On July 14, 2026, we ran a simple test. We asked ChatGPT and Perplexity the questions a real person would ask when looking for a financial advisor in Wichita, and we wrote down exactly what came back. Not what we assumed would happen. What actually happened.
The result surprised us, and it should concern any advisor who has invested in a nice website. The AI tools named plenty of real Wichita firms. But when we looked at where those recommendations came from, the advisors’ own websites were almost nowhere to be found.
What we asked
We ran five questions in both ChatGPT and Perplexity, with web search active, the way an actual prospective client would:
- Who is the best financial advisor in Wichita?
- Financial advisors in Wichita, Kansas
- Who should I hire to manage my retirement savings in Wichita?
- Best wealth management firm in Wichita KS
- Fee-only financial advisor Wichita
Finding 1: AI does name local Wichita advisors
The good news first. Both tools named real, local Wichita firms, often with addresses and specifics. This is not a case of AI ignoring local businesses in favor of national brands. Perplexity named AdamsBrown Wealth Consultants, Wichita Wealth Management, Pinion Wealth, AGH Wealth Management, Market Advisory Group, and others. ChatGPT named Creative Planning, Wichita Wealth, Driven Wealth Strategies, StewardRight, Baxter & Associates, Strategic Financial Concepts, and more. Individual planners got named too.
So AI is already recommending Wichita advisors to people who ask. The question is not whether it happens. The question is what it is basing those recommendations on.
Finding 2: the answers come from directories, not from advisors’ websites
This is the finding that matters. When we looked at the sources cited under each answer, they were overwhelmingly third-party directories and aggregators, not the advisors’ own sites.
Perplexity leaned on SmartAsset, PlannerSearch, AdvisorCheck, and FeeOnlyNetwork. It said plainly that AdamsBrown was the top-ranked Wichita firm in SmartAsset’s 2025 list. ChatGPT leaned heavily on Expertise.com, along with Reddit and a handful of firm pages.
Read that again: the AI’s description of an advisor is assembled from how SmartAsset, Expertise.com, and PlannerSearch describe them. The carefully written About page on the advisor’s own website is largely not in the conversation. An advisor can have a beautiful site and still have almost no influence over what AI says about them.
Finding 3: the two tools disagree, because they read different directories
ChatGPT and Perplexity gave meaningfully different answers to the same questions. Perplexity’s top names skewed toward AdamsBrown, Wichita Wealth, and Pinion. ChatGPT’s skewed toward Creative Planning, Wichita Wealth, Driven Wealth Strategies, and StewardRight. There is overlap, but the lists are not the same.
Why? Because they are reading different sources. Perplexity was pulling from SmartAsset and PlannerSearch. ChatGPT was pulling from Expertise.com and Reddit. Different directory diets produce different recommendations. If you are only listed in some of those places, you exist on some AI platforms and not others.
| What we asked | Perplexity leaned on | ChatGPT leaned on |
|---|---|---|
| Best financial advisor | SmartAsset, PlannerSearch | Expertise.com |
| Advisors in Wichita | AdvisorCheck, SmartAsset, local listings | Expertise.com, Reddit |
| Retirement savings | PlannerSearch, CAPTRUST | Expertise.com |
| Best wealth management firm | PillarWM, Creative Planning | Expertise.com |
| Fee-only advisor | FeeOnlyNetwork, firm sites | FeeOnlyNetwork, firm sites |
Finding 4: Reddit is feeding AI recommendations
ChatGPT included a section on what Wichita residents recommend, drawn from Reddit, and it named individual people, not just firms. Community conversation is quietly becoming a source AI leans on when someone asks who to trust. Most advisors have never thought about that, and it is not something you can buy your way into.
Finding 5: specific positioning beats size
Here is the most useful finding for any advisor who is not the biggest firm in town.
On the generic question, who is the best financial advisor in Wichita, the answers skewed toward the largest firms by assets under management. Perplexity noted AdamsBrown leads with roughly $880.9 million in assets. If size is the ranking factor, a smaller advisor cannot win that question.
But change the question, and the answer changes completely. Ask for a fee-only advisor, and both platforms converged on Wichita Wealth and Longview Advisors. The large firms disappeared. And notably, this is the one query where the firms’ own websites actually got cited, because those firms say one unmistakable thing about themselves. Wichita Wealth positions itself, in its own words, as Wichita’s original fee-only fiduciary firm. That clarity is exactly what an AI can grab and repeat.
The lesson: you will not out-AUM the biggest firm in town. But you can be the unmistakable answer to a specific question, and that is a game a smaller advisor can win.
What this means if you are an advisor
- Your website alone is not enough. AI is describing you through directories, so your presence in SmartAsset, Expertise.com, PlannerSearch, FeeOnlyNetwork, and similar sources is shaping what AI says about you.
- Check what is actually being said. The listings AI relies on may be out of date, thin, or missing entirely, and most advisors have never looked.
- Own a specific position. Generic “comprehensive wealth management” gets you lost among the giants. A clear, specific, repeatable claim is what AI picks up and repeats.
- Structure your site so AI can read it. When AI does look at your site, it needs to find clear, structured, quotable answers, not vague trust language. That is what GEO is.
The honest caveat
This was one test, five questions, two platforms, on a single day. AI answers change constantly, and a different day or a slightly different question could produce different names. This is a snapshot, not a scientific study. But it is a real snapshot, and the pattern it shows, that AI describes advisors through directories rather than through their own websites, held across every question we asked on both platforms.
Where to go from here
If you are an advisor in Wichita, the useful next step is simple: go ask the same questions yourself and see whether you come up. Then look at what sources the answer cites, and whether any of them are yours. If you want help understanding where you stand and how to fix it, that is exactly what our GEO services do. You can also read more about what an advisor website actually needs, or get in touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AI recommend local financial advisors in Wichita?
Yes. When we tested ChatGPT and Perplexity on July 14, 2026, both named real Wichita firms and individual advisors, often with addresses and specifics. AI is already making local advisor recommendations to people who ask.
Where does AI get its information about financial advisors?
Mostly from third-party directories, not from advisors’ own websites. In our test, Perplexity cited SmartAsset, PlannerSearch, AdvisorCheck, and FeeOnlyNetwork. ChatGPT cited Expertise.com and Reddit. Advisors’ own sites were rarely the source.
Why do ChatGPT and Perplexity recommend different advisors?
Because they rely on different sources. In our test Perplexity leaned on SmartAsset and PlannerSearch, while ChatGPT leaned on Expertise.com and Reddit. Different directories produce different recommendations, so an advisor can be visible on one platform and invisible on another.
How can a smaller financial advisor get recommended by AI?
By owning a specific position rather than competing on size. In our test, generic questions favored the largest firms by assets under management, but a specific question like fee-only advisor produced a completely different list, led by firms that clearly and repeatedly describe themselves that way.
Is my website enough to get recommended by AI?
On its own, usually not. Our test showed AI describing advisors primarily through directory listings rather than their own sites. A website still matters, and it needs to be structured so AI can read and quote it, but your presence in the sources AI actually cites matters just as much.