How financial advisers are scored in Australia
The AI Recommendation Index for financial advisers in Australia runs 15 buyer-intent prompts per city across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, every month. This page documents the exact prompts used, how the Composite Index Score is calculated, and a worked example.
Understanding the scores
What the numbers mean
AI Recommendation Share
The percentage of tracked queries where this business was named by at least one AI platform. The most direct measure of how often AI is recommending you to buyers.
Composite Index Score
A weighted combination of recommendation frequency, how many platforms cited the business, position in results, and citation quality. Scores from 0 to 1.
See full breakdown below ↓CIS calculation
How the CIS is calculated
Recommendation frequency
How often the business appeared across all 60 queries and all four platforms.
Platform coverage
How many of the four platforms independently recommended the business. Appearing on all four is a much stronger signal than appearing heavily on just one.
Position weighting
Where in the response the business appeared. Being named first carries more weight than being named fifth.
Citation context quality
Whether the AI cited the business with specific confident context or included it in a generic list.
Worked example
Worked example
Top-ranked firm · Adelaide
Andrew McCracken | Shadforth Financial Group
ARS 3830% · 23 of 60 queries
Prompt set
The 15 prompts we run
Each prompt is sent to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, with {{city}} replaced by the actual city name. Some positions have multiple terminology variants run in parallel to capture different ways buyers phrase the same question.
- Who would you recommend for a financial adviser in {{city}}?
- Which financial planning firms in {{city}} would you recommend for retirement and superannuation advice?
- If someone in {{city}} had one million dollars to invest, which financial advisers would you trust with it?
- Who are the best financial advisers in {{city}}?
- What are the most highly rated financial planning firms in {{city}}?
- Which licensed financial advisers in {{city}} have the strongest reputation for superannuation and retirement planning?
- I am approaching retirement and want to make the most of my superannuation before I stop working. Which financial adviser in {{city}} should I see?
- I have received a significant inheritance and need advice on how to invest it wisely and tax effectively. Which financial adviser in {{city}} can help?
- I am a small business owner in {{city}} and want help with financial planning, superannuation, and tax-effective structures. Which financial adviser should I speak to?
- Which financial advisers in {{city}} are known for providing genuinely independent fee-for-service advice with no conflicts of interest?
- Who are the most reputable financial planning firms in {{city}} with strong long-term client relationships?
- I need to speak to a financial adviser in {{city}} urgently about my superannuation before the end of financial year. Who would you recommend?
- Which financial advisers in {{city}} are available quickly for an urgent financial planning review?
- Which financial planning firms in {{city}} are considered stronger than most of their competitors?
- Which financial advisers in {{city}} consistently deliver better outcomes than others for clients building long-term wealth?
Integrity
Data integrity
Every monthly run is automated. Prompts are sent to each platform via web-search-enabled API access. Responses are parsed for business mentions. Businesses are matched against verifiable public registers where available; results without verifiable matches are excluded. No business pays to appear in these rankings.
Register sources for financial advisers in Australia will be published once verified.