Top of PromptCategory data · Professional services · Sydney
Which sources do AI assistants cite about financial advisers in Sydney?
The regulators own this category outright. Moneysmart was cited in over half of ChatGPT's answers and ASIC in almost half, with a government consumer site third, and no Australian advice firm anywhere near the podium.
Measured 2026-09-07 · Previous measurement 2026-08-26
Across 50 buying-journey prompts about financial advisers that named Sydney, NSW or Australia, these are the sources each AI engine cited most in its answers. A citation is a source the engine actually linked in a response, which makes this list a map of who each engine trusts in this category right now.
The top 3 cited sources, by engine
| Engine | #1 cited source | #2 | #3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | moneysmart.gov.au cited in 52% of answers | asic.gov.au cited in 44% of answers | adfconsumer.gov.au cited in 32% of answers |
| Perplexity | moneysmart.gov.au cited in 54% of answers | faaa.au cited in 52% of answers | reddit.com cited in 46% of answers |
| Google AI Overviews | moneysmart.gov.au cited in 22.2% of answers | bestfinancialplanners.com.au cited in 11.1% of answers | montarawealth.com.au cited in 8.9% of answers |
Sample: 50 prompts, responses collected 2026-09-07 to 2026-09-07 (50 from ChatGPT, 50 from Perplexity, 45 from Google AI Overviews). Google AI Overviews has a lower response count because some prompts returned no AI Overview, and those are excluded from that engine's denominator. Excluded from citation counts: 23 prompts naming a specific business, per the TOP Score rules, and 65 prompts that stated no location (see the correction note below). Percentages are the share of that engine's responses containing at least one citation of the domain.
Perplexity and Google AI Overviews were added to this page in the September 2026 collection, as promised at first release. Each engine keeps its own date stamp and engines are never averaged together, per the method.
Correction and rebaseline, 26 August 2026
The first version of this page, published earlier the same day, included prompts that didn't name a location. Our own checking showed engines answer location-less questions with largely overseas sources, which distorted the picture of what a Sydney buyer's question returns. We rebaselined the page the same day to count only prompts naming Sydney, NSW or Australia, and we're saying so here rather than editing silently, because that's the standard this site holds itself to. The location-less results remain interesting, and we'll publish them separately as their own finding.
What the data says
The engines treat financial advice as a category where official sources answer best, which is defensible and probably good for consumers. But it also means the first commercial voice a buyer meets in an AI answer is decided well below the top three, in territory almost nobody is contesting. The gap between the regulators and the first advice firm is the whole opportunity in this category: the regulator explains what a financial adviser is, and nobody yet owns the question of which one to actually call.
How to read this page
- 1Citations are not mentions. This page measures which sources the engines link when they answer, not which businesses they name. Who gets named is the TOP Score, and it's measured separately.
- 2Engines disagree, so we never pool them. Each engine is reported on its own row because an average hides a total absence on the engine your buyers actually use.
- 3This is a measurement with a date on it. Models and retrieval change; a source moving between collections has not necessarily done anything. The method, cadence and limits are on the standard page.
- 4Ties are shown alphabetically and single-page sources are named. Where sources tie on citations, the table orders them alphabetically and the tie is stated under it. A domain's count can rest on a single page, often a "best of" listicle, and that concentration is itself part of what this site measures, so where it's true of a listed source we say so. Domains are counted by exact hostname, so government subdomains count separately.
Are you cited in your category?
A free Namecheck shows whether AI engines name and cite your business, with the actual answers we saw. If the measurement on this page looks wrong, the corrections process applies to it like everything else here.