Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the key terms in AI Buyer Visibility, Generative Engine Optimisation, Answer Engine Optimisation, agentic commerce, and how AI agents find, evaluate and shortlist suppliers. Written for the commercial and marketing teams of food & drink suppliers, not for engineers.

Last updated: 14 September 2026
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A
A2A (Agent-to-Agent)
An open protocol for communication between AI agents from different vendors and systems. One of the foundational standards being stewarded by the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation, alongside MCP, AP2, ACP and UCP. Lets a buyer-side agent talk to a supplier-side agent without proprietary integration.
ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)
An open standard for AI agents to conduct commercial transactions on behalf of buyers, including identity verification, authorisation and payment. Sits in the same family as MCP, A2A, AP2 and UCP. Part of the technical infrastructure that future buyer-agent transactions may depend on; relevant to the agent readiness stage of the AI Authority Ladder™.
AEO
See Answer Engine Optimisation.
Agent readiness
The fifth stage of the AI Authority Ladder™. EntityCore™ is designed to provide a foundation for future buyer-agent interactions through structured, supported business information. As those systems develop, they may use supplier information to compare specifications, check capabilities and initiate enquiries. Additional integrations or transaction services would be scoped and agreed separately.
Agent-to-agent commerce
A model of commercial transaction in which AI agents acting on behalf of buyers communicate directly with the systems of suppliers, including requesting quotes, comparing options and placing orders. Forecast by Gartner to account for $15 trillion of B2B spend by 2028, with 90% of B2B buying AI-agent intermediated.
Agentic AI
AI systems that go beyond answering questions to take action on a user's behalf: browsing, filling forms, transacting, comparing suppliers and managing tasks across systems. The shift from generative AI (which produces content) to agentic AI (which produces outcomes) is why Known Entity designs EntityCore™ with future buyer agents in mind.
Agentic commerce
The category of commerce in which AI agents make or execute purchasing decisions on behalf of human buyers, working from policies, budgets and preferences rather than direct instruction at the point of purchase. How quickly it arrives in B2B supply, and through which platforms, remains uncertain. Known Entity treats it as the direction of travel that structured, supported business information should be ready for, not as a promise about timing.
AI agent
A software system that uses generative AI to perform tasks autonomously on behalf of a user. AI agents can browse, summarise, evaluate options, draft responses and increasingly transact. The buyer-side AI agent is the audience AI Buyer Visibility work is designed to reach.
AI Authority
The credibility and supporting evidence behind how AI represents a business. A business with strong AI Authority is described accurately and can be corroborated from sources AI systems give weight to. Known Entity's AI Authority Ladder™ is the five-stage methodology it uses to improve AI Buyer Visibility; the commercial objective is to be visible, accurately understood and considered for relevant supplier opportunities.
AI Authority Audit
Former name of the AI Buyer Visibility Audit, used until September 2026. See AI Buyer Visibility Audit.
AI Authority Infrastructure (AIAI)
Retired category descriptor Known Entity used until September 2026 for the structured records, supporting evidence and endpoints behind its work. The three outcomes it described, discoverable, trusted and transactable, are now expressed as Visible, Verified and Shortlisted. See AI Buyer Visibility.
AI Authority Ladder™
Known Entity's five-stage methodology for improving a food and drink supplier's AI Buyer Visibility. The five stages are Discover (the AI Buyer Visibility Audit), Structure (the EntityCore™ build), Verify (Evidence and Industry Credibility), Protect (EntityWatch™) and Agent readiness (built into EntityCore™). Each stage builds on the record created by the one before it.
AI Authority Snapshot
Former name of the free AI Buyer Visibility Score. See AI Buyer Visibility Score.
AI Buyer Visibility
How a business appears when buyers use AI to research potential suppliers: whether it is found, whether its capabilities are understood accurately, and whether it is recommended or shortlisted for relevant requirements. Known Entity's positioning and the outcome its work is measured against, summarised as Visible. Verified. Shortlisted.
AI Buyer Visibility Audit
Stage 1 of the AI Authority Ladder™ and the starting point of every Known Entity engagement. Tests an agreed panel of buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and reports how often the business is found, whether it is recommended or shortlisted, how accurately it is described and which competitors appear instead, with prioritised recommendations. Delivered in two weeks and included in the £6,000 setup fee covering Stages 1 to 3.
AI Buyer Visibility Report
The monthly report delivered through EntityWatch™, covering appearances, recommendations or shortlisting, factual accuracy and competitor presence on the agreed buyer-question panel, together with findings and priorities for the next month.
AI Buyer Visibility Score
Known Entity's free, no-obligation read of where a supplier stands today. A sample of the questions buyers might ask when looking for suppliers like it is tested across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, showing how often the business is found, how often it is recommended or shortlisted, whether AI understands it accurately and which competitors appear instead. No meeting required.
AI crawler
A software agent operated by an AI platform to read and index public web content for training data, retrieval or live grounding. The major crawlers include GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), Google-Extended and Bingbot. A robots.txt file that blocks these crawlers prevents the business from being indexed by the AI platforms its buyers use.
AI Overview
Google's name for the AI-generated summary that appears at the top of search results for many queries. Draws on a curated set of sources rather than the full ranked list, making presence in those sources commercially significant.
Answer Engine Optimisation
The practice of structuring an organisation's expertise, content and online presence so that AI platforms recognise it as a credible, citable source and feature it in synthesised answers. Sometimes abbreviated AEO. Used interchangeably with Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
AP2 (Agent Payment Protocol)
An emerging open standard for AI agents to authorise and execute payments on behalf of users, with attribution and verification built in. One of the agent commerce protocols being developed alongside MCP, A2A, ACP and UCP. Relevant to the agent readiness stage of the AI Authority Ladder™.
B
Buyer journey
The sequence of stages a B2B buyer moves through from first awareness of a problem to final supplier selection. Research from 6sense and Gartner shows that the majority of this journey now happens before a supplier is contacted, with 73% of B2B buyers using AI tools in their purchase research and 95% of winning vendors already on the buyer's Day One shortlist.
Buyer-question panel
The agreed set of real buying questions, typically 30 to 50, that Known Entity runs across the four AI platforms in the audit and again each month through EntityWatch™. The core panel stays consistent so that results are comparable over time, and any agreed changes to it are documented.
Buyer-side agent
An AI agent operating on behalf of a buyer, conducting research, comparing options, evaluating credentials and increasingly initiating enquiries. The audience AI Buyer Visibility work is designed to reach. Distinct from supplier-side agents, which operate on behalf of the business being recommended.
C
ChatGPT
OpenAI's consumer AI assistant, the most widely used generative AI platform. One of the major AI platforms Known Entity.ai monitors and optimises for. Draws a substantial share of citations from Wikipedia, established trade press and authoritative sources, making the citation graph particularly important for ChatGPT visibility.
Citation
In the context of AI search, a reference made by an AI platform to a specific business, product or source within a generated answer. Can be implicit (mentioning the business by name) or explicit (linking to the source URL). Citations are among the signals AI Buyer Visibility work tracks.
Citation frequency
A measurement of how often an organisation is cited or mentioned across a defined set of AI prompts. Tracked over time as one indicator of whether AI Buyer Visibility is improving or declining.
Citation graph
The network of third-party sources that mention or cite an organisation, used by AI systems to assess credibility and decide whether to feature the organisation in answers. Includes trade press, expert commentary, review platforms, industry bodies, LinkedIn authority content and Wikipedia.
Claude
A family of large language models built by Anthropic. One of the major AI platforms Known Entity.ai monitors and optimises for, alongside ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
ClaudeBot
The web crawler operated by Anthropic to gather content for Claude. Businesses that block ClaudeBot in their robots.txt file will not appear in Claude's answers, regardless of how strong their content or citation graph is. See AI crawler.
D
Discover (Stage 1)
The first stage of the AI Authority Ladder™, delivered as the AI Buyer Visibility Audit. An agreed panel of real buying questions, typically 30 to 50, is run across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity to establish how often the business is found, whether it is recommended or shortlisted, how accurately it is described and which competitors appear instead. Produces the documented baseline against which all subsequent work is measured.
Discoverable
Former name for the first outcome Known Entity worked towards, used until September 2026, now Visible. See Visible.
E
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. The framework Google publishes for evaluating content quality, increasingly used as shorthand for the signals AI platforms also consider when deciding which sources to cite.
Earned media
Coverage, commentary and citation that an organisation receives from third-party sources, including trade publications, industry bodies, journalists, review platforms, expert directories and podcasts. Called earned because it is not paid for and not self-published. Fundamental to AI Buyer Visibility because AI systems give weight to information they can corroborate from independent sources. Known Entity recommends which sources are worth pursuing; the client's team or PR agency secures the coverage.
Entity
In the language of AI and knowledge systems, a person, organisation, product or concept that an AI platform has structured information about and can reference with confidence. The opposite of an entity is an unknown or ambiguous reference that AI cannot place.
Entity custodian
A description Known Entity has used for the role of maintaining a client's EntityCore™ record: keeping the structured record of the business accurate, current and supported by evidence, so that AI systems have a reliable basis for describing it.
Entity definition
The structured understanding an AI platform holds about what an organisation is, what it does, who it serves and what it stands for. The Diagnostic Audit assesses the current entity definition; the Entity Build refines and asserts it.
EntityCore™
A structured record of a business hosted at its own subdomain. It brings together products, capabilities, certifications, applications, sectors served and supporting sources in a form designed for AI systems to interpret, with an MCP endpoint AI agents can query. It supports the existing website rather than replacing it. Publishing a record does not guarantee that every platform will retrieve it or recommend the business.
EntityWatch™
Known Entity's monthly monitoring and improvement service and Stage 4 of the AI Authority Ladder™. Each month it repeats the AI visibility checks on the agreed buyer-question panel, reviews the accuracy of the business information, tracks competitors, keeps the EntityCore™ record current and recommends two to four articles for the client's team or PR agency to write and publish. £1,500 to £3,000 per month depending on agreed scope, on a twelve-month minimum term.
Evidence and Industry Credibility
Stage 3 of the AI Authority Ladder™. Known Entity connects the important claims in a client's EntityCore™ to supporting sources such as certification bodies, accreditation registers, trade associations, industry directories and relevant trade coverage, identifies gaps, and develops a focused brief for the client's PR or marketing partners. Article production and PR placements are carried out by the client's team or agency. Included in the £6,000 setup fee.
F
Forrester forecast
Forrester reports that 94% of B2B buyers use AI in their buying process (2026) and that more than half say generative AI led them to consider more or different vendors (2025). Two of the data points Known Entity cites when explaining why AI Buyer Visibility matters now.
G
Gartner forecast
Gartner has suggested that a large share of B2B buying will be AI-agent intermediated by 2028. Known Entity cites it as a directional signal about where buying is heading, not as a delivery date.
Gemini
Google's family of large language models, used in Google's AI Overviews and standalone Gemini products. One of the major AI platforms Known Entity.ai monitors and optimises for.
Generative AI
A class of AI that produces new content (text, images, code, audio) rather than just classifying or retrieving existing content. The basis of all the major AI platforms relevant to AI Buyer Visibility work. Distinct from agentic AI, which uses generative AI to take actions on a user's behalf.
Generative Engine Optimisation
The practice of structuring and positioning an organisation's expertise, content and online presence so that AI platforms recognise it as a credible, citable source. Where SEO aims to rank a website highly in search results, GEO aims to ensure a business is present in the synthesised answer that an AI platform delivers directly. Often abbreviated GEO. Used interchangeably with AEO.
GEO
See Generative Engine Optimisation.
GPTBot
The web crawler operated by OpenAI to gather content for ChatGPT and other OpenAI products. Businesses that block GPTBot in their robots.txt file will not be reachable by ChatGPT's indexing process. Known Entity checks for AI crawler access as part of every AI Buyer Visibility Audit. See AI crawler.
H
Hallucination
An AI-generated answer that is fluent, plausible and confidently delivered but factually wrong. AI systems are more likely to hallucinate when they have insufficient or contradictory source material on a topic. One of the strongest commercial cases for AI Buyer Visibility work: a supplier with thin or fragmented information is more likely to be described inaccurately, and a buyer may act on that description without ever contacting the supplier.
I
Invisible Shortlist
The Known Entity.ai white paper on the B2B buyer journey and AI's role in pre-vendor research. Sets out why 95 percent of winning vendors are already on the buyer's Day One shortlist, and what that means for businesses that are absent from AI-generated answers. Available at knownentity.ai/the-invisible-shortlist/.
J
JSON-LD
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. The most widely supported format for embedding structured data (schema markup) in web pages. Lets a page state explicit, machine-readable facts about an entity, its attributes and its relationships, alongside the human-readable content. The standard format used by Google, AI platforms and the wider web for entity-level structured data.
K
Knowledge graph
A structured representation of entities and the relationships between them. Used by AI systems to ground generated answers in factual structure rather than free-form prediction. EntityCore™ functions as a knowledge graph for the businesses Known Entity.ai works with.
Knowledge Graph Build
Former name of the EntityCore™ Build, used until 2026. See EntityCore™.
L
Large language model
A type of AI model trained on large volumes of text to predict and generate language. The underlying technology behind ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other generative AI products. Often abbreviated LLM.
LLM
See Large language model.
llms.txt
A proposed standard file, served at the root of a website, that summarises the site's content and structure in a way optimised for large language models to consume. The AI-era counterpart to robots.txt, but for guidance rather than access control. Known Entity.ai publishes its own llms.txt at knownentity.ai/llms.txt as part of the Open Entity Registry.
M
McKinsey six-level automation curve
McKinsey's framework for how AI delegation evolves in commerce, from Level 0 (programmed convenience like subscriptions) through Level 5 (networked autonomy, agent-to-agent commerce running continuously). The crucial insight is that delegation does not move uniformly: it accelerates in low-regret, high-repetition categories like consumables and plateaus in identity-driven categories like luxury. For B2B, the inflection point is supervised execution, where agents are authorised to act within defined policies. The curve is buyer-facing; suppliers need to read it backwards to understand what discoverability, trust and transactability are required at each level.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard, originated by Anthropic, that lets AI agents securely access external context, tools and data sources. Known Entity.ai serves each client's EntityCore™ via a dedicated MCP endpoint, giving authorised AI agents direct access to the canonical entity record with provenance and verification baked in. One of the foundational protocols of agent infrastructure, alongside A2A, AP2, ACP and UCP.
O
Open Entity Registry
Known Entity.ai's machine-readable entity record, published as structured data so AI assistants and search engines can verify who we are, what we do, and how we deliver. Includes registry.json and llms.txt files alongside human-readable pages covering services, methodology, sectors, credentials, people and case studies. A practical demonstration of the same agent-readable infrastructure we build for clients.
P
Perplexity
An AI-native search engine that synthesises answers from live web sources rather than relying primarily on pre-trained knowledge. One of the major AI platforms Known Entity.ai monitors and optimises for. Distinctive in its emphasis on conversational, experience-based content.
PerplexityBot
The web crawler operated by Perplexity to gather content for live synthesis. See AI crawler.
Prompt audit
A structured exercise in which an agreed set of buyer-relevant questions is run across the major AI platforms and the responses are analysed for appearances, recommendations, accuracy and competitor presence. The core measurement instrument of AI Buyer Visibility work, run at baseline and then monthly through EntityWatch™.
Properly Known
Retired brand line, used until September 2026, for the distinction between merely appearing in AI answers and being found and recommended for the right things. That outcome is now expressed as Visible. Verified. Shortlisted.
Protect (Stage 4)
The fourth stage of the AI Authority Ladder™, delivered as EntityWatch™. Monthly repeat checks on the agreed buyer-question panel across the four AI platforms, tracking appearances, recommendations, factual accuracy and competitor presence, with updates to the EntityCore™ record and recommendations for the next month. See EntityWatch™.
R
registry.json
A structured JSON file published at the root of an entity's subdomain that declares its canonical attributes in a machine-readable format. Known Entity.ai publishes its own registry.json at entity.knownentity.ai/registry.json as part of the Open Entity Registry, demonstrating the agent-readable infrastructure pattern we build for clients.
Research Reflex
The Known Entity.ai companion white paper to The Invisible Shortlist. Examines the buyer behaviour shift from active search to AI-mediated research, and how that reshapes which businesses end up on the consideration set.
Retainer
Former name for the monthly EntityWatch™ service. See EntityWatch™.
Robots.txt
A plain-text file at the root of a website that tells web crawlers which parts of the site they may access. The first place to check in any AI Buyer Visibility Audit: a robots.txt file that blocks GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended renders the business invisible to those AI platforms regardless of how strong its content or citation graph is.
S
Schema markup
Structured data added to web pages, typically in JSON-LD format, that describes the content in a machine-readable way. Helps search engines and AI platforms understand what a page is about and which facts it asserts. A foundational technical practice for AI discoverability.
Sentiment analysis
Assessment of the tone and framing with which an organisation is described in AI answers. Positive, neutral or negative. Tracked over time as part of the monthly AI Buyer Visibility Report; off-strategy or negative framing is itself a signal that attention is needed.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation. The discipline of structuring a website to rank well in traditional search results. SEO and AI Buyer Visibility overlap: technical accessibility, clear content and credible external sources support both search visibility and inclusion in AI answers. Known Entity's work focuses on supplier buying questions, the accuracy and evidence behind business information, and competitor comparison, and it coordinates with a client's existing SEO, content and PR partners.
Share of voice
The proportion of relevant AI prompt responses in a given category that mention or cite a particular organisation, relative to its competitors. The most useful single number for understanding competitive position in AI search.
Shortlisted
The third of the three outcomes Known Entity works towards. A business is shortlisted when AI includes it among the potential suppliers it recommends for a relevant requirement. Visibility only matters if it leads to consideration; the goal is to be understood, trusted and shortlisted when the right opportunity arises.
Source attribution
The practice of naming the original source of a fact, statistic or claim within content. Important both for human readers and for AI systems, which use attribution as a trust signal when deciding whether to extract and cite a passage.
Structure (Stage 2)
The second stage of the AI Authority Ladder™, delivered as the EntityCore™ build: a structured record of the business, hosted at its own subdomain, that makes products, capabilities, certifications, applications and sectors served easier for AI systems to interpret. See EntityCore™.
Structured data
See Schema markup. Information presented in a machine-readable format with explicit relationships, as opposed to unstructured prose.
Supplier-side agent
An AI agent or endpoint operated on behalf of a supplier business, exposing its capabilities, attributes and offers to buyer-side agents in a structured, machine-readable form. EntityCore™ is designed as a foundation for that surface; any additional integrations or transaction services would be scoped and agreed separately as the agent protocols mature.
T
Topic cluster
A group of related pages or articles centred on a specific buyer question, with a hub page and supporting detail. Known Entity uses buyer questions and information gaps found in the audit and monthly monitoring to recommend two to four article topics a month, which the client's team or PR agency writes and publishes.
Tracking and Measurement
Former name of the fourth stage of the AI Authority Ladder™, now Protect. See Protect (EntityWatch™).
Transactable
Former name for the third outcome Known Entity worked towards, used until September 2026. The commercial outcome is now expressed as Shortlisted, and the future-facing capability as Agent readiness. See Shortlisted and Agent readiness.
Trusted
Former name for the second outcome Known Entity worked towards, used until September 2026, now Verified. See Verified.
U
Universal Commerce Protocol
Google's open standard for agent-to-agent commerce, launched at the National Retail Federation event in January 2026. Establishes a framework for AI agents to communicate with retailer and supplier systems for product discovery, evaluation and transaction. Marker of how close agentic commerce is.
V
Verified
The second of the three outcomes Known Entity works towards. A business is verified when AI understands it accurately and the important facts about it, from products and capabilities to certifications, applications and sectors served, are clear, current and supported by credible evidence.
Verify (Stage 3)
The third stage of the AI Authority Ladder™, delivered as Evidence and Industry Credibility. Important business claims are connected to supporting sources such as certification bodies, accreditation registers, trade associations, industry directories and relevant trade coverage; gaps are identified and turned into a focused brief for the client's PR or marketing partners. See Evidence and Industry Credibility.
Visible
The first of the three outcomes Known Entity works towards. A business is visible when it appears in AI answers to the questions buyers ask about suppliers with its products, capabilities, certifications and expertise, not just when a buyer searches for it by name.
W
Wikidata
The structured-data sister project to Wikipedia, holding facts about entities in a machine-readable format. Used by AI systems as a high-trust source for verifying basic facts about people, organisations and things. Presence in Wikidata is itself a credibility signal where the evidence supports it.
Wikipedia
Among the highest-trust sources used by AI platforms when generating answers. ChatGPT in particular draws a substantial share of its citations from Wikipedia. Inclusion in Wikipedia, where the evidence trail genuinely supports a notable entry, is one of the most valuable citation outcomes.

A term we've missed?

If there's a term you've seen in AI Buyer Visibility or AI search that we haven't covered, email hello@knownentity.ai and we'll add it. We update this page as the field evolves.