Question 1

What is Known Entity?

Accepted Answer

Known Entity helps suppliers to food and drink manufacturers improve how they appear when buyers use AI to discover, research and shortlist potential suppliers. It assesses a supplier's current visibility, improves the structure and supporting evidence behind its business information, and measures changes over time through the AI Buyer Visibility Audit, EntityCore™ and EntityWatch™ services.

Question 2

Who founded Known Entity?

Accepted Answer

Known Entity was co-founded by Helenor Rogers, Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Rogers, Chief Technology Officer. Helenor brings more than twenty years of strategic marketing experience across global brands and B2B sectors, and leads client delivery and the evidence and credibility work. Mike previously co-founded Troo Foods and has sat on the buying side of the food and drink industry, specifying ingredients and packaging and qualifying suppliers; he leads the technical build and measurement. Specialist content, technical and PR people are brought in per project.

Question 3

What is AI Buyer Visibility?

Accepted Answer

AI Buyer Visibility describes how a business appears when buyers use AI to research potential suppliers: whether it is found, whether its capabilities are understood accurately, and whether it is recommended or shortlisted for relevant requirements. Known Entity assesses those outcomes using an agreed sample of buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot.

Question 4

How does AI Authority fit into this?

Accepted Answer

AI Authority describes the credibility and supporting evidence behind how AI represents a business. The AI Authority Ladder™ is the five-stage methodology Known Entity uses to improve AI Buyer Visibility. The commercial objective is to help a business become visible, accurately understood and considered for relevant supplier opportunities.

Question 5

How does this relate to SEO, GEO and AEO?

Accepted Answer

These disciplines overlap. Technical accessibility, clear content and credible external sources can support both search visibility and inclusion in AI answers. Known Entity's work focuses on supplier buying questions, the accuracy and evidence behind a business's information, and how its presence compares with competitors. It coordinates with the client's existing SEO, content and PR partners.

Question 6

Does SEO still matter?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A well-structured, crawlable website with genuine authority supports the signals AI systems use, and clients should keep investing in it. AI Buyer Visibility looks at a related but different question: whether AI finds, understands and recommends the business for the questions buyers ask. Known Entity's work complements what an SEO agency does rather than replacing it.

Question 7

Which AI platforms do you assess?

Accepted Answer

Five: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. Each draws on different sources and weights evidence differently, so a supplier can appear on some platforms and not others. Known Entity runs each agreed buyer question across all five, using the consumer apps with web search enabled, which is what most buyers use.

Question 8

What is the AI Authority Ladder™?

Accepted Answer

The AI Authority Ladder™ is Known Entity's five-stage methodology for improving AI Buyer Visibility. Each stage answers one question. Stage 1 Discover: are you appearing in the questions that matter to your buyers? Stage 2 Structure: can AI understand what you supply and where you fit? Stage 3 Verify: is there credible evidence behind what AI says about you? Stage 4 Protect: are you staying visible, accurately represented and competitive? Stage 5 Agent readiness: will your information support the next stage of AI buying? The Ladder is how the work is sequenced; EntityCore™ is the record the client owns, and the later stages build on it.

Question 9

What happens in Stage 1, Discover?

Accepted Answer

The AI Buyer Visibility Audit. Known Entity agrees a panel of real buying questions with the client, typically 30 to 50, and runs them across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. It assesses how often the business is found, whether it is recommended or shortlisted, how accurately AI describes its products, capabilities and credentials, and which competitors appear alongside or instead of it. The audit includes a working session with Helenor Rogers and a review of the important claims the business makes and the evidence available to support them. The client receives a documented baseline, an analysis of the likely gaps behind the questions it is missing, and prioritised recommendations showing what to improve first. Two weeks, included in the £6,000 setup fee covering Stages 1 to 3.

Question 10

What happens in Stage 2, Structure?

Accepted Answer

The EntityCore™ build. Known Entity draws on the client's website, product pages, specifications, certificates and the authoritative external sources about it, and turns them into a structured record hosted at a subdomain of the client's own domain: company, products, capabilities, certifications, applications, sectors served, locations, people and supporting sources, in a form designed for AI systems to interpret. The client signs off the record before it is published. It is not a copy of the website and not a content site; it sits on the client's domain, belongs to the client and is portable. Publishing a record does not guarantee that every platform will retrieve it or recommend the business. One DNS record, no CMS access. Four to six weeks, subject to timely access to business information and approvals, included in the £6,000 setup fee.

Question 11

What happens in Stage 3, Verify?

Accepted Answer

The evidence and industry credibility work. EntityCore™ states what is true about the business; Stage 3 connects the important claims to supporting sources: certification bodies, accreditation registers, Companies House, trade associations, industry directories and relevant trade coverage. Known Entity then identifies gaps in that evidence, including sources that appear in AI answers for the client's buyer questions where the client is not yet present, and develops a focused brief for the client's PR or marketing partners on the listings and coverage worth pursuing. Article production and PR placements are carried out by the client's team or agency. Included in the £6,000 setup fee.

Question 12

What happens in Stage 4, Protect?

Accepted Answer

EntityWatch™, monthly monitoring and improvement. Each month Known Entity repeats the AI visibility checks across the five platforms using the client's agreed buyer-question panel, reviews the accuracy of the client's business information and tracks its presence alongside competitors. The client receives a monthly AI Buyer Visibility Report covering appearances, recommendations or shortlisting, factual accuracy and competitors, together with updates to keep EntityCore™ current, recommendations for two to four articles for the client's team or PR agency to write and publish, and a monthly review of findings and priorities for the next month. £1,500 to £3,000 a month depending on agreed scope, on a twelve-month minimum term.

Question 13

What happens in Stage 5, Agent readiness?

Accepted Answer

Agent readiness. EntityCore™ is designed to provide a foundation for future buyer-agent interactions through structured, supported business information. As those systems develop, they may use supplier information to compare specifications, check capabilities and initiate enquiries. Additional integrations or transaction services would be scoped and agreed separately.

Question 14

What is EntityCore™?

Accepted Answer

EntityCore™ is a structured record of a business hosted at its own subdomain. It brings together the business's products, capabilities, certifications, applications, sectors served and supporting sources in a form designed for AI systems to interpret, with an MCP endpoint that AI agents can query. It supports the existing website rather than replacing it. Publishing a record does not guarantee that every platform will retrieve it or recommend the business.

Question 15

Do we need to involve our web agency or IT team?

Accepted Answer

Only lightly. EntityCore™ is hosted at a subdomain, so the build needs one DNS record. There is no CMS access and no web development on the main site. The audit may identify technical changes to the website that would help AI systems read it, such as crawler access or structured data; Known Entity recommends those changes and the client's web agency or IT team implements them.

Question 16

Can we do this in-house?

Accepted Answer

Parts of it. A client's team could run buyer questions across the AI platforms and brief its PR agency on gaps. What is harder to sustain in-house is the consistent process: an agreed question panel run the same way each month, a structured record with supporting sources kept current, and findings turned into prioritised actions for marketing and PR partners. Many suppliers prefer to have that run as a standing service rather than build it themselves.

Question 17

What does an engagement cost?

Accepted Answer

The AI Buyer Visibility Score is free. Stages 1 to 3 (Discover, Structure and Verify) are a single £6,000 setup fee covering the AI Buyer Visibility Audit, the EntityCore™ build and the supporting evidence work; it is the total for all three stages, not a price per stage. The audit is delivered in two weeks and the build takes four to six weeks, subject to timely access to business information and approvals. Stage 4, EntityWatch™, is £1,500 to £3,000 a month depending on agreed scope, on a twelve-month minimum term. Stage 5, Agent readiness, is built into EntityCore™; any additional integrations or transaction services would be scoped and agreed separately. Every engagement begins with the audit. Deliverables and fees are agreed upfront, and there are no day rates.

Question 18

Why is there a twelve-month minimum on EntityWatch™?

Accepted Answer

AI Buyer Visibility needs ongoing review as a business's information, competitors and the AI platforms change. The twelve-month term provides a consistent period for monitoring, maintaining the record and reviewing improvements. It does not mean results are guaranteed within that period.

Question 19

How do you work with our marketing, PR and web partners?

Accepted Answer

Alongside them. The audit and monthly monitoring produce specific findings: which buyer questions the business is missing, which facts are unclear or unsupported, and which sources appear in AI answers where it is not yet present. Known Entity turns those findings into focused recommendations for the client's existing partners: a brief for the PR agency on listings and coverage worth pursuing, article topics for the content team, and technical changes for the web agency. They keep their work, and the monthly report shows whether the sources they secure are appearing in the AI responses Known Entity monitors. Agencies whose clients supply the food and drink industry can also introduce them on a referral basis: Known Entity delivers under its own name at the same price the client would pay directly, and the agency earns a referral fee.

Question 20

What is the free AI Buyer Visibility Score?

Accepted Answer

A no-cost read of where a supplier stands today. The supplier gives Known Entity its company name; Known Entity tests a sample of the questions buyers might ask when looking for suppliers like it across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and shows how often the business is found, how often it is recommended or shortlisted, whether AI understands the business accurately, and which competitors are appearing instead. No meeting required. No obligation.

Question 21

Do you write articles or manage PR outreach?

Accepted Answer

No. Known Entity recommends what to cover and which supporting sources or publications are worth pursuing, based on the audit and ongoing monitoring. The client's team or PR agency writes, publishes and carries out outreach. Known Entity provides direction and assesses whether relevant sources appear in the AI responses it monitors. Article production and PR placements are not included in the standard programme.

Question 22

Can you guarantee we will be shortlisted?

Accepted Answer

No. AI platforms control their own responses, which can vary between searches and over time. Known Entity improves the clarity, accessibility and evidence behind a business's information, then measures how its presence changes across relevant buyer questions. It does not guarantee a particular shortlist position, improvement date or commercial result.

Question 23

What if AI describes us inaccurately?

Accepted Answer

Known Entity investigates the available evidence and cited sources, identifies outdated or conflicting information where possible, and recommends or makes corrections according to who controls the source. It then repeats the checks to see whether the inaccurate answer persists. It cannot always establish why a model produced an answer or guarantee that a correction will be adopted.

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