The Rise of AI Search Archetypes: What It Means for Financial Services
AI search is transforming how clients learn about and search for banks, agents, and advisors. Here’s how to adapt your marketing strategy to meet client expectations, boost visibility, and build trust in the AI discovery era.
TL;DR: Clients are skipping Google in favor of asking AI tools for financial plans, budget advice, and retirement strategies. To stay connected, you need to tailor content to match AI search behaviors and maintain a strong presence across AI, search, and social.
The days when a client’s first step was typing “financial advisor near me” into Google are gone – and for financial services brands, agents, and advisors, that presents both a challenge and an opportunity.
But what does it actually mean? And more importantly, how do you apply what we’ve learned about how client behaviors are changing to your marketing strategy in a meaningful way?
Yext partnered with Researchscape to survey more than 2,200 clients across the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany about how they use both traditional and AI search, and identified a profound shift in how discovery happens, outlining clear implications for financial services.
Here’s what our research uncovered.
1. AI search has gone mainstream
What we found: Our search archetype survey asked people a series of questions about the different ways they use AI to find information.
We learned:
- 75% of people use AI search tools more than they did a year ago*, and 43% use them daily
- 62% of clients now trust AI tools to guide brand decisions — marking parity with traditional search engines
Why it matters for financial services: AI has become a catch-all for finding important, sometimes complex, information – and financial advice is no exception.
What financial services questions are clients asking AI tools?
- “Could you make me a financial plan?”
- “Can you help me create a financial budget.”
- “How can I save better for retirement?”
- “What will happen to the stocks this week?”
People are looking for answers you can provide. But… if your brand’s presence isn’t reflected in AI-generated responses, you risk being invisible at key decision-making moments, and connection opportunities will slip away.
What you should do next: Run a Scout scan to evaluate how visible your brand is in AI search results in tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Grok. Look for visibility gaps and make changes to help address those gaps, and make sure you're showing up everywhere clients are looking.
2. Clients all search differently
The fact that AI search is rising in popularity isn’t the only AI trend you need to know.
Six archetypes that describe how people use AI search:
- The Explorer: Seeks deep insights (“…state of my investment plan… generate profit?”). Needs scenario modeling and detailed content.
- The Price Shopper: Wants quick comparisons (“The rankings of car insurance companies,” “Best rental insurance company”). Values transparency.
- The Social Proof Seeker: Relies on reviews (“Allstate insurance policy reviews”). Trusts peer feedback.
- The Creator: Uses AI for ideation (“Help me create a financial budget”). Prefers customizable tools and templates.
- The Traditionalist: Brands clarity and precision (“Explain what a Roth IRA is,” “Definition for a specific word in the stock market”). Seeks authoritative information.
- The Accidental Searcher: Discovers brands through content (“Learn more about investing in the stock market”) and responds to compelling storytelling.
Why it matters in financial services: These distinctions are especially important in financial contexts because one-size-fits-all content won’t resonate across these archetypes.
What you should do next: Tailor your content to each search archetype’s preferences and priorities. For example, you can spotlight testimonials for social proof seekers, offer comparison guides for price shoppers, and build interactive tools for explorers.
3. Think outside of Google
What we found: Clients still very much use Google, but they also move fluidly between AI chat, traditional search, and social platforms. Put simply, having a robust Google Business Profile and solid website doesn’t cut it anymore.
What tools are clients using to search online?
- Search engines for factual details, like product specs and business information
- AI tools to generate creative ideas, provide summaries, and solicit personalized guidance
- Social channels for recommendations and reviews
Why it matters in financial services: You need to be visible everywhere clients are searching to build authority and credibility and to earn client trust.
What could a typical modern-day client journey look like?
- Ask ChatGPT: “How to become a millionaire before age 20”
- Google: “best online bank”
- YouTube: “passive income strategies”
- TikTok: follow the creator found on YouTube and binge 10 videos
- LinkedIn: ask network for advisor referrals
- Yelp/Google Maps: validate top contenders
- Advisor’s website: research further
Gaps in visibility across any channel open the door for competitors.
What you should do next: Make sure your details – from offerings to reviews to advisor profiles – are consistent, updated, and structured across all discovery platforms.
4. People trust AI more than they used to, but…
What we found: Clients trust AI more than they used to. Brands that prioritize structured, reliable, and local data gain an edge.
What challenges do people face with AI search accuracy?
- Nuance is missing (40%). Sometimes, answers feel too generic or broad, causing clients to second-guess accuracy.
- Source credibility is questionable (37%). It can take a little extra work to surface sources in AI, something clients are still getting used to and are hesitant to embrace.
- Local comparisons have room for improvement. AI tools rely on brands to provide comprehensive context in order to surface the right information in AI overviews. Only 10% of clients trust the first AI result, while nearly half cross-check.
Why it matters for financial services organizations: Inaccurate information hurts trust, and for regulated industries like financial services, the stakes are even higher.
What you should do next: Prioritize accuracy and use FAQs, compliance-friendly descriptions, and location-specific details to structure your data to make it easy for AI platforms to understand.
5. Local accuracy is a competitive advantage
What we found: An impressive 68% of clients use AI for local searches, but only 19% trust AI over traditional search for local results (versus 45% trust traditional search).
Why it matters for agents and advisors: AI prioritizes relevant, local content, giving local advisors incentive to develop a personal brand. Accurate and complete profiles — including services, languages, hours, and location — can help your firm and advisors stand out in AI answers.
What you should do next: Make sure all your agents and advisors have a standalone, optimized page with strong structured data (metadata, schema markup). Audit and standardize all location-based data across platforms and add relevant details that highlight strengths, including things like language fluencies and specific expertise.
How to connect with clients asking AI for answers now
AI search is shaping how clients find and choose banks, agents, and advisors today.
The firms that succeed in AI search are the ones that proactively:
- Diversify and tailor the content you publish to meet the expectations of each search archetype.
- Maintain brand visibility across AI and traditional search, social media, and more.
- Prioritize structured data accuracy, especially for local and nuanced financial questions.
- Treat AI discoverability as critically as traditional SEO – because for many clients, AI is the first touchpoint.
Right now, the opportunity to stand out is ample and the cost of inaction is high. So take action today. Run a Scout scan to see how your brand shows up in traditional and AI search.
Survey details: The results in this report are from an online survey of 2,237 adults who made a purchase online within the past three months and used voice search (e.g., Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa) or conversational AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude) to find information online. The survey was conducted from March 20 to April 6, 2025, by Researchscape International on behalf of Yext. Results were weighted by country population, age, and gender. Respondents were from four countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. 396 respondents were from the U.K.
FAQs
1. How are clients using AI for financial services today? Clients use AI to create budgets, get retirement advice, compare products, and even ask for investment predictions. It’s often the first stop in their discovery process.
2. Why does AI visibility matter for advisors and financial firms? If your brand isn’t showing up in AI-generated responses, you’re missing out on key decision-making moments where clients choose who to trust.
3. What’s the best way to improve my brand’s AI search visibility? Start by structuring your data — including services, FAQs, and local details — so AI can surface it. Run a Scout scan to identify gaps and optimize regularly.
4. Why is local accuracy important for financial advisors in AI search? Because only 19% of clients currently trust AI for local results, advisors who provide structured, accurate location data gain a competitive edge.
