On September 5, we published an article titled “Which IT Operations Companies Are There in Shunyi?”. That morning, one AI assistant, when answering that question, made up five company names that cannot be found anywhere; when we asked again that afternoon, it listed us among the two best matches.
Today, we put the same question to another AI assistant commonly used in China (with web search enabled). We were the first company in its answer, and the first item in its cited-source list was exactly that Shunyi list page. It even carried over, word for word, the line on the page describing another peer as “mainly providing on-site inspection services for data center server rooms”.
We also went ahead and asked the other three fixed questions, and set the answers side by side with those from the first AI last week. The differences turned out to be bigger than we expected.
Four Questions, Two AI Assistants
| Question | First AI (September 5 to 9) | Second AI (September 15) |
|---|---|---|
| Which IT operations companies in Shunyi are recommended | On the day the page went live, it shifted from “making up names” to listing us as one of the two top options for comparison | Listed us first; the first citation was our Shunyi list page |
| Which IT operations companies in Beijing are recommended (80 staff) | Ranked third when not logged in; in the logged-in work mode, we were absent | We were not included |
| How much does enterprise IT outsourcing cost per year in Beijing | On September 5 it quoted our price tiers word for word; on September 9 it switched to citing a peer | Off-topic: it cited prices for financial outsourcing, HR outsourcing and mini-program development |
| How is Siwenlide, is it reliable | “Basically reliable”, but it flagged the number of insured employees, one administrative penalty and the small scale | “Reliable”, citing our official website, a media coverage roundup page, a China Economic Net report and business registration platforms |
Three Things We Learned
First, a list page written well will be used by both AI assistants. The Shunyi page had been live for ten days, and Toutiao Search still had not indexed it as of last weekend, yet both AI assistants were already using it to answer questions. District-level terms are rarely covered by anyone to begin with, so the first page that lays out a list clearly becomes the AI’s only source. That also means the peer information on a list page has to be accurate — the second AI passed on the peer description we had written to users without changing a word.
Second, the two AI assistants draw on different “databases”. For the same question, “how much does IT outsourcing cost per year”, the first once quoted our price tiers word for word, while the second could not find a single page about IT outsourcing prices and patched together an answer from quotes for financial outsourcing and HR outsourcing. Being cited by one does not mean the other can find you. Each relies on a different search engine behind the scenes, so optimizing for only one means doing business with only one.
Third, both assistants trust third-party coverage. Asked “is it reliable”, both went through business registration platforms and media reports, and the second specifically listed the China Economic Net article. For the “300+ clients” claim on our own website, the first explicitly labeled it “company’s own statement, not verified by a third party”, while the second simply accepted it. The same sentence carries different weight with each assistant; third-party coverage, though, is trusted by both.
One more detail: the second AI’s Shunyi list ran to 20 companies. The first two came from our page, and the descriptions of the last six all read along the lines of “technology development, technology consulting, technology services, technology transfer”. Those were business scopes scraped from classified listing sites and corporate yellow pages. When an AI needs to pad out a list, it goes through yellow pages — whatever your business scope says there, it copies.
So What Should You Do
- Ask at least two AI assistants the same question. Looking at only one answer turns coincidence into a pattern. We now have five fixed questions, ask them once a week, and note down the cited sources.
- Claim blank terms first. For questions no one writes about — district-level, industry-specific, scenario-based — a detailed list page delivers results faster than anything else.
- Give important pages more entry points. For the content most often asked about, such as pricing, qualifications and lists, put a copy not only on your official website but also on your WeChat official account and content platforms. The second AI could not find our pricing page — not because the page does not exist, but because its search never reached it.
- Keep third-party coverage and business registration information consistent. Both AI assistants check them against your official website. This week we added our business registration records and coverage links to the page that introduces the company.
A 10-Minute Self-Check
| What to Do | What to Look For |
|---|---|
| Pick the three questions customers ask most and put each to both AI assistants | Whether you appear in either answer; how much the cited sources overlap |
| Look at the cited-source lists | Which of your pages were cited; whether any page was cited by one assistant but not found at all by the other |
| Look at the descriptions in the second half of the list | If they read as a string of “technology development, technology consulting”, it is padding pulled from yellow pages — and that stretch is the gap you can fill |
We are Beijing Siwen Lide, based in Shunyi, with 14 years focused on enterprise IT services and more than 1,000 enterprise clients served to date. This series is about the pitfalls we hit while doing the work ourselves, and today’s article is a rare piece of good news. If you would like to talk about your company’s situation, take a look at About Us, or call us directly at 400-686-2011.
