Of 60 answers

The most named companies in the study, and S&P 500 financials, with how many of their 60 AI answers named them.

Back to the study
AI visibility statementFinance AI Visibility Study 2026Issued October 14, 2026
Account holder
Statement period
September 23 to 25, 2026
when the AI assistants were asked
Account no.
182 of 2,219
its rank by overall score
Place in its category
2nd of 27 investment banks
Closing balance

Named in

9of 60 answers

by 4 of 4 assistants

Statement note

What this means for Houlihan Lokey

AI assistants name Houlihan Lokey in 15% of answers, much more often than the typical company in its sector at 0.8%. Its overall score is 41 out of 100, ranking 182nd of 2,219 companies. The website passes 4 of 14 technical checks for AI tool readiness.

We asked 15 unbranded questions about its market, so no question mentioned Houlihan Lokey by name. AI assistants named it in 9 of the 60 answers. Counting only how often it is named, it ranks 21st of 238 in its sector. The typical investing and wealth company is named in 0.8% of answers.

Overall score
41Overall score
  • Visibility18
  • Citations1
  • Sentiment83
  • Site quality93
  • AI readiness36
Summary of account
Named by AI in
15.0%
9 of 60 answers
Share of mentions
25.0%
of the mentions of it and its 5 peers
AI readiness
4/14
technical checks passed. Typical for its sector: 4
Rank in its sector
13 of 238
by overall score, where the typical investing and wealth company scores 28

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Line itemsSection 01

Every question, and where the company came up

Houlihan Lokey came up on 4 of 15 questions. Open any window to read that answer.

  1. 01How do retainer fees for financial advisory services usually work in the United States?0/4
  2. 02How do M&A advisory services differ from restructuring advisory services?0/4
  3. 03When should a company consider strategic advisory services during a merger?0/4
  4. 04How do I know if my company needs both M&A advisory and capital markets services?0/4
  5. 05What types of businesses benefit most from sell-side M&A advisory in the US market?0/4
  6. 06What are the non-bank options for businesses seeking M&A advisory in the US?2/4
  7. 07How do I address confidentiality concerns when working with investment banking advisors?0/4
  8. 08Investment banking vs. consulting: Which is better for mergers and acquisitions strategy?0/4
  9. 09Leading US-based firms for international cross-border M&A support3/4
  10. 10What can go wrong during the M&A due diligence process and how can it be prevented?0/4
  11. 11What are the best investment banking firms for complex M&A transactions in the US?1/4
  12. 12Top financial advisory services for middle-market businesses looking to grow through acquisition3/4
  13. 13Alternatives to traditional investment banking for raising capital as a private company0/4
  14. 14Typical fee structures for investment banking services in middle-market M&A deals0/4
  15. 15Is hiring a boutique investment bank for a business sale worth the cost?0/4
Total namedOpenAI: 2/15Claude: 2/15Perplexity: 1/15Gemini: 4/15All assistants: 9/60
named the companyanswered without naming itdid not answer

Columns, left to right: OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini. Across the study, on 50% of the questions where a company is named, only one AI assistant names it.

Transaction detailSection 02

What Perplexity actually said

An answer that names the company

Perplexitynamed the company

“Top financial advisory services for middle-market businesses looking to grow through acquisition”

For middle-market businesses looking to grow through acquisition, the strongest advisory options are typically Houlihan Lokey, Kroll, Capstone Partners, and Wipfli, with Rothschild & Co’s Arrowpoint Advisory as a notable buy-side specialist in some markets.

A practical shortlist is:

Houlihan Lokey — broad middle-market transaction advisory with a strong reputation for independent, data-driven advice across the full deal process, including target evaluation and execution.

Kroll — offers buy-side M&A advisory, due diligence, …

The AI’s answer as we received it, shortened and not checked for accuracy.

PayeesSection 03

Where the mentions went

The companies these answers named, and how the mentions were split between this company and its peers.

Also named

CompanyTimes named
  1. 01
    Lazard
    8
  2. 02
    Evercore
    6
  3. 03
    Moelis & Company
    4
  4. 04
    PJT Partners
    3
  5. 05
    Guggenheim Securities
    1

Share of mentions

CompanyShare
  1. Lazard
    27.8%
  2. Houlihan Lokey
    25.0%
  3. Evercore
    22.2%
  4. Moelis & Company
    13.9%
  5. PJT Partners
    8.3%
  6. Guggenheim Securities
    2.8%
ReferrersSection 04

Websites the AI used as sources

How many times each website was listed as a source in these answers

  1. 01
    axial.net
    25
  2. 02
    ctacquisitions.com
    23
  3. 03
    dealroom.net
    18
  4. 04
    deloitte.com
    10
  5. 05
    firstpagesage.com
    10
  6. 06
    auxocapitaladvisors.com
    9
  7. 07
    websiteclosers.com
    9
  8. 08
    chambers.com
    9
  9. 09
    smartasset.com
    8
  10. 10
    jpmorgan.com
    8

Houlihan Lokey is in the study as an investment bank.

By assistantSection 05

Which AI assistants named the company

Answers naming it, out of answers received

Gemini
4/15
Claude
2/15
OpenAI
2/15
Perplexity
1/15
Market comparisonSection 06

How Houlihan Lokey compares with all 2,219 companies

Every tower is a company in the study, taller for a higher overall score and lit where AI assistants named it. Its own group stays lit. Hover a tower to see it, and click to open it.

What makes up the score

Each part is scored out of 100.

Visibility
18

How often AI assistants name the company, and how that compares with its peers

Citations
1

How often AI uses the company's own website as a source

Sentiment
83

How positively AI describes the company

Site quality
93

How well built the website's own pages are

AI readiness
36

How easily AI tools can read and use the website

Visibility is calculated from the answers on this page. How the score is built.

Against its sectorSection 07

Compared with investing and wealth companies

238 companies in this sector. The gold tick on each bar is the typical company.

Overall score
41
Ranks 13 of 238. Typical company: 28
Named in answers
15.0%
Ranks 21 of 238. Typical company: 0.8%
AI readiness
36
Ranks 15 of 238. Typical company: 29
Against its categorySection 08

Compared with investment banks

27 companies in this category. The gold tick on each bar is the typical company.

Overall score
41
Ranks 1 of 27. Typical company: 29
Named in answers
15.0%
Ranks 2 of 27. Typical company: 5.0%
AI readiness
36
Ranks 3 of 27. Typical company: 29
AI agentsSection 09

Ready for AI agents

What this website publishes for an AI agent to read, use and pay through, on a scale of six levels.

This website turned most of our scan away, so it has no level. Only 47% of the checks could run. That reflects the website’s rules for automated visitors, and an AI agent arriving by itself meets the same rules.

Can an AI agent check out here?

We could not tell. The website turned away our requests for the files an agent would read. An agent arriving by itself is turned away the same way.

Agent payment protocols
  • x402Not present
  • MPPNot present
  • AP2Not present
  • ACPCould not check
  • UCPCould not check
Interfaces for AI agents
  • MCP Server CardCould not check
  • A2A Agent CardCould not check
  • Agent SkillsCould not check
  • API CatalogCould not check
  • llms.txtNot present
  • WebMCPCould not check
Show every check, for your technical team
Discoverability
100 of 100
  • robots.txtPassed

    A valid robots.txt with crawl rules at the site root.

    study: 86.1%
  • SitemapPassed

    An XML sitemap listing the pages, ideally referenced from robots.txt.

    study: 87.9%
  • Link headersCould not check

    Send Link headers such as rel="api-catalog" or rel="describedby" on the homepage.

    study: 1.5%
  • DNS for AI DiscoveryNot present

    Advertise agent endpoints with SVCB records under _agents.

    study: 4.3%
Content accessibility
0 of 100
  • Markdown negotiationCould not check

    Return a markdown version when asked with Accept: text/markdown, for example at the CDN.

    study: 6.2%
  • llms.txtNot met

    Publish an llms.txt with a short summary and the key links.

    study: 31.0%
Bot access control
63 of 100
  • AI bot rulesPassed

    Explicit robots.txt rules for AI crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot.

    study: 92.7%
  • Content SignalsNot met

    Add a Content-Signal line for search, ai-input and ai-train to robots.txt.

    study: 2.3%
  • Web Bot AuthCould not check

    Only relevant if you run your own agents or crawlers: publish a signing key directory.

    study: 0.3%
APIs, auth and MCP
  • API CatalogCould not check

    List public APIs in a linkset at /.well-known/api-catalog.

    study: 1.3%
  • OAuth discoveryCould not check

    Publish OpenID Connect or OAuth server metadata under /.well-known.

    study: 6.3%
  • OAuth Protected ResourceCould not check

    Serve protected resource metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.

    study: 5.3%
  • auth.mdCould not check

    Publish an auth.md describing how agents sign in.

    study: 0.2%
  • MCP Server CardCould not check

    Offer an MCP server and publish its server card under /.well-known.

    study: 0.8%
  • A2A Agent CardCould not check

    Publish an agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json.

    study: 0.2%
  • Agent SkillsCould not check

    Publish a skills index with the main tasks agents can do.

    study: 1.0%
  • WebMCPCould not check

    Register key actions such as search or cart as WebMCP tools.

    study: 0.0%
  • ARD manifestCould not check

    Publish an ai-catalog.json listing every agent interface.

    study: 0.2%

Score 63 of 100 · 47% of checks could run · checked on October 5, 2026 · hl.com · 2,200 companies scanned

See how every company did, and how this was measured.

AI readinessSection 10

The checks behind the AI readiness score

4 of 14 passed. This list is for your technical team. The percentage is how many companies in the study pass each check.

These 14 checks ran during the audit and are what the AI readiness part of the overall score counts. The scan above ran later and is stricter on Link headers and Markdown, so a check can pass here and not there.

Show the 14 checks

Discoverability

  • Passedrobots.txt publishedstudy: 85.1%
  • PassedXML sitemapstudy: 79.4%
  • Not metHTTP Link headers (RFC 8288)study: 42.5%

Content Accessibility

  • Not metMarkdown content negotiationstudy: 7.4%
  • Not metllms.txt publishedstudy: 28.1%
  • PassedToken budget (page weight)study: 97.3%

Bot Access Control

  • PassedExplicit AI bot rulesstudy: 11.5%

API / Auth / MCP

  • Not metAPI Catalog (.well-known/api-catalog)study: 1.1%
  • Not metOAuth Authorization Server discoverystudy: 5.2%
  • Not metOAuth Protected Resource discoverystudy: 4.6%
  • Not metMCP Server Cardstudy: 0.2%
  • Not metA2A Agent Cardstudy: 0.0%
  • Not metWebMCP toolsstudy: 0.3%
  • Not metAgent Skills declaredstudy: 0.1%
AI crawlersSection 11

What AI crawlers may read (robots.txt)

This website sets rules for 3 AI crawlers by name. All others follow its general rules.

Training AI

  • GPTBotpartly
  • ClaudeBotpartly
  • Anthropic-AIpartly
  • Google-Extendedpartly
  • Applebot-Extendedpartly
  • Meta-ExternalAgentpartly
  • FacebookBotpartly
  • Bytespider*blocked
  • CCBot*blocked
  • Diffbot*blocked
  • Omgilibotpartly

AI search

  • OAI-SearchBotpartly
  • Claude-SearchBotpartly
  • PerplexityBotpartly
  • Applebotpartly
  • Amazonbotpartly
  • YouBotpartly

Answering questions

  • ChatGPT-Userpartly
  • Claude-Userpartly
  • Perplexity-Userpartly
  • DuckAssistBotpartly
  • MistralAI-Userpartly

Read from the website’s own rules file (robots.txt). An asterisk marks a crawler the file names. The rest follow its general rules. “Partly” means only some pages are blocked.

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ShareSection 12

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Overall score 41 of 100 badge for Houlihan Lokey

A badge of this result that you can show on your own website. Copy the code below.

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