Brand Hallucinations: What to Do When AI Lies About You

Executive Summary: AI hallucinations—where a model confidently states falsehoods—are a major risk for modern brands. This guide outlines the mechanism of hallucinations and provides a step-by-step "Data Injection" strategy to correct them without waiting for the next model training run.

The Cost of Incorrect Data

If a user asks an AI, "Does [YourBrand] support Single Sign-On?" and the AI says "No," you have lost a customer.

This is not malice; it is a Data Gap. The AI looked for the answer, couldn't find an explicit "Yes," and hallucinated a "No" based on the probability of similar tools in your tier.

Strategy: Entity Injection

You cannot "edit" ChatGPT. But you can influence its Retrieval layer.

1. Identify the "Source of Truth" Gap

Audit your own documentation. Is the hallucinated fact explicitly corrected on your site?

• Hallucination: "Feature X is missing."
• Fix: Create a dedicated page or FAQ entry titled "Does [Brand] have Feature X? Yes."

2. The "3-Citation" Rule

AI models cross-reference. One source is an outlier; three sources are a fact. To overwrite a hallucination, publish the correct data on:

1. Your official documentation.
2. A press release or blog post (dated recently).
3. A third-party platform (LinkedIn, Crunchbase, or a review site).

3. Use Structured Data (JSON-LD)

Ambiguity breeds hallucination. Use Schema.org markup to lock in facts. If the AI thinks your CEO is "John Doe" (incorrect), add a Person schema to your About page explicitly defining the founder and ceo properties.

{
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "ViaMetric",
  "founder": {
    "@type": "Person",
    "name": "Davide Agostini"
  }
}

Monitoring for Drift

Hallucinations can re-emerge if new, incorrect content is published web-wide. Regularly query the major AI engines with specific fact-checking prompts:

• "What is the pricing model of [Brand]?"
• "Who owns [Brand]?"

If you detect a drift, repeat the Injection process immediately.

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Detect hallucinations before your customers do. Monitor your brand's AI narrative with ViaMetric's Mention Tracker.