In our recent webinar, Feefo's Chief Product Officer Thora Kehoe was joined by Rice Tong, Product Marketing Manager at SimilarWeb, and Ruth Williams, Brand Director at Wilmington PLC, to explore how verified reviews build the trust signals that AI needs to recommend your brand – and what you can do about it right now.
Key Takeaways
Be the answer, not just the link
In AI search you’re competing for the model’s recommendation, not a click. If AI doesn’t trust your brand, you won’t appear in the answer at all. This decision is made before the end user sees anything.
Credibility is the new ranking signal
AI Acts as a researcher, using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to cross reference your owned content, with trusted third-party sources. What others say about you carries more weight than what you say about yourself.
8 Recommendations and practical tips for improved AI search visibility
1. Authentic reviews
Focus on real, quality reviews from verified purchasers. AI actively looks for genuine customer feedback – unverified or anonymous reviews carry less weight in the synthesis stage.
2. Audit your data
Ensure your reviews are machine-readable using structured schema. Without proper technical implementation, AI has to connect the dots between your reviews and your products – and it may not get it right.
3. Recency matters
Collect reviews consistently and automate where possible. AI places greater value on a steady stream of fresh feedback than a large but dated archive – a one-off collection push won't sustain your visibility.
4. 360 feedback
Display relevant reviews across the full customer journey – booking process, service, and product experience. Reviews that match the specific question a user has asked AI are more likely to be cited.
5. AI visibility tracking
Track your citation influence and use an AI visibility KPI – tools like SimilarWeb show which domains are being cited in AI responses for your category, and whether your brand is among them.
6. Leverage media
Encourage customers to upload photos and videos alongside their reviews. Modern LLMs are multimodal – they can interpret visual content, and customer media adds another layer of authenticity to your brand's presence.
7. Amplify your voice
Share reviews across your marketing channels and at relevant points in the buyer journey. UGC that appears beyond your own site extends your credibility footprint into the third-party spaces AI draws on most.
8. Reply to all reviews
Responding to reviews shows customers you're listening – but it also adds keyword-rich, fresh content to a trusted third-party page that AI is already reading and citing.
Your AI visibility checklist
- Are you collecting authentic, verified feedback across your products and services?
- Is your feedback recent – and are you replying to reviews promptly?
- Are your reviews and ratings displayed prominently on your site?
- Are you tracking AI visibility and citation influence, in tools like Similarweb?
- Are you amplifying UGC across social, marketing, forums and other channels?
- Is your feedback readable by both AI and humans?
Watch the whole session below
What did we cover in the session?
From links to answers
Traditional search returns a list of options. AI search returns a recommendation. That shift – from directing users to information, to synthesising it on their behalf — is what makes this moment significant for brands.
According to SimilarWeb data, web visits to AI platforms grew 82% year-on-year between February 2024 and January 2026, with app downloads up 321% over the same period.
Early-stage research is actively being replaced with AI-generated answers. SimilarWeb's research shows that AI tools are most heavily used at the discovery and research stages of the purchase journey – precisely where shortlists are formed and brand preferences begin to take shape.
The perception layer
By the time a user sees an AI-generated answer, your brand has already been evaluated. Rice Tong describes this as the "perception layer" – the point at which AI decides whether your brand is worth surfacing at all.
The process works through what's known as retrieval augmented generation (RAG): AI interprets the user's intent, retrieves relevant information from trusted sources, synthesises what it finds, and presents a recommendation. The critical stage is synthesis – where credibility signals determine what makes the cut.
What counts as a credibility signal?
SimilarWeb's analysis of UK ChatGPT conversations in February 2026 found that in finance, eight of the top ten most-cited domains were third-party sources – publishers, forums, and review platforms. In travel, review platforms and community sites dominated ahead of brand-owned pages. Your own website does form part of the picture, but it's rarely enough on its own.
The four qualities AI looks for in a credible review
If AI is acting as a researcher on your customer's behalf, it needs evidence. That evidence comes from the same place it always has: what real customers say about real experiences. The difference now is that AI is reading it too.
Feefo's CPO, Thora Kehoe outlined four qualities that determine whether customer feedback builds genuine trust signals for AI:
- Provenance: Is the feedback verified and from a real purchaser? Authentic, verified reviews carry more weight than anonymous or unverified submissions.
- Recency: Is the feedback current? AI places greater value on a steady, ongoing stream of fresh reviews than a large but dated archive.
- Consistency and quality: Does the feedback paint a coherent picture across products and services? Detailed, specific reviews that reflect real customer language are more useful to AI than generic ratings.
- Clarity and relevance: Is the review clearly connected to a specific product or service? Proper technical implementation – structured schema, on-site widgets – ensures AI can read the review and understand exactly what it refers to.
Feefo builds these layers through a combination of on-site widgets using structured schema, dedicated client pages, media galleries that support photo and video UGC, social sharing tools, and Trusted Service Awards that signal long-term service standards. Together, these give AI the consistent, machine-readable picture of your brand it needs to recommend you with confidence.
Verified reviews as a competitive advantage
Ruth Williams, Brand Director at Wilmington PLC, was clear about the primary motivation for their review strategy: genuine dialogue with customers, not a content exercise. But as she put it, the byproduct of that approach is trusted, third-party content – exactly what AI models are looking for.
Wilmington's brand Astutis, a health, safety and sustainability training provider, holds a Platinum Trusted Service Award from Feefo and has built its review presence accordingly. Ruth's practical advice was direct: there are actions you can take this week, at zero cost, that will make a difference, regardless of sector:
- Embed your review widgets wherever your customer is – course pages, landing pages, confirmation emails
- Reply to reviews promptly and publicly – responses are machine-readable content, not just customer service
- Use the language your reviewers use naturally in your own content – it's the language your audience types into AI prompts
- Share reviews on social media regularly – Astutis runs a weekly Feedback Friday
- Monitor direct traffic – brands appearing in AI answers are seeing it rise
We all look at reviews. Buyers use ChatGPT and Perplexity to research suppliers just as consumers research products.
Questions from the room
The session ended with a selection of fascinating and useful questions from attendees – we'll publish a dedicated blog with these answers but two worth highlighting here:
Does replying to reviews actually help GEO?
Yes – provided your reviews are implemented correctly. When Feefo widgets use structured schema, review responses are machine-readable. That means your replies become additional indexed content on a trusted third-party page. It's worth thinking about what you put in those responses: clear, specific language that addresses the customer's experience also helps AI match your brand to relevant queries.
Should we be optimising for AI search or SEO – or both?
Both. SimilarWeb's data shows that 97% of ChatGPT users still use Google. AI is where discovery and early research happen; traditional search is where higher-intent activity follows. The brands that will perform best are those building credibility across both – and the good news is that verified reviews support that goal in either environment.
Verified reviews are your competitive edge. Start acting now.
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