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.
Key Takeaways from Wil's Session
1. AI Slop Will Backfire — Quality Wins Over Volume
Wil gave the example of a finance brand with 50 pages of auto-generated AI content that were completely disconnected from how humans search. He also shared how Seer has reduced content output to prioritize quality over quantity and continued to grow pipeline.
2. Smaller Financial Brands Have a Structural Advantage
According to Wil, community-centered financial institutions are uniquely positioned for success. These brands have strong local ties and are trusted by their community, and AI is increasingly rewarding authenticity and authority.
3. Content Indexability Is a Hidden Crisis
Many financial brands have valuable content hidden in JavaScript that AI crawlers can't index. Disabling JavaScript in your browser's dev tools is an easy tactic to understand what AI can and can't see on your site (and then go fix the non-crawlable content).
4. No, GEO and SEO Are Not the Same
Wil points out how GEO has no reliable search volume metrics, CTR is unpredictable, and results can vary widely even across the same prompt. If your brand is employing an agency or vendor for GEO, demand accountability. The vendor should be able to explain how visibility translates into audience belief and choice, not just capture rankings.
5. Use Internal Experts for Content
Instead of posting generic AI content, Wil suggests interviewing tenured employees and advisors for real perspectives grounded in experience. This is exactly the type of content that AI models reward, and something your competitors relying on AI can never replicate.
Why Wil Cares About Financial Brand Forum
Wil has spoken at the Financial Brand Forum in 2019 and 2026. FBF is one of the premium financial and banking events of the year, bringing finance marketers together to learn about and discuss the top strategies for a finance-based audience. Events like Financial Brand Forum 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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