AI recommendations for high-end service firms

When buyers ask AI who to hire, is your firm named?

AI assistants usually recommend two or three firms by name, and it can be a different firm for each of your services and offices. I help high-end professional service firms past €1M in revenue become the one they name.

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A buyer asks AI

“Who’s the best employment law firm for tech companies in London?”

The answer
  1. 1Firm ANamed
  2. 2Firm BNamed
  3. 3Firm CNamed
  4. –Your firmNot named
Illustration. Your report uses the real answers for your market.

The new referral

Your best clients came from referrals. Your next one will ask AI who to hire.

Now there’s a referrer that talks to every buyer. When someone asks AI “who’s the best firm for this?”, it answers like a trusted peer: it recommends by name.

It doesn’t list ten links. It names two or three firms, and the rest are invisible.

And it doesn’t pick the biggest firm or the one with the most ad spend. It picks the firms the wider web agrees on. You can’t buy a referral. You can’t buy an AI recommendation either. You earn both.

60%

of Google searches now end without a click to any website: 59.7% in the EU, 58.5% in the US.

SparkToro & Datos zero-click study, 2024
9×

higher conversion rate from AI-referred visitors: 15.9% from ChatGPT vs 1.76% from Google organic.

Seer Interactive, client data, Oct 2024 to Apr 2025
700+

AI recommendation tests across 7 UK locations: a small cluster of firms dominates, and different phrasings return different firms.

QualitySolicitors study, as reported in Today’s Family Lawyer, Apr 2026 (UK)

What changes when you’re named

Referrals at scale.

01

Recommended to buyers who ask

Not only the people who already know your partners.

02

Reach beyond your network

Buyers who’ve never met anyone who knows you.

03

Predictable, not feast or famine

Measured, not guessed.

04

Pre-sold enquiries

Buyers arrive already trusting the recommendation.

The free AI Answer Report

See whose name AI gives instead of yours.

I run the questions your buyers actually ask through five AI engines, several times each, and send you what comes back.

  • ✓How often your firm is named
  • ✓Which firms are named instead of you
  • ✓The sources AI trusts that don’t mention you
  • ✓What to fix first

ChatGPT · Gemini · Perplexity · Claude · Google AI answers
Checked service by service, office by office · within 2 business days

Hiring a marketer? This is the brief they’d start with.

Evangelos Pantidos runs every report himself.
Independent AI search advisor · AEO Engine Partner · LinkedIn

Get your free report

Four fields. I’ll email it to you within 2 business days.

  • No call needed. The report arrives by email.
  • Free, with no obligation.
  • If you want help afterwards, I’ll tell you which published plan fits.

Your details are used to prepare your report with AEO Engine, my delivery partner, and to follow up about it. Privacy

What your report looks like Example from a real check, firm and rivals anonymised

1 / 5

01 · Summary

How AI answers buyers asking about this firm

A national UK law firm · 20 buyer questions · 4 AI engines · 80 answers

16%of answers name the firm (13 of 80)
13 of 20questions where it’s missing from at least half the answers
1 rivalflagged as the main competitor in AI answers
4 of 5practice areas where it’s named once or never

02 · Question by question

The questions buyers ask, and who each AI names

Buyer questionChatGPTPerplexityGeminiGoogle AI Mode
Which law firm should I hire for commercial law advice?Not namedNot namedNot namedNot named
Who are the best medical negligence solicitors for accident victims?NamedNot namedNot namedNot named
Which solicitors should home movers hire for conveyancing?Not namedNot namedNot namedNot named
Who are the best solicitors to hire for a personal injury claim?Not namedNamedNamedNamed
Which personal injury solicitors are the top rated?NamedNamedNamedNot named
Which solicitors should visa applicants hire for immigration help?Not namedNot namedNot namedNot named

6 of the 20 questions shown. Your report lists every one.

03 · By practice area

Strong in one service, missing from the rest

  • Personal injury11 of 56
  • Medical negligence1 of 8
  • Commercial law1 of 8
  • Conveyancing0 of 4
  • Immigration0 of 4

Answers that named the firm, out of all answers for that practice area.

04 · Where AI looked instead

The sources AI quoted when it named someone else

  • A legal rankings guideCited for the questions the firm missed
  • A “best lawyers” listing siteCited for the questions the firm missed
  • A rival firm’s own websiteAnswering the buyer’s question directly

None of them mentioned the firm. Your report names the exact sites.

05 · What to fix first

Two fixes, in order

  1. Get listed where AI looks High priorityBuild or improve the firm’s profiles on the rankings and directories AI cited.
  2. Give each service a clear answer Medium priorityShort, plain descriptions of each service and who it’s for, that AI can quote.
Get this for your firm →

Checked 13 Oct 2026 with AEO Engine’s report tool · ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode · one answer per engine per question · simplified, names withheld · read the full breakdown

Evangelos Pantidos

Who’s behind this

Your buyers changed how they find firms. Most firms haven’t checked.

I’m Evangelos Pantidos, an independent AI search advisor and AEO Engine Partner. I work with high-end professional service firms past €1M in revenue that want to become the firm AI names.

Why now: buyers used to ask a colleague who to hire. Now they ask AI too, and fewer of them click past the answer. Most firms have never looked at what that answer says about them. The ones that check, and act on it, don’t have to outspend anyone to be named.

  • I check before I pitch. You see the real answers AI gives your buyers before any sales conversation.
  • Counts, not screenshots. Every question is asked several times across five AI engines, so one lucky answer fools neither of us.
  • One advisor, a specialist delivery partner. You deal with me from the first report to every quarterly review. Delivered by AEO Engine, who contract with you directly.
  • Plain answers. Which plan fits, what it costs, and what won’t move the needle for your firm.

Evangelos Pantidos · WhoAINames

Questions firms ask

Fair questions.

Is this just SEO?

It started there. But Google rankings don’t decide who AI recommends. Reviews, press, directories and clear answers on your own site do. That’s the part most firms miss.

We get all our clients from referrals.

Perfect. This is the same thing at scale: AI recommends you to people who’ve never met anyone who knows you. And the referrals you already get often check AI before they call.

Do buyers really use AI to choose a firm?

More every month. In BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of US consumers, 45% said they now use AI to find local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. Buyers use AI to shortlist, and the report shows exactly what they see when they ask about a firm like yours.

Will AI give the same answer every time?

No. Answers vary from run to run and from engine to engine. That’s why I ask each question several times across five engines and show you how often you’re named, not a single screenshot.

What does it cost?

The report is free, with no obligation. If you want help being named afterwards, I’ll tell you which of the published delivery plans fits your firm, and what it costs, once you’ve seen the report.

Is your firm the one AI names?

Find out what AI tells your buyers.

Get your free AI Answer Report →