# Confidence score

> Confidence score is how certain an AI model sounds when it talks about your brand, from hedged guesses to clear statements.

- **Area:** [AI Visibility](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility)
- **Tool:** [AI Visibility](https://be1st.ai/tools/ai-visibility)
- **Page:** https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/confidence-score

## Why it matters

The AI's level of certainty directly affects user trust. If AI responds uncertainly, the user will seek further verification and may choose a competitor about whom AI speaks with greater confidence. The confidence score correlates with the quantity and quality of sources about your brand that the AI model processed during training.

## In practice

When asked 'Is Shopify a reliable e-commerce platform?', ChatGPT responds: 'Shopify is one of the largest and most reliable e-commerce platforms with over 4 million active stores.' This is high confidence: no hesitation, specific numbers. Conversely, the response 'Shopify is apparently some kind of e-commerce platform' indicates low confidence.

## How be1st checks it

Evaluates the level of certainty and conviction with which AI models talk about your brand. High confidence means AI responds with certainty and without hesitation ('Amazon is the world's largest online retailer'), while low confidence manifests through uncertain phrasing ('It seems that Amazon might be...' or 'I'm not sure, but...'). be1st records the model's confidence on a 0.0-1.0 scale and adds a +5 bonus at 0.8 or higher.

[AI Visibility](https://be1st.ai/tools/ai-visibility).

## Sources

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08774) (OpenAI)
- [Why language models hallucinate](https://openai.com/index/why-language-models-hallucinate/) (OpenAI)
- [LLMO: 10 Ways to Work Your Brand Into AI Answers](https://ahrefs.com/blog/llm-optimization/) (Ahrefs)

## Related terms

- [E-commerce platform](https://be1st.ai/glossary/fingerprint/e-commerce-platform): An e-commerce platform is the software an online store runs on, such as Shoptet, WooCommerce, Shopify or PrestaShop.
- [Reputation sentiment](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/reputation-sentiment): Reputation sentiment is the tone in which AI models describe your brand: positive, neutral or negative.
- [Multi-model consistency](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/multi-model-consistency): Multi-model consistency is how closely ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok agree when they describe your brand.
- [Query coverage](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/query-coverage): Query coverage is how many kinds of questions your brand shows up for in AI answers: informational, navigational, transactional and comparison queries.
- [Factual accuracy](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/factual-accuracy): Factual accuracy is whether what AI models say about your brand is true: the right services, location, contact details and other facts.
- [Competitive position](https://be1st.ai/glossary/ai-visibility/competitive-position): Competitive position is where your brand stands next to its competitors in AI answers: how often models name it and how high they rank it.