Known Entity.ai — Questions and Answers
What is Known Entity.ai?
Known Entity.ai builds AI Authority infrastructure for food and drink suppliers. It makes a business discoverable, trusted and transactable by the buyer agents and AI platforms its customers now use to research, evaluate and choose suppliers. The work is delivered through the AI Authority Ladder™, and the client owns the result: an EntityCore™ record on its own subdomain.
Category: about
Who founded Known Entity.ai?
Known Entity.ai was co-founded by Helenor Rogers (CEO) and Mike Rogers (CTO). Helenor brings 20+ years of strategic marketing experience across global brands and B2B sectors. Mike brings deep expertise in business analysis and AI systems.
Category: about
What is AI Authority?
AI Authority is the degree to which AI platforms recognise and trust an organisation as a credible source on the topics relevant to its business or brand. An organisation with strong AI Authority is cited, referenced and recommended in AI-generated answers when buyers ask about its category.
Category: methodology
What is AI Authority Infrastructure?
AI Authority Infrastructure is the structured, machine-readable foundation that makes a business discoverable, trusted and transactable by AI systems. It sits beneath visibility tactics such as GEO and AEO: a durable layer that lets discovery, trust and future agentic transactions compound over time.
Category: methodology
How is AI Authority different from traditional SEO?
SEO optimises a website so search engines rank it in a list of results, and the user then chooses where to click. AI Authority works in a fundamentally different environment: AI platforms do not return ranked lists. They generate a direct, synthesised answer drawing on sources they have learned to trust. The work is about being one of those trusted sources, not climbing a ranking.
Category: objection
Does SEO still matter if we are focusing on AI Authority?
Yes. A well-structured website, strong domain authority and good technical foundations all feed into the credibility signals AI systems use. But SEO alone will not deliver AI visibility. The two disciplines are complementary rather than interchangeable, and AI Authority needs its own dedicated work.
Category: objection
Which AI platforms should we care about?
The five major platforms we audit and track are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. Each behaves differently, draws on different sources and weights credibility signals in its own way. A serious AI Authority programme covers all five rather than over-indexing on one.
Category: methodology
What is the AI Authority Ladder™?
The AI Authority Ladder™ is Known Entity.ai's five-stage methodology. Each stage answers one question. Stage 1 Discover: can AI find you? Stage 2 Structure: can AI understand you? Stage 3 Verify: can AI prove what you claim? Stage 4 Protect: can that understanding remain accurate? Stage 5 Agent readiness: can AI do business with you? The Ladder is how a client buys and sequences the work; the EntityCore™ is the record the client owns at the end of it.
Category: methodology
What happens in Stage 1, Discover?
We run the AI Buyer Visibility Audit: systematic buyer-intent prompt audits across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, scored on nine dimensions (branded recognition, unbranded supplier discovery, accuracy, recommendations, competitor share, citation health, source quality, misinformation and gaps, and technical machine-readability) and benchmarked against named competitors. Output: a written report with the entity definition (what AI currently thinks the business is), a four-gap classification and a scoped plan for the build.
Category: methodology
What happens in Stage 2, Structure?
We build the EntityCore™: a canonical, machine-readable record of the business hosted at a subdomain of the client's own website (entity.{client-domain}). It covers the organisation, people, products and services, capabilities and terms, relationships, competitors, buyer questions and answers, ideal customer profiles, case studies, identifiers and press, with provenance on every claim. AI systems read it as pages and as data; buyer agents query it through a dedicated MCP endpoint. A post-build re-test confirms improved discoverability.
Category: methodology
What happens in Stage 3, Verify?
AI systems trust claims that third parties corroborate. We build the Authority and Evidence Layer: every material claim in the EntityCore™ is connected to a source a machine can follow, from accreditation registers and certification bodies to Companies House, trade bodies, trade press and customer evidence. Where independent authority is thin we identify what needs building and provide the citation strategy. Known Entity.ai briefs; the client's PR agency or our freelance network delivers the placements.
Category: methodology
What happens in Stage 4, Protect?
EntityWatch™. Once the record is established and verified, we continuously compare it with what the outside world and the AI platforms are saying. EntityWatch™ identifies inconsistencies, monitors certification expiry, catches stale information, tracks new products, people and capabilities, and flags misinformation before AI systems start repeating it. The loop is correct, verify, update. This is the stage that keeps the rest of the Ladder true over time, and it is delivered as a monthly subscription.
Category: methodology
What happens in Stage 5, Agent readiness?
Agent readiness. Once a buyer agent can find, understand and verify the business, it should be able to act: interrogate the catalogue, check specifications and suitability, request samples and quotes, check availability, book meetings and eventually place orders. The EntityCore™ routes structured agent requests to the client's existing commerce systems with attribution tokens. The architecture is live today and activates as buyer agents settle on transaction protocols. Nothing is built twice: the record built for citations becomes the interface for transactions.
Category: methodology
What is EntityCore™ exactly?
EntityCore™ is the structured, machine-readable single source of public truth for a business, hosted at entity.{their-domain}. Think of it as the entity custodian function: just as a credit agency maintains the structured record that determines business trust, EntityCore™ maintains the structured record buyer agents consult when deciding whether to recommend a business. Every claim carries provenance. Buyer agents reach it through a dedicated MCP endpoint.
Category: about
Do we need to involve our web agency or IT team?
Minimally. That is one of Known Entity.ai's distinctive advantages. EntityCore™ is hosted at a subdomain we manage; you need to add a single DNS record. No CMS access, no web development work, no waiting in your agency's backlog. Most clients are live within a few weeks of sign-off.
Category: process
Can we do this in-house?
Technically, individual pieces, yes. You could write content and you could pitch journalists. But AI Authority is not a checklist of tactics. It is a discipline: knowing which platforms to monitor, how to interpret citation sentiment, how to sequence citation building so it compounds and how to measure progress against strategy. Most in-house teams lack the dedicated time, the cross-platform measurement and the structured methodology.
Category: objection
What's the investment range for a typical engagement?
Every stage is fixed scope and fixed price; there are no day rates. Stages 1 to 3 (the AI Buyer Visibility Audit, the EntityCore™ build and the Authority and Evidence Layer) are project work with a single setup fee of £5,500. Stage 4, EntityWatch™, is a monthly subscription from £1,500 to £3,000 a month on a twelve-month minimum term. Stage 5 is included until agent enquiry volume justifies a separate line. A typical year one lands between £23,500 and £41,500 depending on scope.
Category: pricing
Why is there a twelve-month minimum on EntityWatch™?
AI Authority compounds slowly. Citations take time to build and AI systems take time to recrawl and recalibrate, so month one shows early movement and real progress is visible over a year. The record also degrades without maintenance: certificates expire, people change and third parties publish errors. A twelve-month term is what makes the correction loop worth running properly.
Category: pricing
How does Known Entity.ai work with marketing agencies?
Marketing agencies, PR firms and SEO specialists are natural partners: the work they already do for clients shapes how AI systems perceive and cite those clients. Known Entity.ai works with agencies on a referral basis. The agency introduces the client, earns a referral fee and keeps its own relationship; Known Entity.ai delivers the EntityCore™ under its own name at the same price the client would pay directly. We also brief agencies on the citation strategy their PR work should follow. Known Entity.ai never approaches agency clients directly.
Category: partnership