AI answer research · September 10, 2026
An AI citation that recommended an unavailable competitor
AnkiWordBank sells language-learning flashcards. An AI answer cited its website—but recommended a competitor’s product that wasn’t available to buy.
We reviewed saved OpenAI answers, corrected the cited article and ran six follow-up checks. One later answer included AnkiWordBank as a budget option, with reservations.
The citation looked like a win
The question asked for beginner Portuguese flashcards for Anki, a study app. One answer recommended a paid product from Refold, citing AnkiWordBank’s comparison guide as its source.
AnkiWordBank got the citation. It did not get the product recommendation. A simple citation count would have missed that distinction.
The source contained a fixable mistake
The guide presented the competitor’s roughly $30 product as an available option. But Refold’s own catalogue marked it “Coming Soon.” A second model spotted that and did not recommend buying it.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Listed as a paid alternative without an availability note. | Clearly marked “Coming Soon,” with a link to check the seller’s catalogue. |
The correction went live on September 9. Both the updated guide and the seller’s availability label were checked again on September 10. See exactly what changed.
What the follow-up found
On September 10, we asked the same question three times each using the two original model aliases. Of six answers, one included AnkiWordBank as a budget option—with reservations about synthesized audio and limited reviews—and two cited its website.
None recommended buying the unavailable Refold product. One explicitly flagged “Coming Soon”; five did not mention it.
What to check for your own business
Honest competitor comparisons are a normal way to help buyers choose: Google’s guidance supports this format, provided the differences are useful and accurate.
Whether you sell software, services or physical products, check what an AI answer uses your website to say:
- Who gets recommended? Your site can be cited while another business gets the recommendation.
- Is the claim correct? Follow the citation and verify availability, price and features.
- Can you fix the source? Correct inaccurate information you control, then recheck future answers.
Here, the useful result was a concrete correction and a repeatable check. Traffic and sales effects have not been measured.
Original answers and method
Exact question: “Best Portuguese A1 vocabulary Anki deck?” A deck is a set of flashcards. The request appended “Give specific recommendations with sources.”
“Best paid PT-BR: Refold PT1K.”
The quoted recommendation is from the September 9 chat-latest answer. The same bullet cited AnkiWordBank. GPT-6 Astra identified the availability issue in its answer to the same question. Both answers preceded the correction; they are not a before-and-after test.
We selected this example from a 36-answer research batch: 28 questions to chat-latest and eight to gpt-6-astra. It is not a representative error rate. Requests used the OpenAI API with required web search and a 4,500-output-token ceiling; Astra used low reasoning. Full settings are in the download.
These were separate research-script requests, not BotView dashboard exports or recordings of consumer ChatGPT. The work used automated tooling. No independent endorsement, causal improvement, traffic lift or sales lift is claimed. Other product claims in the original answers have not all been validated.
Follow-up settings matched the original request: fresh contexts, no brand added to the question, required web search, the same output limit and Astra reasoning setting. Model aliases were not pinned. An initial six attempts returned HTTP 429; after the account owner reported adding credits, a new six-request batch completed. Every answer is published; none was discarded.
chat-latest: 0/3 product recommendations, 1/3 citations. gpt-6-astra: 1/3 qualified product recommendations, 1/3 citations. A qualified recommendation includes a suggestion to consider the product, with reservations; it does not mean top choice. These six follow-up answers do not establish that the correction caused the change. Refold’s availability label and the corrected guide were rechecked during the follow-up.
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