Disclosures

Apicus measures and influences the citation signals that AI engines use when generating responses to patient queries. It does not control, modify, or have any privileged relationship with any AI engine.

The five engines Apicus measures — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude — are independently operated by OpenAI, Google, Perplexity AI, and Anthropic respectively. Each engine applies its own proprietary algorithms, training data, retrieval logic, and ranking criteria. These systems change without notice. An engine that cites a practice today may weight sources differently tomorrow. An engine update may temporarily suppress citations that were previously consistent.

Apicus cannot guarantee how any AI engine will process, interpret, or present any information at any given moment. What Apicus can do is build and maintain the citation infrastructure that, based on observed engine behavior, materially increases the likelihood of being named.

The ARI is a proprietary measurement metric developed by Apicus. It is not an industry-standard score. It is not produced or endorsed by any AI engine. It is not a metric used or recognized by Google, OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, or any other technology company.

ARI measures one specific thing: the percentage of times a practice is named as a trusted option across a defined set of patient queries, run across five weighted AI engines under controlled measurement conditions.

ARI is a directional performance metric. It is meaningful and consistent when measured using the same methodology across time. It is not a comprehensive measure of a practice’s total AI presence or total online visibility.

The current methodology version is v1.2, published at apicus.ai/methodology. The methodology may be updated as AI engine behavior evolves. Material updates to the methodology will be disclosed to active clients before taking effect.

The guarantee is a commitment of continued service time, not a financial guarantee.

The specific terms are published in the Terms of Service and in each client’s Service Agreement. The summary is: if a practice does not reach 60% ARI across its custom Query Panel within 120 days of engagement start, Apicus continues delivering the full service at no additional cost until that benchmark is reached, or through Day 210, whichever comes first.

The guarantee is voided by conditions described in the Terms of Service, including material changes to practice information without notice, failure to provide requested access, or arrears on invoices.

Apicus does not guarantee, and has made no representation that, a specific ARI score will produce a specific number of patient inquiries, consultations, or revenue dollars.

The service is designed to increase the likelihood that a practice is named when a prospective patient asks an AI engine who to trust for a specific procedure in their market. Whether a named patient then visits the practice website, calls the practice, schedules a consultation, or books a procedure depends on factors entirely outside Apicus’s control, including:

Apicus is an infrastructure service. It builds the foundation that makes AI referral possible. What happens after a patient is referred is the practice’s domain.

The complimentary 20-query audit is a diagnostic tool and a subset of the full 75-query Query Panel. It is prepared in good faith using current methodology and current engine measurement conditions.

Audit results reflect conditions at the time of measurement. AI engine behavior can change between the audit date and the start of a paid engagement. The baseline ARI established during onboarding is the governing starting point for guarantee assessment, not the pre-engagement audit score.

Audit results are confidential and prepared for the named recipient only. They reflect one snapshot in time. They should not be treated as permanent documentation of a practice’s AI visibility status.

Receiving an audit does not obligate either party to enter an engagement. Apicus reserves the right to decline engagements at its discretion.

Apicus references the following third-party data in its marketing materials. These statistics are sourced as described and are used as directional indicators of market conditions, not as guarantees of any specific outcome for any specific practice.

Apicus makes reasonable efforts to use current, credible sources. Statistics are updated as better data becomes available. If a specific figure is material to your evaluation of the service, we encourage independent verification.

Apicus may reference specific competitor practices by name in audit deliverables to illustrate Source Attribution Gaps and relative citation positioning. These references are factual and measurement-based — they describe what AI engines currently return for specific queries, not assessments of clinical quality, business ethics, or overall practice reputation.

References to competing practices in audit documents are confidential and prepared for the client’s internal use only. They may not be published, shared publicly, or used in any way that could constitute defamation or unfair business practice.

Apicus makes no claim that any named competitor is inferior in clinical skill, patient outcomes, or business practices. Citation advantage and clinical excellence are independent variables. The entire premise of the service is that they frequently diverge.

The engine coverage weights used in the ARI formula reflect Apicus’s current assessment of consumer search behavior in U.S. healthcare queries based on available public data and internal research.

These weights are Apicus’s proprietary estimate. They are not produced by or endorsed by any of the engine operators. They will be updated as the relative market share and healthcare query behavior of each engine evolves. Weight changes that materially affect ARI calculation will be disclosed to active clients before taking effect.

Apicus does not generate leads, book consultations, or guarantee any volume of patient inquiries. Describing the service as a replacement for a full-service marketing agency would be inaccurate. It is a specialized infrastructure layer that addresses a specific and recently emerged gap in how practices are discovered and validated through AI.

Practices with no existing marketing foundation, no review volume, and no established reputation are not the right fit for this service. Apicus amplifies and codifies existing authority. It does not create authority that does not exist.

Nothing produced by Apicus, including this document, the Terms of Service, the Privacy Policy, audit deliverables, monthly reports, or any communication, constitutes legal, medical, financial, or professional advice of any kind. Apicus is not a law firm, a medical practice, or a financial advisory firm.

Decisions about practice operations, marketing investment, competitive strategy, and business structure should be made in consultation with qualified legal, clinical, and financial advisors.

No employee, contractor, or representative of Apicus is authorized to make representations about service outcomes, guarantee terms, or methodology that contradict or expand upon what is written in these Disclosures, the Terms of Service, or the executed Service Agreement.

If a verbal representation was made to you that differs from these documents, the written documents control. If you believe a material misrepresentation was made, contact mj@apicus.ai before entering an engagement.

This document will be updated as the service, methodology, or relevant market conditions change. The effective date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Active clients will be notified of material changes by email.

Questions about anything in this document: