What is an AI hallucination?
A hallucination is a statement an AI model produces confidently that is false or unsupported, such as a wrong price, a feature you do not have or a source that does not exist. Retrieval with web search reduces the risk but does not remove it. For brands the damage is wrong facts at the moment of a buying decision.
Why do they happen?
Language models generate likely text. When the retrieved pages are missing, outdated or contradict each other, the model fills the gap. Wrong facts that appear on several sites are repeated.
Example: an assistant says a tool has a free plan that was discontinued a year ago, because an old review site still says so.
What you can do
Publish clear, current facts on your own site, correct outdated third-party pages, and keep prices and features identical everywhere. Then re-ask the question to see whether the answer changed.
How does Nodpick help?
Every answer behind a score can be read in full in Nodpick, so you can spot wrong claims about your brand instead of only seeing a number. Run the free AI visibility check to see your own numbers; the method shows how they are made, and pricing lists the plans.
Read more: How ChatGPT chooses which brands to recommend