What changes
More people now start looking for a professional by asking an AI assistant, and AI agents are beginning to shortlist and contact firms on a client’s behalf. These systems recommend the firms they can find and understand. That favours firms with clear pages that answer specific questions, name the people who give the advice, state their services and prices, and are described consistently across the web. The work is often called answer engine optimisation, or AEO.
The New Model firm writes its whole public presence with this in mind, and it stops marketing alone. Clients’ biggest moments, such as retirement, divorce, bereavement or selling a business, involve advisers, accountants and solicitors at once. A firm that builds referral links across professions gets recommended from several directions.
Why it matters now
Most professional websites were written to describe the firm rather than to answer questions. A general page about being “client-focused” gives an AI assistant nothing to quote. Firms that publish specific, accurate answers now give these systems a clear reason to name them. The same work makes the site more useful for human readers too. Your regulator’s rules on financial promotions and publicity still apply to everything you publish, so have the pages checked before they go live.
Checklist
- Ask the assistants about yourselves. Put 20 questions a client might ask, such as “who can help with probate in Leeds”, to three AI assistants, and record whether and how your firm appears in each answer.
- Write one page per real client question. Start with the ten most common questions from your client calls, answered plainly, with the name and credentials of the professional who wrote each page.
- Publish your services, prices and people clearly. Add structured data to key pages, and make sure your name, address and specialisms match across directories, professional body listings and review sites.
- Build referral partnerships with other professions. Agree with at least two firms how you’ll refer around shared life events, and link to each other’s relevant pages.
- Repeat the assistant test every quarter. Track the change over time and rewrite pages where the answers are still wrong or missing.
Illustrative example
A solicitors’ firm puts 20 questions about wills, probate and lasting powers of attorney in its town to three AI assistants, which gives 60 answers. The firm is named in 4 of them. Over the next quarter it publishes 12 question-and-answer pages written by named solicitors, updates its directory listings and agrees referral arrangements with a local adviser firm and an accountancy practice. When it repeats the same test, it’s named in 15 of the 60 answers, and two of its pages are quoted directly. Results will vary from firm to firm, which is why the test is worth repeating every quarter.
Common mistakes
- Writing for keywords instead of questions. Pages stuffed with search terms read badly to people and give AI assistants little they can use.
- Publishing anonymous content. Answers carry more weight when a named, qualified professional stands behind them.
- Treating it as a one-off project. AI assistants change how they choose their sources, so a quarterly check is what keeps you visible.
Coaching your clients
Your business clients face the same shift in how their own customers find them. An accountant can add a visibility check to an AI readiness review for a small business. A solicitor can advise on what a business may and may not claim in its public content. An adviser can help a client who owns a business think through what the change means for its future value. Sharing what you learnt from your own firm’s work is often the most useful help you can give.