Shortlisted by a Bot? How AI Is Shaping the Future of Firm Selection

The buyer journey isn’t linear anymore — and AI is accelerating the shift.

Where once clients moved slowly from awareness to trust, today they can ask a tool like ChatGPT for recommendations and get an answer in seconds. At the same time, buyers want to self-educate before ever speaking to a seller-doer. They’re delaying direct conversations and doing more of their own research, relying on what the internet says about you (and what it doesn’t).

This post explores how AI is reshaping discovery, why visibility across third-party sources and your own content both matter, and how firms can build authority that earns the shortlist.

The Client Journey Starts With a Prompt

Buyers are beginning to pair AI tools like ChatGPT with traditional search and referrals during research. Instead of moving slowly from awareness to trust, clients are arriving at decisions faster, often without visiting your website first.

They’re asking:

• “Trends in sustainable office design 2025”
• “Benefits of adaptive reuse architecture”

These tools don’t just pull from your website. They analyze media coverage, awards, speaker bios, directories and more. For top-funnel queries, earned media often carries real weight in zero-click answers. 

For service-specific, bottom-funnel searches, SEO and owned assets, such as strong service pages, case studies, client testimonials and leadership bios, still play a big role. In practice, earned and owned show up together in AI-generated “resources” results, reinforcing one another.

In short, the journey is compressed — less time in awareness, fewer website visits and faster shortlist decisions — which means you’re building visibility for algorithms as much as for people.

Why Repetition and Recency Beat One-Offs

A single quote rarely changes a shortlist. AI is scanning for patterns. To appear in recommendations, your firm needs to be:

• Referenced consistently across multiple platforms
• Associated clearly with core services or sectors
• Mentioned recently, since many AI tools weigh freshness

It works the same for humans. Consider a developer evaluating two architecture firms with similar portfolios. They come across a recent project profile in Building Design+Construction. That earned piece creates an early trust signal — and prompts them to click through (or search) to find the firm’s site. There, a detailed case study lays out the brief, constraints and outcomes. The combination of a third-party profile and a substantive owned case study is what earns the shortlist spot.

Both AI systems and people scan for repeated, recent signals that demonstrate both visibility and depth. Think of it like SEO for authority. You need domain-level consistency and substance across earned and owned content.

How to Earn Authority That AI (and Buyers) Recognize

AI and human buyers look for the same types of trust signals — public, repeatable and tied to real people. Authority in the AI era looks like:

• Clear authorship and consistent bios across platforms
• Multiple media mentions around the same core topics
• Named clients and measurable project outcomes
• Case studies that show process, challenges and results
• Client testimonials or reviews that validate claims
• Speaking engagements, awards and association visibility

To operationalize these signals, follow the steps below:

1. Standardize Your Signals

Make it easy for AI (and people) to recognize you. Align names, titles and services across bios, your website, LinkedIn and directories. Keep a simple “OK-to-name” client list and update it quarterly so spokespeople reference the same proof points.

2. Plant Top-Funnel Seeds

Earned visibility creates the first trust signal. Target a short list of sector outlets and podcasts. Package stories with a clear angle, two to three proof points and a spokesperson bio that matches your site.

3. Fortify the Bottom Funnel

Back up the signal with substance. Publish case studies that cover the brief, constraints, key moves and outcomes. Add one “How We Work” page per service area detailing your process, timelines and client roles. Collect short testimonials tied to specific results.

With those foundations in place, stress test your presence with this quick five-minute audit:

Run a 5-Minute Audit

• Bios match across your website and LinkedIn
• Each spokesperson tied to one to three focus areas
• At least one fresh case study per focus area
• One recent earned media hit in the last 90 days
• For top queries, at least one earned and one owned asset appear in resources-style results

Authority isn’t a one-time investment. It’s a continuous effort to show up (and keep showing up) in ways both humans and machines recognize as credible.

Make Sure Your Firm Doesn’t Get Skipped

AI isn’t replacing traditional search overnight, but it is reshaping how buyers discover and evaluate firms. If you’re not actively shaping authority across both earned and owned channels, AI tools — and your buyers — may pass you by. 

Let’s change that.