TL;DR 

  • The first meeting with your next client likely already happened, without you in the room. 
  • AI answer engines, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and the like, now answer the first questions a prospect has, then, if asked, hand them a pre-screened, ranked shortlist of firms and advisors to contact. 
  • This is an opportunity for your content and digital marketing. 
  • Consider how AI search-friendly you are. That means in addition to the more traditional SEO (search engine optimization), your content now needs generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO). This will help you take control of the narrative that AI models are already forming about you. 
  • Showing up across all digital platforms consistently (reflecting your experience, expertise, trustworthiness and authority) increases your odds of being on the AI shortlist, meeting that prospect online before they meet you in person. 

The first meeting is already over 

When a prospective client goes looking for an advisor today, they are starting with a question (usually the problem they want to solve) typed into ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overview, Gemini, or Claude. The machine reads the web, forms an opinion, and spits out answers, then helpfully prompts follow-up questions. Finally, when asked by the human, the AI serves up a short list of service providers that “fit” what they asked for. By the time someone lands on your site, they have been pre-screened. And so have you. 

Snappy Kraken’s State of Digital & AI 2026, drawn from data across thousands of advisors on its platform, found that while website traffic rose only modestly (about 10%) from 2024 to 2025, form submissions from that same traffic jumped 110%. This suggests that roughly the same number of people are walking through the digital door, but a far larger share arrive ready to book a call, engage or interact with a piece of content1. Other studies suggest that web traffic overall is down across the board…the zero-click problem, because people are getting what they need resolved by AI.

Think of your own experience typing a query into Google or running a search on Instagram. That’s enough to show how drastically things have changed. 

Add to it the fact that people more often than not trust what the machine tells them. A UK study this year found young investors (18-40 year olds) now trust AI for financial information more than traditional media or influencers2. And, a meaningful share are already using it for real financial and investing decisions. In Canada, more young people have turned to AI for financial or mortgage guidance than to a licensed advisor3. A shocking number also think the guidance is regulated in some way. Building a stronger, more credible presence and delivering the value of advice matters more now, not less. 

So, what gets you on the AI shortlist 

AI can only recommend what it can read and understand. It builds its shortlist from your website copy, your bio, your content, your reviews, the way you show up everywhere it can see and, most importantly, read, and easily lift answers from. If that footprint is thin, generic, or says the same beige thing every other firm says, the machine has nothing to grab onto. You do not get rejected. You just never come up. 

How AI is changing search is an opportunity for your digital and content marketing. It’s a chance to build your presence through the: 

  • stories you tell, 
  • lessons you impart, 
  • knowledge you share, and 
  • solutions you provide. 

Here’s a simple gut check I use, and it’s really the whole idea behind the name Threadco.: one continuous thread, one clear story, told the same way everywhere. Call it the One-Thread Test. Say your value once, in plain language. Then check that it shows up consistently everywhere an LLM might go looking: your homepage, your bio, every social profile, every piece of content you publish. If there are three different versions of “who you serve” floating around your own digital footprint, an AI cannot tell which one is true, so it repeats none of them.

So this is as good an opportunity as any to refine how you articulate your value offering, what makes you distinct, who you serve, and why a prospect should consider working with you. I share more about this in this article here. The key is to avoid being generic. An AI that can easily read and answer those three questions about you will recommend you. One that cannot, will not.  

What you need to do about it 

What your content and digital marketing now needs to consider are GEO and AEO, in addition to SEO.  AEO and GEO build on the principles of SEO. Here’s a quick definition of the jargon-y labels: 

  • Search Engine Optimization: How your content and site (keywords, technical structure and links) are optimized to improve your search ranking on the web (i.e. how far up the top of Google’s search pages you show up).
  • Answer Engine Optimization: How your content is technically structured so AI models can read and pull answers from it. 
  • Generative Engine Optimization: How valuable, distinct, trustworthy and authoritative your content is, so AI models will reference and cite it in their responses.

Strip the jargon and it comes down to the One-Thread Test: clear enough, in public, that a person and a machine can both repeat you back correctly. 

The firms winning this quiet reshuffle are not the ones with the cleverest AI team. They are the ones who did the boring, foundational work: developed a strong, clear value offering, clear target client, and built content that actually answers the questions their target is asking.

Trust moved upstream a long time ago, with prospects first looking you up on Google. Now, the first few meetings have moved upstream. Your prospects are already coming in armed with a list of questions (as well as answers and solutions) their LLM gave them.

If you want a say in how you are introduced, warm lead or cold search, the introduction has to be built on purpose. That means being the one the LLM cites in its responses to the questions prospects are asking. 

A good place to start 

If you are not sure what an AI would say about your firm right now, that is worth knowing, and it is a good place to start. Here are six suggestions where I would put the effort: 

  1. Interrogate the AI about yourself. Open ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google AI and put it to work two ways. 
    • First, run a discovery query: ask it questions you want to be found for. E.g. Find a retirement planning advisor/tax planner near me (or name your city)? What is the best way to draw income from my investments when I retire? If you surface in the response, great. If not, you know where you need to start.  
    • Second, check your reputation: type your firm’s name into the AI and ask who it serves. If the answer is vague, wrong, or blank, that is your to-do list. 
  2. Be unmistakably clear about your value offering, who you serve and share knowledge authoritatively (GEO). One value proposition, in the same words, on your homepage, your bio, your socials, and every piece of content you publish. Reflect your experience and expertise. An AI aggregates everything it can find about you and builds its own story about you. If you are not telling that story consistently, the machine is guessing, and you do not want it guessing. 
  3. Structure your content to be the answer, not just an article (AEO). Short, direct passages. Real Q&A framing, in the actual language a prospect would type into ChatGPT. FAQ blocks. Schema markup (the stuff in the back-end), so an answer engine can read what your page is actually about. 
  4. Keep the foundational SEO work going, it still underpins both. Technical site health, the right keywords in the right places, real links from credible sources. GEO and AEO sit on top of that foundation. Neither replaces it. 
  5. Say something specific, not something safe. A beige value proposition (“holistic wealth management for individuals and families”) or content that’s identical to what everyone else is saying gives the machine nothing to grab onto. Have an opinion. Add incremental value. Have a distinct point of view in the content you share. Tell a story that makes you distinct. 
  6. Establish your content strategy. Create content in multiple formats that answer the questions your ideal client is asking. Build authority and trustworthiness in addition to showing your experience and expertise.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you get found by AI, not just get started with AEO and GEO.

Trust moved upstream a long time ago, with prospects first looking you up on Google. Now, the first few meetings have moved upstream. Your prospects are already coming in armed with a list of questions (as well as answers and solutions) their LLM gave them.

If this is a conversation you have been meaning to have, let’s have it. 

Keep in mind that this is one part of your overall marketing strategy. While writing to be found by the machine is increasingly commonplace, writing for the human reader is still vital. Maintain your voice, your tone, your personality and keep ‘the person’ you’re writing for central, always. Combine it with in-person engagement and experience strategies and you will build a strong pipeline of prospects and clients.

Cheers,

Signoff

Frequently Asked Questions

What if ChatGPT, Claude, etc., gets something wrong about my firm, my credentials, or my fees, and how would I even know? 

You likely wouldn’t know unless you go looking, and yes, this is a real risk. Most errors are mundane: stale training data, an outdated directory listing, or the AI mixing you up with a similarly named firm. The fix is a habit, not a one-time task. Ask the major AI models what they say about you, trace the answer to the page it’s pulling from, correct that source, then recheck periodically. 

Is a regulator going to have a problem with any of this, and is AI-optimized content still subject to the same compliance review as everything else I publish? 

Yes: GEO and AEO don’t create a compliance grey zone, and this is my read, not legal advice, so check it with your compliance team. Content built to be found by an answer engine still needs the same review as anything else published under your firm’s name. 

Does this even apply to a small or independent firm, or is it a game only the big banks can win? 

It applies to you, and small or independent firms can genuinely have an edge. Answer engines look for a clear, confident signal to repeat back, not sheer size or content volume. It comes down to how you structure your content: write so both AI and a human can read it, answer your prospects’ questions authoritatively, and reflect trust, expertise, and experience. That is what helps you trump bigger firms. The truth is, everything about AI is still shifting, so there’s not much hard data to go by just yet. Still, the fact is, clear content and a clear value proposition beat generic material and size. 

If I start showing up in AI answers, does that actually turn into clients, or is it just a vanity number? 

Showing up doesn’t automatically mean clients knocking on your door. Citation and website traffic appear to be decoupling: a firm can be mentioned in AI answers repeatedly in a month with no matching bump in visits, because the answer often satisfies the person without sending a click at all. That’s called the ‘zero-click’ problem. My suggestion is to watch inquiries coming in, not just website visits. As it stands, there isn’t a clean way yet to trace leads back to a specific AI mention. That does not mean you should ignore this requirement. 

Sources:

  1. AI Reshaping Advisor Growth (July 2026), Snappy Kraken, State of Digital & AI 2026:
  2. Young investors trust AI more than TV or celebrities“, Financial Conduct Authority, UK, 27 Aug 2026
  3. More young Canadians now use AI than licensed brokers for financial advice, and half don’t know AI advice is unregulated, REMIC / Abacus Data