Definition
A hallucination is an AI-generated statement that is incorrect or unsupported but presented as fact. It can happen when a model fills gaps in its knowledge with plausible-sounding text, misreads a retrieved source, or combines details from different entities. Hallucinations can appear in answers with or without citations.
For example, an assistant might tell a buyer that Bizbloom has no mobile app, or that its starter plan costs twice the real price, because an old review said so or because it confused Bizbloom with another product. The buyer has no easy way to know the claim is wrong.
Why it matters
Hallucinations about your brand can reach buyers at the moment they are comparing options. A wrong price, a missing feature or an invented limitation can remove you from consideration without you ever knowing. You cannot directly edit an assistant's answer, but you can find recurring errors, identify the sources that may be causing them and publish clear, accurate information. Monitoring answers regularly is the only way to catch these errors early.
What to do
- Ask assistants direct questions about your pricing, features and policies and record the answers.
- Log each incorrect claim with the assistant, question and any cited source.
- Publish or update clear pages stating the correct facts, and fix outdated third-party sources.
Common questions
Can I fix an AI hallucination about my brand?
You cannot edit answers directly. You can make accurate information easy to find by updating your own pages, correcting third-party listings and publishing clear facts. Some assistants offer feedback options on individual answers. Track the same questions afterward to see whether the error persists.
Why do AI models hallucinate?
Language models generate text by predicting likely wording, not by checking facts. When information is missing, outdated or ambiguous, they can produce confident but wrong statements. Retrieval errors and confusion between similar names can also cause them. How often it happens varies by model and question type.