AI Visibility Rankings · Finance

Mergers and acquisitions advisory firms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)

How AI search engines rank mergers and acquisitions advisory firms 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 advisory firms helping owners, boards, and private equity sponsors navigate sale processes, acquisitions, carve-outs, and strategic transactions. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →

Refreshed Jun 30, 2026

Avg visibility across category

Avg citation rate

20/20

Brands successfully audited

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When AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini answer questions about mergers and acquisitions advisory firms, Lincoln International comes up most often, appearing in 25% of AI-generated responses across the engines tracked. Harris Williams and Houlihan Lokey follow as the next most frequently named firms, rounding out a top tier that AI engines consistently distinguish from the broader field of 20 ranked brands.

The rankings reflect which firms get named and cited across the sources AI engines pull from most, including mascience.com, marshberry.com, axial.net, fintalent.com, and procloser.ai. These are a mix of deal aggregators, sector-specific advisory trackers, and talent platforms rather than mainstream business press. That means visibility here is driven by transactional coverage and niche industry databases, not just general brand reputation or press mentions.

For a buyer using this page to shortlist firms, the key thing to check is whether a firm has recent, third-party coverage in the specific deal type or sector you care about. AI engines weight topical authority, so a firm that dominates middle-market technology deals may rank higher for that query than a larger generalist. Use the rankings as a starting point, then verify each firm's recent deal activity in your specific vertical.

At a glance

Category leader Lincoln International 25% visibility · named in 2 of 8 AI answers

Most cited brand Lincoln International 12% citation rate · the AI's most-trusted source brand in mergers and acquisitions advisory firms

Top cited domain mascience.com Referenced by AI across the mergers and acquisitions advisory firms query set — the highest-leverage PR target in this category

Visibility spread 25pp Gap between top and bottom of the ranking · 17 brands at 0% (invisible to the AI)

What we observed in this categoryauto-generated

Lincoln International leads the M&A advisory AI visibility landscape with a composite score of 21.2, followed by Harris Williams at 17.5 and Houlihan Lokey at 12.5. All three entered the rankings from zero in the previous period, meaning the entire ranked tier is newly emerged. The category average visibility sits at just 3.1 percent, making Lincoln International's 25.0 percent visibility figure roughly eight times the average. This concentration at the top signals a sharp winner-takes-most dynamic.

Harris Williams matches Lincoln International on raw visibility at 25.0 percent but holds a citation rate of 0.0 percent, compared to Lincoln International's 12.5 percent citation rate. This divergence is significant: Harris Williams is named by Google AI Mode but not trusted enough to be cited as a source. Houlihan Lokey achieves parity between its visibility and citation rate, both at 12.5 percent, suggesting a tighter alignment between being mentioned and being referenced. Brands ranked four through ten, including Evercore, Lazard, and Rothschild, record zero on both metrics.

The top cited sources in this category are third-party platforms and niche publishers, including mascience.com, axial.net, marshberry.com, and procloser.ai, rather than the advisory firms' own domains. This pattern indicates Google AI Mode is anchoring its answers on deal-flow aggregators, educational resources, and industry commentary sites rather than on primary firm websites. No major advisory brand domain appears in the cited sources list, which explains why citation rates remain low even for the most visible brands.

Movers & shakers since last refresh

Biggest visibility risers

Lincoln International 0% → 25% · rank #0 → #1
+25pp
Harris Williams 0% → 25% · rank #0 → #2
+25pp
Houlihan Lokey 0% → 12% · rank #0 → #3
+12pp

The ranking

#	Brand	Visibility	Citation	Top engine
1	Lincoln International lincolninternational.com	25%	12%	Google AI Mode
Lincoln International leads all 20 brands with a composite score of 21.2 and a citation rate of 12.5 percent, the highest in the category and ten times the category average citation rate.
2	Harris Williams harriswilliams.com	25%	0%	Google AI Mode
Harris Williams matches Lincoln International's 25.0 percent visibility but records a 0.0 percent citation rate, making it the starkest named-but-not-cited case among the top five.
3	Houlihan Lokey hl.com	12%	12%	Google AI Mode
Houlihan Lokey sits at 12.5 percent for both visibility and citation, the only top-five brand where both metrics align, suggesting more consistent AI source treatment.
4	Evercore evercore.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
Evercore scores 0.0 across all metrics despite being a globally recognised advisory firm, indicating Google AI Mode currently excludes it from M&A advisory category responses entirely.
5	Lazard lazard.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
Lazard, like Evercore, records zero visibility and zero citations, showing that established brand reputation in traditional finance does not yet translate into Google AI Mode presence.
6	Rothschild & Co rothschildandco.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
7	Moelis & Company moelis.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
8	PJT Partners pjtpartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
9	Guggenheim Securities guggenheimpartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
10	Jefferies jefferies.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
11	Perella Weinberg Partners pwpartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
12	Centerview Partners centerviewpartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
13	Greenhill greenhill.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
14	Solomon Partners solomonpartners.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
15	DC Advisory dcadvisory.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
16	William Blair williamblair.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
17	Piper Sandler psc.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
18	Baird rwbaird.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
19	Raymond James raymondjames.com	0%	0%	Google AI Mode
20	Stifel stifel.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 advisory firms, 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.

mascience.commarshberry.comaxial.netfintalent.comprocloser.aiprivatebankerinternational.comcasebasix.comraincatcher.com

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 advisory firms 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.

Audit your mergers and acquisitions advisory firms brand → Browse all rankings Methodology →

Frequently asked about mergers and acquisitions advisory firms AI visibility

Who leads AI visibility among M&A advisory firms in Google AI Mode?

Lincoln International leads with a composite score of 21.2 and 25.0 percent visibility, followed by Harris Williams at a composite score of 17.5 and Houlihan Lokey at 12.5.

What is the average AI visibility across M&A advisory firms?

The category average visibility is 3.1 percent and the average citation rate is 1.2 percent, reflecting extremely low AI presence across most of the 20 brands tracked.

Which M&A advisory brands are visible but not cited by Google AI Mode?

Harris Williams has 25.0 percent visibility but a 0.0 percent citation rate, making it the clearest example of a brand named in AI responses without being used as a cited source.

What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for M&A advisory research?

The top cited sources are third-party platforms including mascience.com, axial.net, marshberry.com, and procloser.ai, with no major advisory firm domain appearing in the cited sources list.

How do well-known firms like Evercore and Lazard perform in AI visibility?

Both Evercore and Lazard score 0.0 percent on visibility, citation, and composite score, indicating Google AI Mode does not currently surface them in M&A advisory category responses.

Are the top-ranked M&A advisory brands long-standing leaders in AI visibility?

No. Lincoln International, Harris Williams, and Houlihan Lokey all moved from zero visibility in the previous period, meaning the entire current ranked tier entered the landscape within this audit cycle.