What Wealth Advisors Need to Know About AI Search: What’s Real, What’s Hype and Where to Start

Search is changing. The question for wealth management firms is what, exactly, they’re supposed to do about it.

Between AI Overviews, ChatGPT, GEO, AEO and a seemingly endless stream of new tools promising to help firms “optimize for AI,” there’s no shortage of advice. There is, however, a shortage of clarity.

So on this episode of The Wealth Marketing Podcast, Rosemary Denney went straight to someone who has lived through the shift firsthand.

Zak Ali, founder of Creative Advisor and former U.S. General Manager of Finder, joined Rosemary to talk about what’s actually changing in search, which strategies are worth paying attention to and where wealth firms can start without completely reinventing their marketing.

And while the conversation starts with AI, it quickly gets into something much bigger: how firms build visibility, credibility and trust in a world where prospective clients have more ways than ever to research you before they ever reach out.

Start With a Very Simple Question: What Does AI Know About Your Firm?

Before buying another tool or building an “AI strategy,” Zak recommends doing something much simpler.

Search for yourself.

Ask ChatGPT what your firm does. Ask who runs it. Ask the kinds of questions a prospective client might ask when looking for an advisor or comparing firms.

Then move beyond your firm name.

What happens when you search for the services you provide? The type of client you serve? The questions your best prospects are asking?

What shows up, and what doesn’t, can tell you a lot about where the gaps are.

For firms trying to understand AI search, that’s a much more useful starting point than immediately investing in another piece of technology.

GEO, AEO, SEO… What Actually Matters?

There are a lot of new acronyms floating around marketing conversations right now.

Zak breaks down two of the big ones: GEO, or generative engine optimization, and AEO, or answer engine optimization.

In simple terms, one is about what large language models already know about your firm, while the other is about the information AI tools can find when they search the web in real time.

But the bigger takeaway from the conversation isn’t which acronym you should be optimizing for.

It’s that there isn’t one trick, platform or channel that suddenly makes your firm visible to AI.

Your website matters. Your content matters. PR matters. What other credible sources say about you matters. Your advisors’ online presence matters.

It’s all connected.

More Content Isn’t Necessarily Better Content

One of the more important warnings Zak shares is around the rush to produce massive amounts of AI-generated content.

It’s easy to see the appeal. If search engines and AI platforms need information, producing hundreds of articles might seem like a shortcut to greater visibility.

Zak cautions that it can have the opposite effect.

He has seen sites get an initial boost from large volumes of AI-generated content only to lose visibility later as search engines catch on. His advice is to focus on the quality of the content rather than simply producing more of it.

For wealth firms, that distinction is especially important.

Your clients aren’t looking for another generic article explaining what a trust is or listing five financial planning tips they could find anywhere. The real opportunity is to create content rooted in the expertise, perspective and experience that already exists inside your firm.

PR and AI Search Are More Connected Than You Might Think

One of Zak’s most interesting points is that the future of search may look a lot more like PR than traditional SEO.

As he puts it, there are technical SEOs, and then there are “SEOs who don’t realize their job is PR.”

Why?

Because AI engines are looking beyond what you say about yourself.

A podcast appearance, media mention, original research or expert commentary on a credible third-party platform gives search engines and prospective clients another signal about who you are and what you know.

That makes earned media more than a brand-awareness strategy. It becomes part of your firm’s overall digital footprint.

For wealth firms already investing in thought leadership, that’s an important shift. PR, content, search and reputation aren’t separate strategies anymore. Increasingly, they reinforce one another.

Your People May Be Your Most Valuable Marketing Channel

Rosemary and Zak also get into something we see all the time at WMC: an advisor’s personal post can significantly outperform the same content shared from the company page.

That isn’t necessarily a problem with the company page.

People trust people.

Zak describes it as the decline of the “faceless brand.” Prospective clients want to know who they may actually be working with, what those people think and what others have experienced working with them.

His story about trying to find someone to remove a bird from his chimney is a surprisingly good example.

The polished websites weren’t what ultimately won his business. It was an outdated website filled with reviews and stories from real customers who repeatedly mentioned the people who had helped them.

The site didn’t necessarily look the most impressive. It felt the most trustworthy.

For wealth management firms, where the relationship is deeply personal and often lasts for decades, that distinction matters.

Your advisors and employees aren’t separate from your brand. In many ways, they are the brand.

Rethinking ROI When the Sales Cycle Takes Months or Years

Of course, this creates another challenge.

How do you measure any of it?

A prospective client may discover your firm through an article, follow an advisor on LinkedIn, listen to a podcast six months later, visit your website several times and eventually reach out after a referral.

Which touchpoint gets the credit?

Probably all of them.

Zak describes organic visibility as the “connective tissue” between marketing channels. It may not always be the final click that produces a lead, but it can influence everything that happens before it.

That’s particularly relevant in wealth management, where the sales cycle is long and trust is built over time.

It also means firms need to distinguish between traffic that looks good in a report and visibility that actually matters to the business.

Losing traffic to a broad informational search may not be particularly meaningful. Losing visibility when someone is actively searching for the type of firm you are, in the market you serve, is a very different story.

So, Where Should Wealth Firms Start?

Perhaps the best part of Zak’s advice is that the starting point isn’t particularly complicated.

You don’t need to immediately buy new software or overhaul your entire marketing strategy.

Start by seeing what’s already out there.

Search for your firm. Search for your advisors. Search the way a prospective client might search.

Then talk to the people you’re actually trying to reach.

What are they asking? Where are they spending their time? What are they reading? What are they worried about? What would genuinely be useful to them?

Those answers should shape the content you create and the places you choose to show up.

As Zak says in the episode, “Any movement is good movement.”

For firms that have been waiting for AI search to become a little less confusing before doing anything about it, that may be the most useful takeaway of all.

Listen to the Full Conversation

Rosemary and Zak cover much more in the full episode, including whether Google Ads still make sense, how firms can turn one strong piece of content into multiple marketing touchpoints, and what the next few years of AI-driven search could mean for wealth management marketing.