Why digital footprint management is so important in the era of AI

Published On : 09/09/2024

By Neil Shah, Director of Content and Strategy at Edison Group

Neil Shah

With investors increasingly accessing information from AI sources, it is vital for companies to have accurate digital footprints.

Since ChatGPT launched into our lives in November 2022, chatbots and large language models (LLMs) – like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Perplexity – have made sourcing information easier than ever. However, with such a surfeit of information online, it has also led to growing scrutiny around the reliability of these models and the way they source their data.  

To explore this, Edison recently published a report in partnership with advisory firm, Digitalis, to understand how LLMs gather their information. To help businesses optimise their online representation, we also generated key takeaways for Investor Relations Officers (IROs) and corporate communications teams who need to manage their company’s digital footprints effectively – to ensure their data is being extracted and fed into these models accurately.

Implementing proactive monitoring

Chatbots and LLMs are so ubiquitous they are now used professionally across a range of industries. Teachers are using them to create lesson plans, programmers to write code and estate agents to produce property listings. Crucially, we also found that investors are increasingly gathering information from LLMs, underscoring how important it is that companies maintain a positive and accurate online profile. This is particularly critical for high-profile companies, whose larger digital footprints present greater potential for data being conflated or misinterpreted online, with the risk of LLMs using this information in their results. 

Our report delivered some valuable findings. Firstly, that owned assets (a company’s website and other assets they control such as their LinkedIn page) and Wikipedia pages made up 72% of all sources cited by chatbots. What’s more, responses from chatbots were often taken word for word from Wikipedia, which means on-page vandalism or inaccuracies could result in misrepresentations or hallucinations in chatbot output. This is a key reason to ensure that a company’s official website is up to date with accurate, comprehensive, open-source information that is regularly fact checked.

Similarly, it’s also important to maintain an active and verified social media presence which engages with stakeholders to mitigate misinformation. This will reduce the risk that negative social media comments are fed into an LLM.

As well as maintaining owned assets, IROs should proactively monitor the internet to keep track of their company’s digital footprint. Based on our findings, there should be a particular focus on Wikipedia here. A plethora of tools are available to monitor online references, drawing from news sites, blogs, forums and social media.

Focusing on the first page

Strikingly, our research found that 54% of sources cited across all three chatbots were located on the first page of a company’s website. Perplexity showed the greatest preference, with 61% of all sources located on page one. The reliance of LLMs on first-page search results highlights the value of SEO, and the importance of operating a well-maintained digital storefront. 

It’s clear there is a system to AI data sourcing, and so IROs are advised to understand this and learn how to optimise their company’s content to ensure accurate information ranks higher in search engine results. Publishing high-quality, insightful content on a regular basis can help with this – including issuing thought leadership blogs on a company’s own website, as well as fostering positive relationships with the media to publish content in well-read, trusted outlets.

The importance of careful curation

Increasingly, generative AI tools are looking to source high-quality content for their responses. In April 2024, OpenAI and the Financial Times announced a strategic partnership, with the FT licensing its material to the ChatGPT maker to train artificial intelligence systems and improve the accuracy of its data output. 

Edison was also pleased to find that its own content is increasingly being referenced in chatbot results due to the high-quality, open-source nature of its material. It’s clear, therefore, that LLMs are prioritising well-written content, which means IROs and communications teams who make this a focus will have more reliable, accurate representation online – a key advantage as AI data becomes increasingly embedded in our lives. 

Edison’s report, ‘Your online digital footprint: Understanding what’s driving AI responses’, can be found here.

Wanda Rich

Wanda Rich has been the Editor-in-Chief of Global Banking & Finance Review since 2011, playing a pivotal role in shaping the publication’s content and direction. Under her leadership, the magazine has expanded its global reach and established itself as a trusted source of information and analysis across various financial sectors. She is known for conducting exclusive interviews with industry leaders and oversees the Global Banking & Finance Awards, which recognize innovation and leadership in finance. In addition to Global Banking & Finance Review, Wanda also serves as editor for numerous other platforms, including Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune.