10 Questions Prospects Ask AI Before Hiring a Firm

Before a prospect ever calls your office, they have interrogated an AI assistant about you, your competitors, and the decision itself. These are the ten question patterns that show up constantly in buyer behavior — each one an answer your firm is either in or out of.

1. "Best [specialty] in [city]"

The classic. Direct, high-intent, and answered with named firms. This is the query category where share of answers most directly converts to revenue — and where being absent hands the lead to whoever is named.

2. "Who should I hire for [specific problem]"

"Who should I hire to handle a contested will in Travis County." More specific than #1, less contested, and engines reward specificity. Firms with answer-shaped pages for narrow problems win these consistently.

3. "What kind of [lawyer/accountant/doctor] do I need for X"

The prospect doesn't know the category yet. The AI explains — and often appends "firms like [name] specialize in this." Educational content that owns the category explanation gets the appended recommendation.

4. "Is [your firm name] good?"

The validation query. The AI synthesizes your reviews, ratings, news mentions, and any complaints into a verdict. Run this for your own firm today — the answer is your reputation as the machines see it.

5. "[Your firm] vs [competitor]"

Head-to-head comparison, synthesized from both firms' public evidence. The firm with clearer specialization, fresher reviews, and published pricing usually reads better — the AI rewards verifiable specifics over adjectives.

6. "How much does [service] cost in [city]?"

Asked before almost every hire. Engines answer with ranges from whatever sources publish numbers. If no firm in your market publishes fees, the AI cites national averages — and the first local firm to publish real ranges gets cited and pre-frames the budget conversation.

7. "What questions should I ask before hiring a [category]?"

The diligence query. The AI generates a checklist — and the firms whose content shaped that checklist have effectively written the buyer's evaluation criteria.

8. "Can I do this myself or do I need a professional?"

The DIY-or-hire fork. Engines answer honestly: simple cases DIY, complex ones hire. Content that maps that line credibly captures the "hire" half of the fork at the moment of decision.

9. "Does [firm] handle [insurance/payment/situation] cases?"

Logistical fit: "takes Blue Cross," "offers flat fees," "works with startups." Mundane, constant, and answerable only if the information is published and current. Most firms' logistical info is stale across the directories engines read.

10. "I got [document/notice/diagnosis]. What do I do?"

The urgent query — a tax notice, a summons, a diagnosis. The answer is a sequence of steps that ends in "consult a professional." Presence in that final step, at the moment of maximum urgency, is the single most valuable placement in AI search.

What to do with this list

Substitute your specialty and city into all ten, run them across ChatGPT and Perplexity in a clean session, and record who gets named — the method is in our 15-minute audit tutorial. The queries where competitors appear and you don't are your work plan, in priority order.