How We Use AI
Top of Search uses AI tools openly, with human judgment on every decision. This page says exactly where the tools are used, where they are not, and what happens with your information. It applies to both of our sites and to every client engagement.
Why This Page Exists
Top of Search is an AI visibility consultancy. We help businesses show up in the answers AI engines give, which means we work with these tools every day, on purpose, and we think you should know exactly how.
This page describes how AI is used in our published content, in client work, and with client information. It is written for clients, prospective clients, and anyone citing our work.
How AI Is Used in Our Published Content
Content on this site and in Cited, our newsletter, is written by Anna Curry, sometimes directly and sometimes with AI tools drafting from a documented voice profile and brand context she wrote. Either way the strategy, the arguments, and the point of view are hers.
Every claim about what an AI engine returns is verified by running the prompt directly against the named engine before publication. Anna reviews and edits everything before it goes live.
We do not publish AI-generated content without human review, and we do not use AI to fabricate examples, reviews, testimonials, or results.
How AI Is Used in Client Work
In engagements, AI tools assist with:
- Research and synthesis, such as summarizing prompt-run data across engines
- Drafting, such as first passes of analyses, briefs, and schema that Anna then reviews and edits
- Prompt testing, which is the substance of the work: running real questions against ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Gemini to see what they return
What AI does not do: decide what we recommend. Every scored rating, every priority, and every recommendation in an engagement is Anna’s judgment, applied to your business. The tools are instruments. The analysis is human.
How Client Information Is Handled
Client business information shared during an engagement is held in confidence, consistent with the confidentiality terms of the service agreement.
When AI tools are used in client work, we do not input client confidential information into tools that use it to train public models. Business facts that are already public, such as your website copy, listings, and reviews, are used freely, because reading your public footprint is the work.
We do not use client data to train any model of our own, and we do not sell or share it.
What We Verify
Engine outputs quoted in an analysis are from real runs against the named engine, not estimates or paraphrases.
Client numbers come from the business or its source system before they appear anywhere.
Anything that cannot be verified is stated as such or left out.
Our Position
We think a marketing consultancy that helps businesses get cited by AI should be fluent in these tools and open about using them. The judgment you hire is human. The instruments are modern. That combination is the practice.
This page is reviewed as our tools and practices change, and the effective date above reflects the last revision.
Questions about any of this are welcome at hello@topofsearch.com.
Questions?
Reach out at hello@topofsearch.com. We are happy to answer.