PHILADELPHIA, PA — Most of the nation’s top-ranked financial advisory firms are absent from artificial intelligence-generated recommendations, according to a new study by Philadelphia-based Gregory, raising questions about how wealth managers compete for prospective clients as AI becomes another channel for researching financial services.
The study found that 84 of the 100 firms on CNBC’s 2026 Financial Advisor 100 list were never mentioned in 8,389 AI-generated responses to questions about hiring financial advisors. Smaller firms specializing in particular professions, meanwhile, frequently appeared more often than larger national competitors.
Gregory, a communications firm, examined responses from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews to 248 questions covering eight categories of affluent professionals: athletes, attorneys, business owners, dentists, entertainers, media executives, physicians and technology employees.
The findings suggest that traditional measures of financial advisory success, including industry rankings and established reputations, do not necessarily translate into visibility when prospective clients use AI to identify potential advisors.
Three national firms accounted for the highest overall visibility. Mercer Advisors appeared in 26.6% of responses, followed by Creative Planning at 18.1% and Mariner Wealth Advisors at 15.4%.
The concentration extended beyond CNBC’s rankings. Only 10 firms on Barron’s 2026 Top 100 Registered Investment Advisors list appeared in more than 1% of the AI-generated answers examined.
The results point to a potential shift in how advisory firms compete for client attention, particularly among wealthy individuals seeking services tailored to their occupations or financial circumstances.
“Imagine spending decades building one of the country’s most respected financial advisory firms, only to discover that when a prospective client asks AI who to hire, your name never comes up,” said Joe Anthony, Gregory’s co-chief executive officer and president.
Specialized advisory firms performed particularly well when questions focused on specific professional groups.
Dentist Advisors appeared in 57% of responses involving financial advisors for dentists. Hockey Wealth Group was mentioned in 85% of responses concerning NHL players, while Artisan Financial Planning appeared in 88% of answers about advisors for musicians.
Those results indicate that firms with clearly defined client specialties can achieve substantial visibility within their markets despite competing against larger organizations.
“AI doesn’t necessarily recommend the biggest or most prestigious firm. It recommends the firm it identifies as the best answer to a particular question,” Anthony said.
The research also examined which information sources appeared in AI-generated responses.
Financial advisory firms’ own websites were cited in 90% of answers, making them the most frequently referenced source category. Directories and listing services appeared in 25%, while business and financial media were cited in 24%.
Gregory identified an association between media coverage focused on individual firms and the frequency with which those firms appeared in AI responses.
When answers cited a Wall Street Journal Buy Side review of Carson Wealth, the firm appeared in 41% of responses, compared with 8% of responses that did not cite the review.
A similar pattern emerged in questions involving financial advisors for media executives.
Every response citing a Los Angeles Times profile of Richard Singer mentioned Singer Burke. Among comparable responses without that citation, the firm appeared approximately half the time.
The comparisons suggest that coverage explaining a firm’s expertise may contribute to its visibility in AI-generated answers, although the observed associations do not establish that the articles caused the recommendations.
“The firms that show up consistently aren’t necessarily doing anything mysterious,” Anthony said. “They make their expertise easy to find and understand.”
The findings have implications for registered investment advisors seeking to attract clients through digital channels. A firm’s presence in AI-generated responses could affect whether prospective customers encounter it during their initial research, particularly when comparing advisors with specialized experience.
The study measured how frequently firms appeared in responses to selected questions, rather than whether those mentions resulted in client inquiries or new business.
Gregory’s report, AI Search Power Players: The RIAs AI Recommends for Niche Audiences, also identifies the 10 most frequently mentioned firms for each of the eight professional audiences and examines the sources referenced in AI-generated answers.
Support the local news that supports Chester County. MyChesCo delivers reliable, fact-based reporting and essential community resources—free for everyone. If you value that, click here to become a patron today.