ChatGPT gets facts wrong about your business for a few simple reasons. It guesses when it doesn't know something. It can rely on pages that are out of date. It can also find sources that contradict each other. The fix is to make the correct facts easy to find and identical everywhere AI might look. That means your website, your Google Business Profile and the directories and review sites that mention you.

We don't know of a way to edit what ChatGPT says about a business directly, so you fix the sources instead. Then you check again, because correcting a source doesn't change the answers straight away.

This guide explains why mistakes happen, how to spot them and what to change. We make Midwaver, an AI visibility tracker that shows how AI tools describe your business. If AI search is new to you, start with What Is AI Search and Why Should Your Business Care?

Why ChatGPT gets facts wrong about your business

Mistakes about small businesses are common. Search Engine Journal reported a test by a vendor called Searchable. It asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity questions about 165 London businesses and checked the answers against official records. 93% of the businesses had at least one basic fact wrong or missing. The test was run by a company in this market and we haven't seen the full method. So treat the exact figure with care. It does match what we'd expect.

Here are the usual causes.

• It guesses. OpenAI published research in September 2025 on why AI models make things up. Its explanation is that training and testing "reward guessing over acknowledging uncertainty". A model that guesses scores better than one that says "I don't know". OpenAI adds that rarely mentioned facts, such as someone's birthday, can't be worked out from patterns alone. A small business is mentioned far less often online than a big brand. So our reading is that your opening date or team size is more likely to be guessed.

• It uses old information. If a page ChatGPT draws on is out of date, the answer will be too. That could be an old directory listing, a news story from years ago or a page you've since changed.

• Sources disagree. Your website says one thing, a directory says another and an old review mentions a service you no longer offer. The AI has to pick. It may pick wrong. It can also mix you up with a business that has a similar name.

• The facts are hard to find. If your website doesn't say something clearly, such as where you work or what you charge, there's nothing to quote. Gaps invite guesses. This one is our reading rather than documented fact.

How to find out what ChatGPT says about you

You can check this yourself in about ten minutes.

1. Open a fresh chat. That stops earlier conversations from colouring the answer.

2. Ask the basics. Try "What does [your business name] do?", "Where is [your business name] based?", "What are the opening hours of [your business name]?" and "Is [your business name] any good?"

3. Ask each question a few times. Answers change from one run to the next, so one check can mislead you.

4. Write down every mistake. Sort them into wrong facts, missing facts and how you're described. Fix the wrong and missing facts first.

5. Look at the sources. When ChatGPT searches the web, it shows links to the sources it used. Check their dates. Check whether any of them describe a different business with a similar name.

How to fix wrong facts about your business

The idea is simple. Make one correct set of facts, then make every place that matters match it.

1. Write your master list. Business name, address, phone number, opening hours, services, areas covered, prices if you publish them, founding date and team size. Keep it somewhere you'll update.

2. Put the facts on your website in plain text. Use your contact and about pages. Don't leave key facts only in images or PDFs, because they're harder for AI tools to read. That's our advice rather than a documented rule.

3. Update your Google Business Profile. Go to your profile, choose Edit profile, make your changes and save. Google says it reviews changes before they go live.

4. Correct the other sources. Check directories, review sites, social profiles and any press about you. Ask the owners to correct anything out of date. The sources ChatGPT listed in your check are a good place to start.

5. Use your full name and location consistently. That makes it harder to confuse you with a similarly named business.

6. Consider structured data. This is code that labels your details for search engines. Google says organisation markup helps it understand your organisation's details and tell it apart from others. It's optional. Google doesn't guarantee any feature will appear. Ask your web developer. It won't directly change ChatGPT, but it supports a clear, consistent picture of your business.

7. Check again in a few weeks. We haven't found a published timescale for changes to show up in AI answers. Don't expect it overnight.

Can you report the mistake to OpenAI?

ChatGPT has a thumbs-down button for feedback on an answer. It's worth using on a wrong one. We don't know of any evidence that it quickly corrects the details of one business, so don't rely on it. If the wrong information is about you as a person rather than your business, OpenAI has a help page on personal data removal.

The more dependable route is the one above: fix the sources the AI draws on. The basics of being found and recommended are in How to Get Your Business Recommended by ChatGPT. The wider picture is in GEO vs SEO: What's the Difference?

Find out what AI says about your business

Checking by hand once is useful. The harder part is knowing whether the mistakes are gone and whether new ones have appeared.

Midwaver asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews the questions your customers ask. It then shows you the answers. You can see how you're described, how often you're mentioned and how that's trending, which competitors are named instead, where your website is cited and which sources AI tools rely on. That helps you spot which pages to fix and watch what happens afterwards.

Midwaver can't make an AI tool say the right thing and no tool can. It shows you what's being said so you know where to focus.

Search is changing. Your customers used to search on Google or Bing and get a list of links. Now they’re asking AI for recommendations. Is your business being recommended? Start your free 7 day trial with Midwaver. See what AI says about your business, who’s winning in your industry and how to get mentioned more. No credit card needed, no obligation.