How to Test Your Firm on ChatGPT (And What to Do When It Doesn't Recommend You)

Most financial advisers have never asked ChatGPT to recommend them. The ones who have tried it once, seen that they were not mentioned, and moved on without knowing what to do about it.

This guide gives you a systematic method for testing your AI visibility across all four major platforms, interpreting what the results mean, and taking the specific actions most likely to change the outcome.

The Testing Method

Testing your AI visibility properly requires more than a single query. AI responses vary based on how questions are phrased, what the model has recently processed, and which platform you use. A thorough test covers multiple platforms and multiple query types.

Platform 1: ChatGPT

Open ChatGPT (the free version works, though GPT-4 gives more detailed responses). Run these five queries, replacing the bracketed text with your actual location and specialisms:

1. "Can you recommend a good independent financial adviser in [your town/city]?"
2. "Who are the best financial advisers in [your county/region] for [your primary specialism]?"
3. "I need a financial adviser who specialises in [your primary specialism]. Can you recommend some firms in [your area]?"
4. "What should I look for in a financial adviser for [specific client scenario you commonly serve]?"
5. "[Your firm name] — is this a good financial adviser? What can you tell me about them?"

Record whether your firm appears in each response, what the AI says about you (or does not say), and which competitors are mentioned instead.

Platform 2: Perplexity

Perplexity is distinct because it cites its sources with links. This makes it particularly valuable for testing because you can see exactly which web pages the AI is drawing from. Run the same five queries.

Pay attention to the sources Perplexity cites. As we explain in our guide on why optimising for ChatGPT alone is not enough, each platform has different priorities. If your competitors are appearing, click through to the cited sources to understand why the AI chose them. This often reveals the specific content, directory listing, or review profile that gave them the edge.

Platform 3: Claude

Claude (made by Anthropic) has a different training dataset and different tendencies. Some firms that appear on ChatGPT are invisible on Claude, and vice versa. Run the same five queries.

Claude tends to be more cautious about making specific recommendations and more likely to describe the characteristics of good advisers rather than naming firms. If Claude does name your firm, it is a strong signal that your digital presence is genuinely authoritative.

Platform 4: Google AI Overviews

Search Google for the same queries. On many financial advice queries, Google now displays an AI Overview at the top of the results. Note whether your firm is cited in the AI Overview, and whether the Overview links to your content.

Google AI Overviews are powered by a different model than the standalone AI tools, and they draw more heavily from Google's own index. This means your traditional SEO performance has more influence here than on other platforms.

How to Interpret the Results

After running 20 queries across four platforms, you will have a clear picture of your AI visibility. Here is how to interpret the most common scenarios.

Scenario A: You appear on zero platforms

This is the most common result for UK IFAs. It means AI systems have insufficient data to confidently recommend your firm. The fix involves building your digital presence from the ground up: Google Business Profile, client reviews, directory listings, and substantive website content. Start with our AI visibility checklist for a prioritised action plan.

Scenario B: You appear on one platform but not others

This suggests you have some visibility signals but they are not strong or consistent enough to register across all AI systems. Examine which platform shows you and why. If it is Google AI Overviews, your traditional SEO is doing some work but your broader web presence needs strengthening. If it is Perplexity, check which sources it is citing, as that reveals where your strongest signals are.

Scenario C: You appear but with incorrect or outdated information

This is more common than you might expect. AI systems may reference your firm but describe services you no longer offer, cite an old address, or attribute specialisms you do not have. The fix is to update your information across all platforms and publish current content that AI systems will pick up over time.

Scenario D: Competitors appear instead of you

This is the most instructive scenario because it tells you exactly what is working in your market. When a competitor appears, investigate why. Check their Google Business Profile (is it more complete than yours?), their reviews (do they have more, or more detailed ones?), their website content (is it more specific and authoritative?), and their directory listings (are they on platforms you are missing?).

The gap between you and a visible competitor often comes down to two or three specific differences that you can address directly.

Scenario E: You appear consistently across all platforms

Congratulations: you are in the minority. Your focus should shift to strengthening your position and monitoring for competitors who begin closing the gap.

The Ask-Why Technique

Here is a technique that most advisers do not know about. After testing whether you appear in AI recommendations, you can ask the AI to explain its reasoning.

Try these follow-up prompts:

• "Why did you recommend those firms and not others?"
• "What would a financial advisory firm need to do to appear in your recommendations for [your area]?"
• "If I wanted to be recommended by AI tools like you, what should I focus on improving?"

The responses are revealing. AI tools will often explicitly describe the signals they prioritise: review volume, content depth, directory presence, specialism clarity, and consistent citations. This is, in effect, the AI telling you its ranking criteria.

While you should not treat these responses as definitive (AI models can be imprecise about their own reasoning), they provide a useful directional guide for where to focus your efforts.

The Top Five Actions Based on Your Results

Regardless of which scenario applies to your firm, these five actions address the most common gaps we see across UK IFAs.

1. Complete your Google Business Profile. This is consistently the single highest-impact action. A verified, complete profile with accurate information, a detailed description, photos, and services listed creates the foundation for local AI recommendations.

2. Get 10 or more Google reviews. As we detail in our guide on how reviews determine AI recommendations, reviews are the most powerful third-party signal for AI. If you have fewer than 10, make this your immediate priority. Personal requests to established clients convert at a much higher rate than automated emails.

3. Publish one detailed content piece about your primary specialism. Our content strategy guide provides a full framework. Not a 300-word blog post. A 1,500-word authoritative guide that demonstrates genuine expertise. This gives AI systems substantive content to reference when matching your firm to relevant queries.

4. Align your information everywhere. Audit your firm's details across your website, Google Business Profile, FCA Register, Companies House, VouchedFor, Unbiased, and LinkedIn. Make sure the name, address, phone number, and service descriptions are identical. Consistency is an authority signal.

5. Request FinancialService schema markup on your website. Ask your web developer to add this structured data. It explicitly tells AI systems what your firm does, where you operate, and your regulatory credentials. The implementation takes a few hours and creates a permanent improvement in how AI systems parse your website.

When to Retest

After making changes, allow two to four weeks before retesting. AI systems with web access (ChatGPT in search mode, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) will pick up changes faster. Models that rely more on training data may take longer to reflect improvements.

Test quarterly at minimum, and test immediately after making significant changes to your website content, Google profile, or directory listings.

For a faster and more systematic assessment than manual testing, you can check your AI visibility score at Presenzia. It runs over 120 wealth-specific queries across all four major platforms in under 60 seconds, giving you a comprehensive score, a grade, and a specific action plan based on exactly where your gaps are.

Manual testing is valuable for understanding the qualitative aspects of how AI perceives your firm. An automated assessment is valuable for quantitative tracking of your progress over time. Both have their place.

Check your AI visibility score, free, in 60 seconds

See how ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI rank your firm right now. No credit card required.