Trust now gets reviewed twice. Once by the shopper. Once by the AI that answers for them.

We wanted to know which part of a review the second reader pays attention to. The star rating, or the words.

AI does read customer reviews

Take one high-street health retailer we audited this month. In the AI answers that named it, review sites were cited 148 times.

About three in four of those citations were pages of customer reviews. Not editorial “best of” roundups. Real customers, in their own words.

So reviews are part of what AI reads. The question is which part counts.

The star rating didn’t predict much

We compared 27 brands across six categories, from trainers to restaurants to supplements. For each brand we had its customer reviews and the AI answers from its audit.

A higher star rating did not mean AI named the brand more often. Neither did longer reviews.

Fame drowned out both. The best-known brands were named on most questions, whatever their reviews said.

What customers write looked more promising

So we compared each brand with itself instead.

We took the specific questions each brand was asked, like “which trainers are best for running?”. Then we split them in two. Questions whose situation the brand’s reviews talk about, and questions they don’t.

16 of the 25 brands were named more often on the questions their customers write about. On average, by five percentage points.

That is a direction, not a proof. The sample is small, and a split of 16 to 9 can happen by chance. We will keep measuring it.

Why this is good news for smaller brands

Most brands can’t outspend the market leader on fame. But any team can change what its happy customers write, starting this week.

Ask for the situation, not the stars. “What did you use it for, and what changed?” gets a review that says “finally sleeping through my night shifts”.

That sentence is the language a shopper uses when they ask AI for help. A five-star “great product” gives AI nothing to match.

Fame gets a brand found. What customers say about the moments that matter helps it get chosen.