Will Your Product Pass the AI Agent's Test? Learnings From China

Your product page was written to persuade a shopper.
Now an AI agent may read it first.
It isn't looking for your best sales pitch.
It's looking for reasons to trust you. Or to reject you.

In March, China's state TV ran a test. An insider invented a smart band that does not exist. A tool bought online wrote a dozen articles about it. Mainstream AI assistants then listed it near the top of their recommendations.

Six weeks later, China's internet regulator named "malicious marketing with GEO" as a form of AI data poisoning.

Recently I asked who the agent works for. This time, a question for sellers: what will the agent check on your page?

Here are six moves to pass that check, each learned the hard way in China.

1. Get on the shelf the agent reads.
China: since July, Douyin merchants track Doubao, ByteDance's AI assistant, as a separate sales channel with its own ROI.
Do: get your products into the catalogs and feeds agents use, with accurate prices and stock, before polishing website copy.

2. Make every claim checkable.
China: in one study of what models cite, a reviewer's hands-on test was used first. The marketing piece was dropped.
Do: back claims with measurable results, test methods and certificates. Drop adjectives you cannot prove.

3. Say who it is not for.
China: asked for a "quantum" water cup, Alibaba's Qwen told the shopper it was pseudoscience.
Do: state your product's limits. Not for sensitive skin? Say so. You avoid the wrong buyer and the return.

4. Make the page agree with your reviews.
China: regulators now target attempts to manipulate the information AI systems rely on.
Do: list your five biggest product claims and compare them with customer reviews. Fix the product or fix the claim.

5. Earn corroboration. Never manufacture it.
China: tests suggest independent coverage can outweigh promotional volume in AI answers.
Do: seek independent tests, expert reviews and credible press. Fifty articles repeating the same claim are not fifty independent sources.

6. Draw your red lines.
China: one vendor reportedly offered a spot in AI answers within seven working days, for 3,600 RMB (about USD 500) a quarter per keyword.
Do: no fake reviews. No content farms. No vendor promising a guaranteed rank in independent AI answers.

Your test before Friday:

- Write down the 20 questions your customers ask.
- Ask them, word for word, on two or three AI assistants.
- Screenshot the answers. Are you there? Described correctly? Cited from where? Linked to the right product?
- Fix your five most important products first: missing data, unproven claims, contradictions.
- Ask again on day 14. Track what changed, not just your rank.

Copy persuades the reader who is already interested.
Evidence increasingly determines whether the agent recommends you at all.

Write the page your harshest reviewer would sign.

#AgenticCommerce #RetailStrategy #ChinaRetail

Contact

bruno.gentil@sherpaconsultingasia.com

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