need attention. Compare the public information with current operations before accepting or disputing it.

Keep important facts easy to verify#

Your website is only one possible source. Business platforms may also use owner submissions, user contributions and other public information. Keep the most important records under review, especially after a move, rebrand or change in hours.

Publish clear visible text for hours, prices and policies, then keep structured data consistent with it. This gives readers and software an explicit reference. It reduces ambiguity but cannot guarantee that every assistant will use it correctly.

Report errors through the appropriate channel#

When you cannot identify or edit the source, submit a precise report through the product's feedback tools. Include the claim, why it is wrong and an authoritative page showing the correct information.

AI providers acknowledge that outputs can be inaccurate. A report can help them investigate, but it is not a promise that every future answer will change. Keep source maintenance and periodic checks running alongside the report.

For inaccurate personal information, OpenAI's privacy policy describes a correction or removal request route through its Privacy Center. The policy says requests are considered under applicable law and the technical capabilities of its models.

That personal-data process is not a general business-listing editor. Use the channel appropriate to the problem: profile support for a listing, product feedback for an answer, or a relevant privacy request for information about an individual.

For Google AI answers, use the feedback controls available in the experience and provide concrete evidence. Separately correct any inaccurate page or business profile you find. Track the report without assuming it creates a guaranteed removal or correction deadline.

The strongest follow-up is a comparison: the original error, the source changes and the later answer. That shows whether the problem is improving and gives support teams something specific to investigate if it persists.

The order to work in#

1. Save the exact prompt, response, date and sources.
2. Open cited pages and check the claim against the right business and location.
3. Correct wrong information you control and request corrections elsewhere.
4. Check the status of profile edits and provide supporting evidence when needed.
5. Keep visible text and structured data consistent for changing facts such as hours and prices.
6. Report the incorrect answer through the relevant product or privacy channel.
7. Retest later in a fresh conversation, keeping query and location context comparable.
8. Update the correction log with what changed and what remains unresolved.

You cannot directly edit an assistant's future answers. You can correct known sources, clarify ambiguous information and provide a well-supported report. Those are concrete actions you can verify even while the broader outcome remains uncertain.