Who knows you better: you, or the AI that advises your customer?

This article is loosely based on Agentic AI and consumers (GOV.UK).

There is a layer between you and your customer that you rarely see, but that increasingly decides. It is the layer in which AI, search engines and all kinds of platforms continuously build a picture: of your customer, and of you. They profile both sides. And that profile, the picture a system holds of you, is commercially very valuable. It is worth pausing on now and then.

Profiling goes both ways

We are used to the idea that we, as consumers, are tracked and profiled. We think less often about the fact that the same happens to our business. Based on what it finds about you online, an AI builds a picture of who you are, what you do and how trustworthy you seem. On the basis of that picture it does or does not mention your name when a customer searches for something. You did not create that picture yourself, and you usually do not see it. Yet it co-decides your findability.

Regulators are starting to look along

That this is sensitive is something the authorities see too. The British privacy regulator, the ICO, published an early exploration of agentic AI in early 2026, systems that not only recommend but also act on someone’s behalf. The recommendation is clear: when such a system makes a decision that materially affects someone, those involved must be informed about it, must be able to contest the decision, and meaningful human intervention must be possible. It is not yet law, but it points a direction. The core message, also found in the British government analysis: it is not the novelty of the technology that matters, but the effect on the consumer’s choice.

Trust has a limit

And the consumer? They are ambivalent about it. Research into AI-assisted buying shows that the greatest discomfort, named by almost half of users, arises when the AI uses personal or sensitive data. A large share feels uncomfortable with the idea that the AI knows too much about them. People want the convenience, but not at any price. There lies a tension that will only grow sharper in the years ahead: the commercial value of data on one side, and people’s trust on the other.

An honest question

What does this mean for you as a business owner? Perhaps above all this: you cannot determine what picture an AI builds of you, but you can make sure the building blocks are correct. That what can be found about you is clear, accurate and traceable. And you may from time to time want to know what picture is actually emerging. Because who knows you better, you or the system that advises your customer, is no longer a rhetorical question.

What PVwebsites does with this

We make that invisible layer a little more visible. We examine how Google and AI read and understand your website, and what picture emerges from it. We do not claim to know why an AI does or does not mention you, because that is a closed system that moreover changes by the day. We report what we see, and track it over time.

The PVwebsites tool is an accessible and affordable way to look at the current state of your website from several angles. The Vision Document that comes out of it can bring you new insights and ideas, for just €9.95. A subscription will follow soon, letting you track over time how changes to your website keep producing different results. More insight, at an affordable price.