Who does Google's AI send your city's injured to?
We asked Google and ChatGPT the questions injured people ask, in ten US cities. Google's AI answered every one of the specific injury questions, and none of the short searches like "car accident lawyer" with a city. The firms it named often had a page for that exact situation, sometimes over firms with far better reviews.
What we found
- Google's AI named firms for 5 of 10 injury situations, and the firms it named often had a page for that exact situation.
- The best-reviewed firm wasn't always first. In Seattle, the firm listed first for the best motorcycle lawyer had 10 Google reviews; the firms after it had between 27 and 733. In Charlotte, a 2.4-star national firm and a firm Google lists as a divorce lawyer were named for a fatal crash.
- ChatGPT also named firms for 5 of 10. It left out the national advertisers Google put forward, and for the serious cases it picked firms that say what they concentrate on.
- The short searches went to the map. For "car accident lawyer" or "personal injury lawyer" with a city, Google showed no AI answer, and three firms with 334 to 3,900 reviews each led the page.
The question
When someone is hurt and asks Google or ChatGPT what to do, which injury firms get named, and why those firms?
For a small or mid-size PI firm, this is one of the few places where the biggest budget doesn't automatically win. The short searches, the TV spots, and the billboards go to whoever spends the most. An AI answer to a specific question can name a firm that never bought a billboard.
What Google's AI did
Google gave an AI answer to all 10 injury questions and named specific firms in 5 of them, one of them a search for the best motorcycle lawyer:
- Atlanta, the truck crash: three firms in the answer's first line, six in all
- Chicago, the store fall: one firm, for premises liability
- Charlotte, the drunk-driving death: four firms, shown as Google business cards inside the answer
- Los Angeles, the Uber passenger: two firms
- Seattle, the best motorcycle lawyer: four firms, as business cards
For the other five it named no firm, though each answer still drew on firms' own pages as sources. In Kansas City it pointed the parent to one firm's dog-bite guide. In Denver it built a fee table from firms' fee pages, and the first source it listed was a solo firm's fee page.
On the five short searches, Google gave no AI answer at all. Each opened with three firms on a map, with between 334 and 3,900 Google reviews each, and every one listed as open 24 hours.
A page for the exact situation
When Google's AI named firms, the firms it named often had a page about that exact situation: truck-accident pages in Atlanta, a page about Uber crashes in Los Angeles, fatal-crash pages in Charlotte. In Chicago, the answer drew on another site's page about wet-floor falls and named a firm known for premises cases. Firms with a page for the situation were named beside, and sometimes ahead of, firms with far more reviews.
In Charlotte, asked by parents whose son was killed by a drunk driver, the answer named four firms. Two were rated 4.9 stars, and one of those is listed on its own Google profile as a divorce lawyer. One was a national firm rated 2.4 stars from 46 reviews. The divorce firm was cited from its page on fatal drunk-driving crashes, and two others from their wrongful-death pages. The 2.4-star firm's card said it handles those claims.
In Seattle, the firm listed first for the best motorcycle lawyer had 10 Google reviews. The firms listed after it had between 27 and 733.
What Google repeated
Google's AI also repeated firms' claims about themselves. In Atlanta, the answer described one firm as "ranked #1 for 18-wheeler cases in Atlanta", a ranking that came from the firm's own page ranking truck-accident lawyers. In Seattle, its business cards carried a "99% win rate" and a "98% success rate", taken from the firms' own pages.
A claim on a firm's website can travel. When Google's AI finds it, it may repeat it to an injured person as fact, with the firm's name on it, and it does the same with your competitors' claims about themselves.
What ChatGPT did
ChatGPT got the same ten situations in the same cities, and it also named firms in 5 of 10, though not always for the same questions. It named firms for the Phoenix driver with the $2,500 offer, where Google named none, and named no firm for the Los Angeles Uber passenger, where Google named two. Neither named a firm for the cost question, the dog bite, the Spanish question, or the work injury.
The two assistants barely overlapped. Across all ten questions they named one firm in common in Charlotte and one in Seattle, and none in Atlanta or Chicago.
For the serious cases, ChatGPT picked firms that say what they concentrate on. In Atlanta it named three truck firms, each linked to its own truck-accident page, and put first the firm whose page says more than 95% of its practice is devoted to truck and commercial-vehicle accidents. In Charlotte it named four firms, each linked to its page about wrongful death or fatal crashes. For the everyday cases, the low offer and the store fall, it gave a bar referral service and two firms with phone numbers, and showed no source for them.
It left out what Google carded. ChatGPT named none of the national advertisers Google put forward, and neither the 2.4-star national firm nor the divorce firm from Charlotte. It repeated none of the firms' own rankings or win rates. On the Seattle search it leaned on a third-party ranking site for its first pick, then added, "Review rankings and testimonials are useful starting points, but they do not establish who will achieve the best result."
It told people what to ask. In three answers, ChatGPT told people to find out who would actually handle their case: "not just an intake representative," and "the attorney or a case manager?"
Spanish. Both assistants answered the Spanish question in Spanish, and neither named a firm. Google drew on a city bar association's Spanish page, a Spanish lawyer directory, an English-language firm's Spanish page, and a Spanish-language injury brand's videos. ChatGPT drew only on government sources and named no Spanish-speaking lawyer.
What it means for a PI firm owner
A page for each case you want to sign. The truck crash and what to preserve in the first days. The store fall and the camera footage. The Uber passenger and whose insurance pays. The dog bite and the neighbor's insurance. The drunk-driving death. The low first offer. Each page answers the person in it, in plain words, with your state's law and deadlines in it. The firms Google's AI named often had that kind of page.
Say what your firm concentrates on. ChatGPT chose, and quoted, the truck firm that said what share of its practice is truck cases. If your firm concentrates on a kind of case, the page should say so plainly, along with who will handle the case. Google's AI repeats what firms say about themselves, too.
Spanish versions, if your firm already serves Spanish-speaking clients. Neither assistant named a Spanish-speaking lawyer for the Spanish question, and Google filled the gap with directories, a bar page, and media. Google drew on one firm's Spanish page and still named no firm, so no firm holds that spot yet.
The map goes to reviews. The short searches went to three firms with hundreds or thousands of reviews and no AI answer. Reviews and your Business Profile still decide those.
A firm can do all of this without the biggest budget in its market: the right pages, built for the situations it handles, and someone who keeps checking who gets named. As your Fractional CMO, I run that work, or build, train, and lead your own team to run it.
Mid-page assessment
I ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads. Before your assessment, I put the injury situations your firm wants more of to Google's AI and ChatGPT in your market and see who comes back. On the call, we decide which cases get a page first.
The questions we asked
Ten injury situations, each worded for a different market, the way an injured person or a family member would ask, with the city named in the question:
- Phoenix: rear-ended, neck and back pain, and the other driver's insurer has offered $2,500
- Atlanta: a husband hit by a semi and in the hospital, asking which lawyer to call
- Chicago: a fall on a wet grocery-store floor and a broken wrist
- Denver: what a personal-injury lawyer costs
- Charlotte: parents whose son was killed by a drunk driver
- Los Angeles: an Uber passenger hurt in a crash
- Kansas City: a daughter bitten by a neighbor's dog
- Seattle: a search for the best motorcycle accident lawyer in the city
- New York: a crash where the other driver's insurer won't pay, asked in Spanish
- Boise: a worker hurt by a subcontractor's equipment
We also ran five short searches, "car accident lawyer" or "personal injury lawyer" with a city, in New York, Kansas City, Boise, Atlanta, and Phoenix.
Asked on October 28, 2026. We read each Google AI answer in full and asked ChatGPT one question per conversation. A firm counts as named when the answer told the person to contact it or listed it as a firm to call.
Joshua David Little is a Fractional CMO for law-firm owners and the founder of Aquila Law Firm Marketing. He has run his own consulting firm since 2004, and has done hands-on work helping attorneys prepare complex litigation for trial in family law, medical malpractice, personal injury, and unjust enrichment cases. He ran the first family-law ad on ChatGPT, before the platform allowed legal-services ads.