Firms going all-in on marketing to AI bots

Accounting and other professional service firms are rushing to make sure that they will be mentioned in AI search results, with many planning to fully implement a generative engine optimization strategy within the next six months.

It calls to mind a previous story that looked specifically at how CPA firms both big and small are starting to get client referrals from AI engines and are adjusting their marketing strategies accordingly. 

The latest data comes from a recent report from professional services marketing firm Scribewise, which found that 97% of executive leaders and marketing managers working at U.S. professional service organizations say it is important or very important for their content to show up in AI searches. Many are putting serious money into these efforts, as 55% say they have made investments specifically for GEO, and almost three-quarters say their GEO activities account for 11-20% of their marketing budget. 

This is likely because 63% of those who successfully execute those strategies say they've gotten more exposure with clients as a result of these efforts. Those prioritizing GEO are already seeing important, measurable benefits. Meanwhile, 65% say they got more leads and 64% said they got more website traffic. 

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Leaders who have yet to execute these strategies, though, feel confident they will be able to do so soon. When asked about the status of their GEO strategy, 55% described it as "advanced" while a further 42% are "just starting out." This has led to 72% of respondents who have already started saying they plan to fully implement it within six months. 

Meanwhile, only 3% were planning to implement a strategy in the near-term future while zero respondents had no plans at all. This is despite 97% of respondents saying their firms have received one or more leads through answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

"Clearly, the train is leaving the station, and firms that wait much longer are at risk of being left behind to play an expensive game of catch-up," said the report. As for what firms are doing to optimize for bots, the most common tactic, at 67%, is optimizing their websites for AI (as models tend to get their information by scraping huge portions of the internet) followed by updating their social media approach in terms of post composition and publishing cadence, at 63%. Also popular are increasing their PR presence and outreach (58%) and updating their blogging approach (51%). There seems to be few tactics outside of this so far, as only 2% said "none of the above" and even fewer than that said "other." 

"An important consideration in all of this work is that content creation for LLMs needs to be simultaneously concise and complete—something that typically requires experienced writers who can pack a lot of meaning into just a few words," said the report. 

Despite the changing landscape, the report found a significant portion of leaders, 20%, saying that GEO is simply the next stage of SEO. However, the report warned this is not the case. While SEO does play into things, executing a successful AI search strategy needs new mindsets and different skills. 

"Paradoxically, the rise of AI seems to have created an opening for more human interactions online—people are overwhelmed by AI work slop, and they're longing for deep-dive, well-crafted niche content presented in a compelling way. We recommend that your team move beyond the traditional SEO skill set and embrace old-school competencies that bring more of a human element to your marketing," said the report. 

Scribewise drew its conclusions from a sample of 205 U.S.- based professional services marketers and leaders polled from Sept. 18, 2025 to Sept. 29, 2025.