When an AI agent needs to recommend a contractor, it doesn't rely on reviews or gut feelings. It calculates trust.
The Three Pillars
The AI Trust Index is a composite score (0-100) based on three measurable signals:
Identity (30 points)
Does this business physically exist? AI checks:
Legitimacy (35 points)
Is this business authorized to operate? AI looks for:
Readability (35 points)
Can AI actually access this data? This requires:
Why This Matters
A business with a score of 35/100 might be perfectly legitimate—licensed, insured, excellent at their trade. But if AI can't verify those facts programmatically, it treats them as high-risk and excludes them from recommendations.
The Hallucination Problem
When AI can't find structured data, it sometimes "hallucinates"—inventing details or making assumptions. This creates liability for the AI provider, so most systems are now designed to simply skip unverified businesses rather than guess.
Your Score
Every contractor has an AI Trust Index, whether they know it or not. The question is whether yours is high enough to be recommended—or low enough to be invisible.