Why Capital One, Klarna & Coinbase Win AI Search
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Why are traditional banks not showing up in ChatGPT recommendations?
Most banks believe that brand strength comes from size or advertising spend. And it's not even from SEO. The reality is the way organizations get found today is much different than it's ever been before. But when consumers ask ChatGPT for financial recommendations, what's interesting, the same handful of brands keep on appearing over and over again, and some of these would surprise you. And according to research from eMarketer, companies like Capital One, Klarna, Coinbase, PayPal, and Discover are separating themselves from much of the banking industry in AI visibility. Today, I'm joined by a good friend of mine, Tiffany Montes, Principal Analyst for Financial Services at eMarketer. We're going to discuss what the AI Visibility Index revealed about consumer trust, financial marketing, and why some brands are becoming far more visible than others in this new era of digital discovery.
So, Tiffany, it's great to finally have you on the show. As we discussed at an event a month ago, and also before we get on, it is amazing. I haven't had you on before because I've known you for a long time, and we've both been in the industry for a long time. And But you came out with a recent research thing that really piqued my curiosity around AI visibility. And you came up with this term AI visibility index, which is really a new kind of measurement, not just for financial services, but beyond financial services. So what was the original idea behind building this? And what surprised you the most by the first rankings?
Yeah, absolutely. So first, thank you so much for inviting me. You and I have been friends for, I think, longer than I think both of us want to actually admit, even though it is a great friendship. We're not going to give years.
What is the AI Visibility Index and why was it created?
So I'm so excited to be here with you today to talk about the AI Visibility Index. When I start thinking about the original idea around why we decided to create it, it is actually pretty simple. We know that consumers are increasingly using AI platforms to discover products and services, and that visibility inside those systems is becoming strategically important. And sort of put that comment into context, We know about a quarter of U.S. Internet users will use Gen AI for shopping-related tasks in 2026, according to our forecast. And what that actually means is that AI is starting to influence considerations well before consumers ever reach a brand's website or app, which is typically where they're discovering financial products and services.
So really our research was designed to help capture how many consumers are actually using AI for product discovery. And to do that, we analyzed thousands of chat GPT responses across nine categories in financial services using standard customer prompts. So how customers actually ask questions in real life and tested that both with and without real-time web-enabled search. And if I start to think about what surprised me the most is how concentrated visibility already is. So we know that it's a relatively small group of brands that are dominating recommendations. And in many cases, they aren't the largest financial institutions. So I think that was sort of one big surprise. And then the second one is that we're already starting to see
how quickly even small ranking shifts can happen from month to month as AI visibility is far more dynamic than traditional search rankings.
You know, it's interesting. When I looked at the research you did, it was not just those that ranked near the top. So Capital One led the rankings, and that was not a complete surprise, but it was a surprise how there's some in the top five bank categories that didn't rank, and they fell compared to the old Google thing.
Which financial brands dominate AI recommendations and why?
And for me, when I do a Siri test, what ends up interesting is that now it defers to, do you want ChatGPT to answer this question, as it does when I'm doing it on the computer. So more and more, we're being almost fed into the AI rankings as opposed to a traditional search. Now, even though these were the ones that did best nationally,
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are traditional banks not showing up in ChatGPT recommendations?
0:11–2:04
2
What is the AI Visibility Index and why was it created?
2:04–4:19
3
Which financial brands dominate AI recommendations and why?
4:19–9:41
4
How does Capital One achieve consistent AI‑search visibility?
9:41–15:41
5
What role does consumer trust play in fintech vs. legacy brand rankings?
15:41–22:45
6
How do AI‑generated (GEO) rankings differ from traditional SEO?
22:45–31:32
7
What practical steps should financial marketers take to improve AI visibility?
31:32–39:04
8
How will AI reshape the future of banking and brand discovery?
39:04–41:22