About IdentityRecord
We built local search. Now we are building what replaces it.
IdentityRecord was founded by Justin Sanger, who pioneered local search infrastructure in 2004. Twenty years later, AI is replacing search as the way customers find businesses. We are not adapting to that shift. We are building the system it runs on.
Business Identity Management is the category. IdentityRecord is the company.
First platform for structured local business data at scale
Trust-driven business recommendations
Coined the term for how search evaluates trust
Business identity infrastructure for AI
Flagship product live. Businesses building their AI identity.
20 years of local business data · Built for this moment
Why we exist
AI is replacing search. Business identity has not caught up.
For twenty years, businesses competed for visibility on search engines. That era is ending. AI systems evaluate structured data, determine which businesses are trustworthy, and recommend one to three businesses.
IdentityRecord exists because of that shift. We build the infrastructure that lets businesses define, verify, and strengthen their identity for AI.
Today, ChatGPT recommends only 1.2% of local businesses it evaluates. 45% of consumers now use AI to find local services. Traditional search volume has declined ~25%. The market is not emerging. It has arrived.Sources: SOCi 2026, BrightLocal 2026, Gartner 2026
“AI does not rank businesses. It decides which ones to trust.”
The businesses with structured identity and verified trust signals are the businesses that get recommended. Everything else is inferred, incomplete, and ignored.
What we are building
The ownership layer for business identity in AI.
IdentityRecord is a permanent, machine-readable Identity Record owned by the business, with an optional Identity Advantage system that keeps it current, verified, and visible to every AI engine.
One record. Two tiers. Six modules working in concert. The system knows your industry and guides you through the rest.
See the product →What we believe
Principles that shape the product.
Businesses should own their identity, not rent it from platforms.
AI will trust structured, verified data over inferred fragments. That gap is widening.
Identity infrastructure should be simple for the owner and powerful for the machine.
The deeper insight
Local AI Taxonomy.
The old local-search world was organized around categories, keywords, listings, and service pages. That taxonomy helped businesses get indexed. It was built for a world where the goal was to show up in a list of ten blue links.
IdentityRecord comes from a deeper insight: business identity should be organized around the behavioral drivers that determine whether a business is understood, trusted, and chosen. Not just what it does, but what makes it credible, what makes it different, what reassurance matters, and what proof supports the claims.
We call this Local AI Taxonomy. It is one of the core strategic assets behind everything IdentityRecord builds.
IdentityRecord is building the deepest structured taxonomy of local business identity for the AI era. Not a product layer on top of the old world. A new understanding system, grounded in how real businesses operate and how real customers decide.
What Local AI Taxonomy captures
What the business does and how it operates
Who it is built for and where it serves
What makes it credible and verifiable
What makes it different from competitors
What trust and reassurance themes matter for its industry
What proof exists that the business is real and active
What decision-stage context changes recommendation confidence
The old taxonomy helped businesses get indexed. Local AI Taxonomy helps businesses get understood.
Origin
Two decades in local business data and trust systems.
IdentityRecord is founded by Justin Sanger, who has worked at the intersection of local business data and trust systems since 2004.
In 2020, he coined the term “Local Trust Pack” to describe how trust signals influence business placement in search. IdentityRecord extends that model into the AI era.
First platform for structured local business data distribution
Founded SupportLocal: trust-driven recommendations
Coined "Local Trust Pack" for search trust signals
Founded IdentityRecord: business identity for AI
Identity Advantage launched
The ownership layer for business identity is here.
Own your identity. Control what AI knows. Get stronger every week.