Thanks to AI, the rules are changing for acquiring and building trust with customers. To stay relevant, financial institutions need to figure out how to prove their credibility while meeting customers where they are.
Keep reading for Wil's top takeaways on how financial brands can maintain their authority in the era of AI search from his session at Financial Brand Forum 2026.
Key Takeaways from Wil's Session
1. AI Slop Is a Race to the Bottom
Wil points out the downfall of generic AI content: it may produce temporary visibility, but tends to see major traffic drops as time goes on. Instead of using AI to produce formulaic content, use it to streamline content development by having AI agents interview doctors and asking AI to audit landing pages against real patient personas.
2. You're Tracking the Wrong Prompts
Most teams track AI prompts that sound like search queries, but real patients use LLMs differently. They ask for brand comparisons, add personal context, and make specific criteria. Run brand-versus-brand comparison reports regularly across popular AI models to understand how patients are searching — and how your brand is showing up.
3. Own Your AI Narrative (Or Someone Else Will)
As Wil points out, AI models will say things about your brand regardless of whether you participate or not. That just means you're giving competitors, bad reviews, and Reddit threads the opportunity to fill in the gaps. To take control, first audit what bots can actually see on your website (by disabling JavaScript in your browser dev tool). Then monitor third-party sites like Reddit and publish accurate content to address known weaknesses.
4. Turn Doctors into Influencers
The social media presence of physicians is often an under-leveraged trust platform when it comes to healthcare marketing. The data already shows patients are choosing and vetting doctors based on social presence. Brands that invest in internal influencers will have a durable advantage unmatched by AI-generated content.
5. It's Worth the Effort to Track Trust Channels
Wil shares how Seer's pipeline has grown not from organic search but from word of mouth and private communities (Slack, WhatsApp) that can be difficult to measure. The highest-value marketing signals are becoming the most difficult to attribute — but investing in tracking them can give you direct insight into whether patients believe in and choose your brand.
Why Wil Cares About House Call
House Call is a premier, invite-only event for healthcare marketers, bringing top marketers together to learn about and discuss strategies for a healthcare-based audience. Events like House Call allow Wil to connect with targeted audiences and share the industry-specific analyses he and the Seer team have conducted around AI search and GEO.
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