Which middle-market investment banks do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (October 2026)
When US companies ask AI engines which middle-market investment bank to hire, the same six banks come back in most answers. Houlihan Lokey was named most often, in 50 of 59 answers (84.7%), followed by William Blair (47) and Harris Williams (41). 58 of the 59 answers named at least one firm, and 148 different firms were named in total, 79 of them only once.
By Frederik Jakobsen, founder of Danish Lead Co and SourceRank AI. Measured 11 October 2026, published October 2026.
The firms AI named most often
Share of all 59 answers that named the firm as a provider, and how many answers on each engine named it. An answer counts once per firm however often it repeats the name.
98.3%
Answers that named at least one provider firm: 58 of 59. The rest gave criteria or advice and no names.
148 firms
Distinct firms named across all 59 answers. 79 of them were named in only one answer.
22.2%
Share of all 623 firm mentions taken by the three most named firms, Houlihan Lokey, William Blair and Harris Williams.
| # | Firm | Answers naming it | Engines | ChatGPT of 12 | Gemini of 12 | Copilot of 11 | AI Mode of 12 | AI Overviews of 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Houlihan Lokey | 50 of 59 84.7% | 5 of 5 | 12 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 11 |
| 2 | William Blair | 47 of 59 79.7% | 5 of 5 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 11 | 9 |
| 3 | Harris Williams | 41 of 59 69.5% | 5 of 5 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 9 | 8 |
| 4 | Lincoln International | 41 of 59 69.5% | 5 of 5 | 8 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 8 |
| 5 | Baird | 40 of 59 67.8% | 5 of 5 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 8 | 9 |
| 6 | Piper Sandler | 39 of 59 66.1% | 5 of 5 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| 7 | Jefferies | 28 of 59 47.5% | 5 of 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| 8 | Raymond James | 26 of 59 44.1% | 5 of 5 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 9 | Stifel | 25 of 59 42.4% | 5 of 5 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| 10 | Capstone Partners | 10 of 59 16.9% | 4 of 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | KBW | 9 of 59 15.3% | 4 of 5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Goldman Sachs | 9 of 59 15.3% | 4 of 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 | Moelis & Company | 8 of 59 13.6% | 5 of 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | Cain Brothers | 8 of 59 13.6% | 4 of 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 15 | FOCUS Investment Banking | 7 of 59 11.9% | 4 of 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Top 15 of 148 firms. Engine columns show answers naming the firm out of that engine's measured answers. Firms with the same count are listed in the order the data was read.
What the answers show
- +Six banks were each named in at least 39 of 59 answers: Houlihan Lokey (50), William Blair (47), Harris Williams (41), Lincoln International (41), Baird (40) and Piper Sandler (39). Jefferies, Raymond James and Stifel follow with 28, 26 and 25.
- +The engines agree. In all 12 questions at least two engines named the same bank first, and ChatGPT named Houlihan Lokey in 12 of 12 answers.
- +Copilot was the exception: it named the most banks (79 different firms) and its most named bank, William Blair, appeared in 6 of its 11 answers.
- +Investment banking career and training sites are cited more than any bank: careerprinciples.com was the most cited domain, in 19 of the 37 answers with sources, with mergersandinquisitions.com in 7. windsordrake.com, a sell-side boutique's site, was cited in 13 answers while Windsor Drake itself was named in 3.
What each engine named
The most named bank per engine. Houlihan Lokey led or tied for the lead on four of the five.
| Engine | Answers | Named a provider | Distinct firms | Most named firm on that engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 52 | Houlihan Lokey (12 of 12) |
| Gemini | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 65 | Houlihan Lokey, William Blair, Lincoln International (11 of 12) |
| Microsoft Copilot | 11 | 10 of 11 90.9% | 79 | William Blair (6 of 11) |
| Google AI Mode | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 35 | Houlihan Lokey, William Blair (11 of 12) |
| Google AI Overviews | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 42 | Houlihan Lokey (11 of 12) |
First-pick agreement: in 12 of the 12 questions where at least two engines named a firm, two or more engines named the same firm first. Houlihan Lokey was named by 5 of 5 engines.
The sources behind the recommendations
Most cited domains in the 37 answers that showed a source list. Career guides and deal blogs outrank the banks' own sites.
| # | Cited domain | Kind | Answers citing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | careerprinciples.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 19 of 37 51.4% |
| 2 | windsordrake.com | A named firm's own website | 13 of 37 35.1% |
| 3 | axial.net | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 11 of 37 29.7% |
| 4 | ctacquisitions.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 10 of 37 27.0% |
| 5 | procloser.ai | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 9 of 37 24.3% |
| 6 | pexits.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 9 of 37 24.3% |
| 7 | wallstreetguide.net | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 7 of 37 18.9% |
| 8 | mergersandinquisitions.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 7 of 37 18.9% |
| 9 | capstonepartners.com | A named firm's own website | 5 of 37 13.5% |
| 10 | wallstmastermind.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 37 13.5% |
| 11 | wallstreetmojo.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 4 of 37 10.8% |
| 12 | firstpagesage.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 4 of 37 10.8% |
Out of the 37 answers that carried a source list (84 distinct domains). Sources per engine: ChatGPT 0 of 12, Gemini 10 of 12, Copilot 11 of 11, AI Mode 4 of 12, AI Overviews 12 of 12.
| Source kind | Answers citing at least one |
|---|---|
| Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 36 of 37 97.3% |
| A named firm's own website | 20 of 37 54.1% |
| Social and video | 2 of 37 5.4% |
| Government or education | 1 of 37 2.7% |
An answer can cite several kinds, so the rows do not sum to the total. "A named firm's own website" means the domain matches the name of a firm named in this category.
What the named firms have in common
The six most named banks were each named by all five engines, and between them they account for 41.4% of all 623 firm mentions. Below them the list breaks into 142 other names, 79 of them named once.
How a firm in this category gets named
Being named depends on what the engines read. In this category, of the 37 answers that showed their sources, 20 cited a named firm's own website and 0 cited a directory, review or analyst site. The six leaders are named whether or not their own pages are cited. For a boutique the realistic target is the sector or situation question (healthcare services, consumer, a $200 million deal that wants senior attention), where the answers do name specialists, and the career guides and deal blogs that the engines read for this category. This is the work SourceRank AI does, described on the services page. The free site readiness check shows whether your site is structurally ready to be cited; it checks your site, it does not measure answers like the ones on this page. To see where your own firm stands in these answers, book a call.
Exactly what was measured
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 11 October 2026, one run |
| Buyer questions | 12, each phrased as a buyer asking for a provider, varied by size, budget, situation and switching. Full list below |
| Answer engines | 5: ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews |
| Engine cells | 60. One question on one engine |
| Answers measured | 59 of 60. The denominator for every share on this page. 1 Copilot answer was written for a buyer outside the US, a side effect of the third-party service we query Copilot through, and is excluded |
| Market | United States, English. Google AI Mode and AI Overviews were queried with a US location. ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot were not given a location, the same as in our client measurement runs; Copilot answers that assumed a buyer abroad are excluded |
| Sources | Cited sources come from Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT's answers in this run came back without a machine-readable source list, so ChatGPT is not in the source tables |
| Firm extraction | One language model call per answer listed the firms the answer named as providers, excluding directories, publications, citation labels and tools. Names were normalised and aliases merged. A hand check of 20 answers across the study is reported on the hub page |
| Not measured | Location personalisation for the chat engines, logged-in or personalised sessions, run-to-run variation (this is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms), and model versions, which change without notice |
All 12 buyer questions
- Best middle-market investment banks in the United States
- Which middle-market investment bank should a $100 million revenue company hire to run a sale?
- Top investment banks for M&A deals between $50 million and $500 million
- Which middle-market investment banks are best for industrial and manufacturing M&A?
- Best investment bank to raise growth equity for a mid-size technology company
- Recommend a middle-market investment bank for selling a healthcare services company
- Which middle-market investment banks are strongest in consumer and retail deals?
- Top middle-market investment banks on the West Coast for a company sale
- Which investment banks do the most middle-market sell-side deals for private equity-backed companies?
- Our large bank is not giving our $200 million deal enough attention. Which middle-market investment bank should we use instead?
- Best middle-market investment banks for debt refinancing and recapitalization advice
- Which boutique investment banks are best for a mid-size company that wants senior banker attention?
Cite this research
Journalists, analysts and writers are welcome to quote, chart and republish the figures on this page. Please credit SourceRank AI and link to this page as the source. For the underlying data, a comment from Frederik Jakobsen or a category we have not covered, see the press page.
Suggested citation
SourceRank AI (2026). Which middle-market investment banks do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? Measured 11 October 2026. https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/middle-market-investment-banks/
Link to copy
<a href="https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/middle-market-investment-banks/">Which middle-market investment banks do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (SourceRank AI, October 2026)</a>Where to go next
All 22 category studies
Who AI recommends across 22 B2B categories, with the cross-category findings and the full method.
What AI engines cite by industry
The source mix behind AI answers in ten industries, from our September 2026 measurement runs.
AEO for this industry
What we do for firms in this space, and the questions their buyers ask AI.
Common questions
Which middle-market investment banks does ChatGPT recommend?
In this October 2026 run ChatGPT named Houlihan Lokey most often, in 12 of its 12 answers. Across all five engines the most named were Houlihan Lokey (50 of 59 answers), William Blair (47) and Harris Williams (41).
Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend the same middle-market investment banks?
Partly. Houlihan Lokey was named by 5 of the 5 engines, and in 12 of the 12 questions at least two engines named the same firm first. Below the top few names the lists diverge: 79 of the 148 firms were named in only one answer.
How was this measured?
12 buyer questions asking for middle-market investment banks were put once to ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on 11 October 2026, from a US English context. 59 answers were measured, and the firms each answer named as providers were extracted and counted once per answer. It is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms.