Mergers and acquisitions advisors: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank mergers and acquisitions advisors by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Mergers and acquisitions advisors helping owners, sponsors, and corporations navigate sell-side, buy-side, valuation, and transaction execution. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
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When AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity answer questions about mergers and acquisitions advisors, Houlihan Lokey comes up most often, appearing in 12.5% of tracked responses across the 20 brands ranked here. Lincoln International and RSM US round out the top three, making them the names buyers encounter most when researching this category through AI-powered search.
The rankings reflect which sources AI engines trust most when forming answers. The top cited domains include youtube.com, axial.net, finance.yahoo.com, and mascience.com, a mix of deal-focused platforms and financial aggregators. When a firm gets featured or reviewed on these sources, especially axial.net (a middle-market deal network), it gains measurable AI visibility. Brands with consistent coverage across multiple third-party platforms rank higher than those relying on their own websites.
For a buyer using this list, the practical takeaway is to look beyond brand size and check where a firm has third-party validation. AI engines weight recent, independent coverage on deal-focused platforms heavily. A firm ranked lower here may simply have weaker external coverage, not weaker capability, so use these rankings as a starting filter, then verify credentials, deal history, and sector specialization directly with each advisor.
At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
Houlihan Lokey is the only brand in this category with both visibility and citation scores above zero, recording 12.5% on both metrics and a composite score of 12.5. The category average visibility sits at just 0.6%, making Houlihan Lokey's score more than twenty times the mean. This gap is significant because it means Google AI Mode is effectively surfacing one brand in a field of twenty, leaving well-known names like Lazard, Rothschild and Co, and Jefferies with zero visibility and zero citation.
Lincoln International, RSM US, and EY-Parthenon each hold a 12.5% citation rate despite recording 0.0% visibility, producing identical composite scores of 3.8. This divergence shows that Google AI Mode references these three brands as sources or corroborating evidence inside responses without naming them as primary answers. Harris Williams, Raymond James, Lazard, Rothschild and Co, Baird, and Jefferies record zero on both metrics, meaning they receive neither named mentions nor cited links in current AI outputs.
The top cited sources for this category are dominated by third-party and niche platforms: youtube.com, axial.net, mascience.com, finance.yahoo.com, auxocapitaladvisors.com, websiteclosers.com, firstpagesage.com, and amaaonline.com. None of these are the owned domains of the ranked M&A advisory brands. Google AI Mode is anchoring its responses on aggregator, video, and specialist deal-sourcing content rather than the advisory firms' own websites, which explains why brand-level visibility scores are so low across the category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility risers
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Houlihan Lokey 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #1+12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
hl.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Houlihan Lokey is the sole brand matching the category citation average of 2.5% far above it, scoring 12.5% visibility and 12.5% citation, the only non-zero composite in the top ten. |
||||
| 2 |
lincolninternational.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Lincoln International holds a 12.5% citation rate but zero visibility, producing a composite of 3.8, meaning AI references it without surfacing it as a named primary answer. |
||||
| 3 |
rsmus.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
RSM US mirrors Lincoln International exactly with 0.0% visibility and 12.5% citation, a pattern suggesting AI cites its content as a supporting source rather than a featured brand. |
||||
| 4 |
ey.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
EY-Parthenon shares the same 0.0% visibility and 12.5% citation split as ranks two and three, giving it a composite of 3.8 despite being one of the category's largest global advisors. |
||||
| 5 |
harriswilliams.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Harris Williams records zero on all three metrics, placing it alongside six other ranked brands that receive no AI visibility or citation despite their presence in the advisory market. |
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| 6 |
raymondjames.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
lazard.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
rothschildandco.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
rwbaird.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
jefferies.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
psc.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
williamblair.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
kroll.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
stout.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
bdo.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
grantthornton.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
deloitte.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
pwc.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
kpmg.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
alvarezandmarsal.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on mergers and acquisitions advisors, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer. More on visibility →
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence, different from being named. More on citation rate →
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps. How AI engines pick sources →
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically. How AI search ranking works →
Get your own mergers and acquisitions advisors brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about mergers and acquisitions advisors AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in the mergers and acquisitions advisors category?
Houlihan Lokey leads with a visibility score of 12.5% and a citation score of 12.5%, giving it a composite of 12.5. No other brand in the top ten records any visibility at all.
What is the average AI visibility for M&A advisors and how does the leader compare?
The category average visibility is 0.6%, meaning Houlihan Lokey's score of 12.5% is more than twenty times the average. All other tracked brands sit at 0.0% visibility.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for M&A advisor research?
The top cited sources are youtube.com, axial.net, mascience.com, finance.yahoo.com, auxocapitaladvisors.com, websiteclosers.com, firstpagesage.com, and amaaonline.com. None are owned domains of the ranked advisory brands.
Which brands are cited by AI but not named as primary answers?
Lincoln International, RSM US, and EY-Parthenon each carry a 12.5% citation rate alongside 0.0% visibility, indicating Google AI Mode uses their content as supporting references rather than surfacing them as named brands.
How many of the top twenty M&A advisor brands have any AI visibility?
Only one brand, Houlihan Lokey, records any AI visibility in this audit. The remaining nineteen brands, including Lazard, Rothschild and Co, and Jefferies, all score 0.0% visibility.
Is citation rate a reliable proxy for AI visibility in this category?
No. Three brands score 12.5% on citation but 0.0% on visibility, producing composite scores of only 3.8 versus Houlihan Lokey's 12.5, showing citation and named visibility diverge significantly here.