An injured person can now ask an AI tool for a lawyer before they ever open Google. So we asked it ourselves, the way a hurt person might, and the answers surprised me.
What we saw when we asked ChatGPT
We recently studied 14 leading PI firms in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, using only public information. As part of that, we asked ChatGPT 6 real questions an injured person might ask about finding a lawyer.
ChatGPT named 2 of the 14. It skipped most of the biggest advertisers and recommended smaller firms instead.
These are firms that lead their markets. And when someone asked an AI for help, most of them were not in the answer.
I want to be humble about this. We did not look inside how the AI works, and its answers can change with the wording of a question. This is what we saw, not a rule. But it is worth paying attention to.
Ad budgets did not decide it
The same study showed something related: 3 of 14 ran no Google ads this month and still lead their markets. Ad budget alone does not explain who wins.
The AI results point the same way. A big ad budget buys attention. It does not buy an AI's recommendation.
That should be good news for most firms. You cannot outspend the biggest advertisers in your city. But you can be clearer than them.
Page count did not decide it either
You might guess the AI just favors the biggest websites. The leading firms' median site has about 1,000 pages. The typical small PI firm we checked has 26.
Yet most of those 1,000-page sites were still left out. Volume alone did not seem to be enough. A thousand pages that say the same general things may give an AI less to work with than a few pages that answer real questions clearly.
What AI seems to read
From what we saw, a few things seem to give an AI something clear to say about a firm. Again, this is our reading, not how the system works inside.
- A clear website. Who you help, which kinds of cases, and where, written in plain words near the top of the page.
- The same description everywhere. Your site, your Google profile, your directory listings and your social bios all say the same thing about who you are. If one says "accident attorneys" and another says "general practice," you are harder to describe.
- Answers to real questions. Pages and videos that answer what injured people actually ask, like what to do after a crash or how long a claim takes.
- Reviews. Recent, real reviews, with replies from the firm.
None of these are tricks. They are the same things that help a person at 11pm decide to call you. I walked through that moment in What Does an Injured Person See When They Find Your PI Firm at 11pm?
The front of the house now includes AI
I think about every PI firm in two parts. The front of the house is everything an injured person sees before they call. The back of the house is what happens when they do.
For years, the front of the house meant your Google profile, your reviews and your homepage. Now it also includes what an AI says when someone asks it for help. If the AI never mentions you, that person never reaches your door, and you never know they looked.
One lawyer complained that their agency had no strategy for AI search at all. If no one is checking what AI says about your firm, no one is fixing it.
But being named is only half of it. If the AI sends someone to you and the call goes to voicemail, you lost them anyway. Fix the cracks before you build on it. AI search is one of 12 ways a case can come in, and I covered all of them in Every Way a PI Case Comes In.
Where video fits
Video is one of the easiest ways to put clear, real answers about your firm into the world. A short video of an attorney explaining what to do after a crash is something a person can watch, and the caption and description give search tools plain words about who you help and where.
Video is the new billboard, and unlike a billboard, it can be found, read and shared long after it goes up.
Checklist: does AI have something clear to say about your firm?
- Does the top of your homepage say who you help, which cases, and where in one plain sentence?
- Is your firm described the same way on your site, Google profile, directories and social bios?
- Do you have pages or videos that answer real questions your intake team hears every week?
- Are your Google reviews recent, and do you reply to them?
- Is your firm's name, address and phone identical everywhere it appears?
- Have you asked an AI tool a few real questions about lawyers in your city and read what it says?
- When someone does call, does a real person answer and explain what happens next?
- Has an attorney reviewed everything you publish against your state's advertising rules?
The takeaway
In our study, ChatGPT skipped most of the biggest PI advertisers and named smaller firms instead. Money did not seem to decide it. Clarity did: a clear site, one consistent description, real answers and real reviews. Any firm can work on those, and the same work helps every injured person who finds you.