Start by reproducing it. Ask the exact question a customer would ask, then ask the tool which pages it used. You will often see directory pages, a map listing, and one or two competitor service pages. That tells you the real problem. If the sources are all directories you are not listed in, you have a listings problem, not a website problem. If one competitor page keeps showing up, go read it and compare it honestly against the equivalent page on your own site.
The usual gaps are boring. Their site has a separate page for each service in each city they serve, and yours has one page that says we do it all. Their page answers the question in the first sentence, while yours opens with a welcome message. They have fresh reviews that mention the service by name. Their phone number matches everywhere it appears. Fix those four things and you become a reasonable thing for a model to cite instead of them.
The part you cannot fix is volatility. These answers are generated, not ranked, so a competitor can appear in one session and vanish in the next. Do not panic over a single answer, and be careful with anyone selling guaranteed placement in AI answers. Check the same set of questions once a month, track who shows up over time, and keep improving the underlying pages. That is the only lever that reliably moves anything.
Send the site over. We will tell you what is broken, what you could rank for, and whether AI search knows you exist. No charge and no pitch deck.
