Advisor Websites Drive ChatGPT Recommendations, Study Finds

Investors are increasingly using generative AI to identify financial advisers, shifting a longstanding marketing contest from Google rankings to answers produced by large language models. For registered investment advisers, or RIAs, that makes an up-to-date website more than a digital brochure: it can serve as the primary source for a model to understand a firm’s services, specialties, location and target clientele. Clear, authoritative content may therefore influence whether an adviser appears in AI-generated recommendations and wins prospective business.

Bonfire Studio tested that premise on July 23, 2026, asking ChatGPT 5.5 135 questions about advisers in New York, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and Charlotte. Of 1,048 sources cited, 45% came from websites owned by individual advisers or advisory teams, compared with nearly 11% for government, regulatory and professional-association sites and 8.2% for banks, wirehouses and insurers. Financial Planning reported the findings on Aug. 14. Bonfire founder Sara MacQueen said advisers should refresh sites regularly because large language models tend to favor information published within the previous six months.