How do companies choose an advisor now?

In two ways: by researching firms themselves, and by asking an AI assistant who to consider. Both start with what they can read about each firm, and both end with a shortlist of three or four.

What makes an AI assistant name one firm over another?

Confidence. It names firms it can describe plainly: what they do, who for, where, and whether that is verified. A firm whose positioning is vague, or lives only in a pitch deck, gets skipped.

Is my own website enough?

It helps, but buyers and assistants also compare firms side by side. A profile in a directory they already use, written the same way as your site, gives both of them something to compare and cite.

How do I know whether AI assistants recommend my practice?

Ask them the questions your buyers ask, note whether you are named and who is instead, and repeat after you change anything. Haycion runs this check for your practice whenever you want.

How companies hire advisors now

The shortlist moved

Companies used to find an advisor by asking a peer for a name, searching, and opening a few websites. Many still do. But more of them now describe their problem to an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT in a sentence or two and ask who they should talk to. The assistant answers with three or four firms and a reason for each.

The shortlist is made in that conversation. The firms’ websites get visited afterwards, if at all, by a buyer who already knows who they want to call.

A firm that isn’t in the answer isn’t on the shortlist.

Two readers, one decision

Either way, the decision starts with something the company can read about you. A buyer researching the field browses, compares profiles and shortlists the firms that fit. An assistant does the same, but literally: it repeats what it can read and cite, and skips what it can’t.

Both paths end at the same place: what a company can read about you. Your profile, your website, and what others publish about you.

What both of them look for

A buyer and an assistant ask the same five questions about every firm. The firms that answer them plainly, in one place, are the ones that get named.

What you do, in one plain sentence.
Who you do it for: industries, company stage, company size.
Where you work: the countries and regions you serve.
Whether it’s real: a verified profile, and a website that says the same thing.
How to reach you, without a form that goes nowhere.

Why vague firms get skipped

An assistant recommends firms it can describe with confidence. “We help ambitious companies grow” gives it nothing to repeat. “Go-to-market for B2B fintech, Series A to C, in London” gives it a sentence it can put in front of the right buyer.

The same is true of a buyer skimming ten profiles. Specific beats impressive, every time.

What to do about it

Say what you do plainly. One sentence: the service, the client, the stage, the place.
Publish one profile, in two forms. A page people can read, and a machine-readable version assistants can parse and quote.
Be listed where buyers browse. By specialism, industry and location, not only on your own site.
Check what assistants say. Ask the questions your buyers ask, and see whether you’re named, and who is instead. Then fix the profile and ask again.
Don’t wait to be found. The companies drawing attention in your industries right now are the ones worth calling first.

How Haycion does this

Haycion drafts your practice’s profile from your website and publishes it in the Advisor Network, as a page buyers read and as a markdown twin with structured data that assistants read. It shows you what Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants say when your buyers ask, whenever you run the check. On the Practice plan and above, it also finds prospects matched to your listing, and lets you reserve each one for 14 days.

See what buyers and AI read about your practice.

Free to start, no credit card.