Retrieval augmented generation (RAG)
Fetching live material and writing an answer from it, rather than answering from what the model already holds. It is the mechanism that makes any of this influenceable at all.
Checkable · the test is below
What it means
A model with no retrieval answers from training, which for your business means whatever the web looked like months or years ago. A model with retrieval goes and reads current pages first. Only the second can notice that you changed something last week.
Why it matters for an HVAC company
This is the difference between work that can possibly pay off and work that cannot. If an engine is answering about your town from training alone, nothing you publish this month can reach it. If it is retrieving, your pages are in the pool.
What would settle it
Citations are the visible evidence. An answer that links sources you can open has retrieved. An answer with no sources may still have retrieved, but you cannot tell, so treat the absence as unknown rather than as proof either way.
A worked example
Ask an engine about a price you changed on your site three days ago. If the answer reflects the new figure, it retrieved. If it quotes the old one, you have learned something useful about how fresh its picture of you is.