The short answer
Assistants get facts wrong because of old or conflicting sources, thin information about you, mixed-up similarly named businesses, or plain invention. Fix the source first: your own pages, your profiles, then third-party listings. Then use each assistant's feedback tool and log it. Timing is uncertain and no outcome can be promised.
Why assistants get facts wrong
An assistant writes fluent answers by predicting likely text. It does not look up a verified record about you. Google's own help page says AI responses may include mistakes and advises people to check important information in more than one place. The same caution applies to every assistant.
- Old sources: a directory still shows your old address or a closed location.
- Conflicting sources: your site, your profile and a listing disagree, so it picks one.
- Thin information: with little written about you, it fills gaps with what is typical for your industry.
- Name clashes: another business with a similar name, or a former owner, gets blended in.
- Training lag: the model learned about you before you changed.
- Plain invention: sometimes a detail is made up. This is a known limitation of these systems.
Step 1: record the error
- 1Copy the exact wrong text, the assistant name, the question you asked and the date.
- 2Ask the same question two more times, in new chats, to see if the error repeats.
- 3Note any source links shown beside the answer.
- 4Ask the other main assistants too. The same error in several places points to one shared source.
Step 2: find the likely source
Search for the wrong fact itself, in quotes, on Google. Check your Google Business Profile, social profiles, major directories, review sites, press mentions and any old pages on your own site, including PDFs. If the assistant cited a link, open it first: it is the most direct clue you will get.
Do not assume the wrong fact came from the internet. If you find nothing, the assistant may have made it up, and your best correction is a clear, direct statement of the true fact on your own site.
Step 3: the correction playbook
Go in this order: own pages, profiles, third parties. The first two are in your control and are the fastest. For redirects of old pages, see redirects after a redesign, and for your map listing see Google Business Profile basics.
| Where the error lives | What to do | Who can do it |
|---|---|---|
| Your own pages | Correct the page, remove or redirect outdated pages, update schema and the contact page | You, or us on request |
| Your profiles (Google Business Profile, social, industry bodies) | Update each one so name, address, phone, hours and description match your site | Profile owner |
| Third-party sites (directories, news, review sites) | Use the site's edit or claim process; contact the editor politely with evidence | You, sometimes us |
| Nowhere you can find | Publish a clear, factual statement of the truth on a dedicated page, and keep it consistent | You, or us |
Step 4: use the assistant feedback tools
Most assistants have a thumbs-down or report control on each answer. Google documents that AI Overviews have thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons; the thumbs-down lets you choose "Report a problem", pick a category, add details and submit, and the report includes your recent query and its results. Other assistants offer similar controls, though menus change, so look in the product itself.
Keep the report factual: name the wrong statement, state the correct fact and link to a page that proves it. Feedback helps the vendor, but none of them promise to change a particular answer.
Some assistants have formal channels for privacy or legal requests about personal information. We cannot give legal advice. If an error is defamatory or about a person, get independent advice.
How long will it take?
Honestly, nobody knows. When an assistant searches the web live, a fix on a crawled page can show within days to weeks, depending on when it is next crawled. OpenAI says a robots.txt change can take about a day to be reflected in search, which shows how fast the search side can be. Google says preview-control changes can take days to months to take effect after recrawling.
Built-in model knowledge is different. It only changes when a model is retrained, on a schedule you cannot see. An error baked into training may stay for months, while the assistant's search-based answers improve. Use the monthly test from check what AI says about you to track change, and give each fix a few weeks before judging it.
We never promise that a correction will be accepted or by when. Anyone who does is guessing.
What not to do
- Do not create dozens of new pages repeating the correction. One clear page is enough, and duplicates can add conflict.
- Do not pay anyone who promises to "fix" an assistant in a fixed number of days.
- Do not argue with the assistant in the chat and expect it to learn. A conversation does not retrain the model for other users.
- Do not edit third-party pages deceptively, for example by using a fake account. Use the site's proper edit or claim process.
Prevent the next error
- Keep one master fact sheet: legal name, address, phone, hours, services, founding year, key people.
- Update every profile whenever the sheet changes.
- Remove old pages and PDFs, or redirect them.
- Put key facts in plain HTML text, not only in images.
- Re-run your question set monthly to catch new errors early.
Example: Wrong opening hours
A veterinary clinic finds three assistants saying it closes at 5 pm. It actually closes at 7 pm on weekdays. Two of the answers cite the same local directory, which lists 5 pm. The clinic corrects the directory through its claim process, checks its Google Business Profile, updates the hours on its own contact page and adds a plain-text hours line. Three weeks later, two of the three assistants show 7 pm. The third does not, so the clinic submits feedback with a link to its hours page and logs it. That is a typical result: partial, slow and not fully in its control.
When to ask us
If the error comes from your own website, tell us through the support form and we will fix it as a normal update (see request a website update). Send the wrong answer as a screenshot or Loom link, the question you asked, the date and the correct fact with proof. If the cause is on a third-party site, we can advise on the best route, though only the owner of that site or listing can change it.
