Quick answer
An AI assistant naming an agency is a shortlist, not a recommendation you can act on. Verify the sources behind the name, the reviews, the reporting method, contract terms, account ownership and whether any claimed result can be reproduced. Use the eight checks below before you take a meeting.
- Eight checks from source to service fit
- A comparison matrix you can fill in per agency
- What AI visibility data can and cannot tell you
More Vancouver businesses are now arriving at a shortlist of agencies by asking an AI assistant. That is a reasonable place to start and a poor place to stop. Assistants summarise the pages they can reach and the language those pages use — which rewards agencies that publish clear, well-structured content, not necessarily agencies that produce results.
Here are the eight checks we would apply to any name that comes back, including our own.
The eight checks
- Source. Ask the assistant where the recommendation came from, then open those pages. A directory listing, a sponsored roundup and a client case study are not the same kind of evidence.
- Proof. Named client work you can verify beats an anonymised percentage every time. Ask what the starting position was.
- Reviews. Read the middle-rated ones. Look for a pattern in what people say went wrong, and whether the agency answered.
- Reporting. Ask to see a real, redacted monthly report before signing. If reporting is described but never shown, assume it does not exist in the form described.
- Contract. Term length, notice period, what happens to work in progress, and whether the fee changes when scope does.
- Ownership. Accounts, properties, the CMS and every asset produced should be yours, with agency access granted — not the other way around.
- Reproducibility. Any claimed AI-visibility win should come with a dated prompt log, run more than once, across more than one assistant.
- Service fit. Does the proposed scope match how your customers actually buy? A proposal that would suit any business suits none in particular.
The evidence matrix
| Check | Ask for | Weak answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Source | The pages behind the recommendation | "We rank well in AI" |
| Proof | Named work with a starting point | Percentages with no baseline |
| Reviews | Mid-rated reviews and responses | Only five-star testimonials on their own site |
| Reporting | A redacted real report | A description of a dashboard |
| Contract | Term, notice, scope-change terms | "Standard 12 months, everyone signs it" |
| Ownership | Accounts in your name from day one | Agency-held accounts "for efficiency" |
| Reproducibility | Dated multi-assistant prompt log | One screenshot |
| Service fit | Scope mapped to your buying journey | A template proposal |
What AI visibility data can and cannot tell you
Google confirms that its generative AI performance reporting covers AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that it was rolled out worldwide by August 31, 2026. That is useful: it tells you how your own site performed in those specific surfaces. It does not tell you how you appear in other assistants, it does not attribute a change to any particular agency's work, and it cannot validate a recommendation made about a third party. Treat it as one measurement source among several, and ask any agency to state plainly which surfaces their reporting does and does not cover.
Run the prompt log yourself
Before the first meeting, ask two or three assistants the same buying question a customer would ask, twice each, on different days, and save the answers with dates. You will see for yourself how much the results move. That variability is the single most important thing to understand before anyone sells you an AI visibility retainer.
Where the work actually sits
Our SEO services and local SEO pages cover organic and map visibility, AEO services covers answer-engine and AI visibility work, and reporting dashboards explains how we report on all of it.
What this guide cannot do
No checklist can tell you whether an agency will be good to work with, and no measurement stack covers every assistant. The aim is narrower: to make sure the name you were given survives contact with its own evidence.
Want a second opinion on a shortlist?
Book a free 30-minute consultation. Bring the proposals you have and we will walk them against these eight checks with you.
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