“The Big Lie with AI” is a presentation Lindsey Busfield presented at PILMMA 2026 in San Antonio Texas. Read more about our time at PILMMA 2026 here.
The entire presentation is only available directly from PILMMA. Below is a summary along with some short video clips.
What is the “big lie”? All lawyer’s Facebook feeds are filled with marketing agency selling AIO or GEO marketing services. Nearly all of these are a scam. Just as Google and other AI companies state, there’s nearly nothing new to do, assuming you are producing great, unique content. Additionally, very very very little traffic comes from AI platforms such as GPT. People are getting answers from AI but the vast majority still turn to Google’s search results to hire attorneys.
Small Lie #1 – Traffic is tanking! 😨
Google AI Overviews, for example, did in fact reduce traffic to personal injury websites. We wrote about this in 2025 when AIO rolled out, and the traffic reduction was around 33%. However, don’t freak out, most of the reduction in traffic is simply due to people performing informational search queries, not transactional. The same number of people still need to hire an attorney.
Small Lie #2 – AI Visibility Will Boost Leads.
Yes, users who visit your website from an AI source are very likely to convert because they’ve been pre-sold by the AI platform. However, using ChatGPT as an example, only 1% of website referral traffic from even the most highly mentioned websites comes from AI platforms (source).
The BIG Lie:
The big lie is that there’s something new to do. Something new to buy.
If you have a high ranking website with unique information, it’s going to feed AI platform’s answers.
That’s it.
There’s no special formatting needed. You do not need special chunks. You do not need some sort of special schema markup. You do not need an LLMS.TXT file configured.
Now that said, A LOT of marketing agencies produce very bland content with absolutely nothing new in it. Worse yet, some use AI to produce content – that is an excellent way to never produce anything of value.
How AI Search Results Work – a Brief Overview.
AI platforms interpret the ask, pull content from multiple sources, synthesize an answer.
Google and other platforms still want to connect users with relevant, reliable information out there.
Good SEO and great content = GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
4 Things you CAN do.
You should already be doing these things, but if you’re not:
- Great, unique content. Direct answers, and pages containing original research, expert insights, fresh perspectives cannot be synthesized by a computer program. LLMs rely on these sources to provide accurate citations. They are irreplaceable.
- Links and citations. AÂ high-ranking site remains critically important because AI search engines pull their answers, citations, and links directly from the top organic search results.
- More content in more places. More content in different places is important because AI assistants draw information from YouTube transcripts, Reddit discussions, industry forums, social media, podcasts, videos and more.
- More reviews (in more places). High review counts and high star ratings are extremely important ranking signals. AI assistants look at Yelp, Facebook, Justia, AVVO, BBB and of course Google reviews. Third party validation is extremely important. AI assistants also read review content. Review recency is a factor as well.
At the end of the presentation, Lindsey plugged her book. If you are looking for that, go here: How Personal Injury Lawyers Get Leads [The Book].
Go here to read more about SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers.
