Study finds AI search names law firms differently than Google

Forward Push Law Firm Marketing analyzed 38,173 clean AI search answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude and found that law firm visibility in AI tools does not track Google rankings. The research suggests legal directories, not firm websites, are shaping many AI-generated recommendations.

Why it matters: - Law firms are competing for a new kind of visibility as more people use AI tools to ask for local legal help. - A firm that ranks well on Google can still be missing from AI-generated answers. - The study suggests traditional SEO alone may not be enough to influence how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude recommend lawyers.

What happened: - Forward Push Law Firm Marketing released an original study based on 38,000 AI searches across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude. - Researchers ran the same client-style questions across 25 practice areas and 15 U.S. cities over about six weeks between late April and early June 2026. - The cities included Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. - The study captured 44,411 total answers. - After removing 6,238 responses affected by platform errors and quota limits, the final dataset included 38,173 clean answers. - Those answers contained 96,988 individual mentions of more than 15,000 law firms.

The details: - ChatGPT and Perplexity produced named-firm lists that overlapped only about 6% when asked the same question in the same city and practice area. - The study found no single AI result to optimize for, because each platform appears to rely on different sources. - In any one city and practice area, the top three named firms captured about 34% of all mentions. - Roughly 64 other firms split the rest, and most were mentioned only once or twice. - ChatGPT and Claude named an actual law firm in about 99% of answers. - Perplexity named a specific firm about 96% of the time. - Gemini named a specific firm in only about 12% of answers and often returned generic advice such as checking reviews or scheduling consultations. - Perplexity’s citations showed that legal directories carried outsized influence. - Across more than 30,000 citations, Super Lawyers appeared in 15.6% and Justia in 13.2%. - Best Law Firms, Best Lawyers, BCG Attorney Search and Chambers rounded out the top six cited sources. - Ninety-six percent of Perplexity answers cited at least one legal directory. - Only 68% cited the law firm’s own website. - The full study is available at the full study. - Forward Push also published a companion video explaining the methodology and findings.

Between the lines: - The findings point to a shift from ranking pages in search results to being selected inside AI-generated answers. - Legal directories appear to act as trust signals for AI systems, especially in Perplexity. - That creates a new competitive layer for law firms that may already invest heavily in search rankings, local listings and website content. - Marc Apple, founder and partner of Forward Push Law Firm Marketing, said being named by an AI tool means the machine found a source it trusts, not necessarily the better lawyer. - Apple said some firms with strong case records may already be invisible to tools their next client is using.

What's next: - Forward Push says it will use its proprietary Case Gravity approach to focus on AI-era client discovery, intake and retention. - The company positioned the study as a roadmap for law firms that want to show up in AI recommendations, not just Google results. - Firms will likely need to track how they appear across multiple AI platforms instead of treating AI visibility as one channel.

The bottom line: - AI search is creating a separate visibility contest, and the firms winning Google may not be the firms AI names.**