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In an AI-mediated market, the real divide could be between the firms AI can understand and those it overlooks, writes Ralph Grayden.
If you asked ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini what your firm was known for, what answer would they give?
Law firms are spending considerable time and energy figuring out how their people should use AI internally. Relatively few seem to be considering how clients are also using it to assess them.
That’s quickly becoming a major oversight. Forrester’s most recent State of Business Buying study found that of the nearly 18,000 global B2B buyers surveyed, 94 per cent reported using AI during the buying process.
Not replacing word of mouth, but becoming part of it
Many law firm partners see little reason to invest heavily in marketing because most of their business comes through word of mouth. Now AI is inserting itself into that process.
Forrester found that buyers are increasingly using AI during their research but validating its answers through peers, experts and other trusted members of their networks. In practice, this means AI can act as both referrer and reference checker: suggesting advisers directly or helping buyers investigate recommendations they’ve received elsewhere.
So, what, you ask? Isn’t that just what buyers already do with Google? Not quite.
Few buyers will type “commercial lawyer Melbourne” into ChatGPT, Copilot, or Claude. They’re more likely to explain their business, describe the problem they face and ask which lawyers have the relevant expertise.
“We’re a [business type]. We’re currently facing [issue]. What lawyers would you recommend in Melbourne who understand the law around this and can advise us on the best course of action?”
They’ll then interrogate the answer, compare recommendations (and perhaps even add some of their own into the mix) and inform themselves through a continuing conversation.
How to make your authority obvious to AI
Unlike search engines, AI assistants don’t usually present a ranked list of links. They interpret a user’s circumstances and synthesise information from multiple sources to produce what they consider the most useful answer.
Exactly how each AI model goes about this task is slightly different. However, all AI assistant recommendations are likely to reflect the connections they can identify between a firm, its lawyers, their expertise and the problem the buyer needs to solve.
That authority rarely comes from a single webpage or self-promotional claim but from a pattern of corroboration. For law firms, that means making sure the same story appears across your website, articles, lawyer profiles, and insights published elsewhere.
In fact, it’s this final category of content – expertise published with credible third-party platforms – that AI seems to value most. That’s because the more consistently your expertise is supported across external sources, the less it looks like something the firm simply claims and more like something the available evidence supports.
On the other hand, even an excellent firm can become surprisingly illegible to AI if its authority is scattered, unverified, or unpublished.
Building an authority ecosystem
That said, your own website also plays a vital role because it’s where you can control how your expertise is explained and evidenced.
If you waste your words on generic claims any other law firm could make, like “We’re experienced, commercial and client-focused”, AI usually won’t put much store in what you have to say (neither will clients, for that matter). Instead, explain exactly who you help, which problems you solve and what distinguishes your approach. Where you can, support each proposition with relevant matters, outcomes, insights, and independent recognition.
That evidence should also be connected. Practice-area pages can link your firm’s expertise to relevant lawyers, articles, guides and specific services, while lawyer profiles can bring together experience, notable matters, media commentary, speaking engagements and published thinking. External contributions then reinforce those connections through independent sources.
Together, these elements create what AI needs to understand and confidently recommend your firm: a clear proposition, credible evidence and consistent corroboration.
Run the test yourself
To find out where you stand today, ask the major AI platforms the same questions a prospective client might. Give them realistic problems you’d like clients to contact you about, then see which firms they recommend and why. Ask what your firm is known for, where competitors appear stronger and which of your lawyers they regard as authorities. Then compare the answers with your actual strategy and positioning.
This should reveal whether the problem is visibility, differentiation, credibility, or simply an inconsistent message. Then you can begin fixing it.
After all, in an AI-mediated market, the real divide could be between the firms AI can understand and those it overlooks. Which side of that line is your firm on?
Ralph Grayden is a former commercial lawyer and the founder and principal of Antelope Media.
