The UK Accountants AI Visibility Leaderboard
We analysed which UK accountancy firms appear when small business owners, founders and finance leaders ask AI tools for an accountant. The result is an independent, regularly refreshed view of AI-driven discovery in UK accountancy.
More and more buyers ask ChatGPT "find me an accountant in London" or "best small business accountants in the UK" before they search Google or LinkedIn. If your firm is not clearly represented in those AI answers, you may be missing high-intent demand before it ever reaches your website.
How this works — no smoke and mirrors
We ask ChatGPT 11 questions a small business owner might genuinely ask when looking for an accountant — across 3 specialities (small business, SaaS & startup, chartered). Each question runs 3 times. If your firm gets mentioned in a response, you score. If you never come up, you score zero. We don't take money to rank firms higher. We don't hide the queries — they're below. Run them yourself.
Q1
What are the best [type] accountancy firms in [city]?
Q2
Recommend a top [type] accountancy firm in [city]
Q3
Which [type] accountancy firms in [city] are most highly regarded?
Q4
Who are the leading [type] accountancy firms in [city]?
Q5
I need a [type] accountancy firm in [city]. Who would you recommend?
Q6
Well-known [type] accountancy firms based in [city]?
Q7
Top 5 [type] accountancy firms in [city]
Q8
Best [type] accountancy firms in [city] for growing businesses
Q9
Looking for a [type] accountancy firm in [city], any recommendations?
Q10
Top [type] accountancy firms in [city] for small business owners
Q11
Suggest some [type] accountancy firms in [city] I should consider
How firms are scored. Each response is parsed for every firm named. The visibility score combines four things: (1) how often your firm appears across our 99 responses, (2) where in each response you're named — firms cited first get more weight, (3) how relevant the speciality is to your sector, and (4) how many different specialities you show up in. That is the entire methodology — no manual ranking, no editorial weighting, no paid promotion.
API vs ChatGPT.com. This first run used the OpenAI API's gpt-4.1-mini model without web search — that's training-data only. We're re-running with gpt-4o-search-preview (live web search) in the next refresh, which is the closest API equivalent to typing the same question into ChatGPT.com with browsing on. Until then, live ChatGPT.com tests today will surface partly different results — that's expected, and the rerun will close most of the gap.
What we don't yet measure. The "Opportunity" column is derived inversely from the AI visibility score — it's not an independent signal. Reviews and content authority aren't measured at scale yet. We'd rather show that gap than fake it.
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FAQ
What is AI visibility for accountancy firms? ▼
AI visibility is whether an accountancy firm appears when buyers ask AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI for accountant recommendations. Buyers increasingly skip Google entirely and trust the first answer their AI tool gives them.
Is AI visibility the same as SEO? ▼
No. Traditional SEO focuses on ranking in Google's blue links. AI visibility depends on whether AI systems can retrieve, understand and cite your firm when generating answers. The two overlap but require different content structure, different proof points and different distribution.
Which accountancy firms appear most often in ChatGPT? ▼
Modern, content-first firms like Crunch and KPMG dominate the top of the leaderboard, alongside Big 4 names. Specialist boutiques often score lower because their content is harder for AI systems to retrieve and cite, even when the boutique is genuinely a better fit for a small business owner.
How do I improve my accountancy firm's ranking in AI search? ▼
Build clear, AI-readable sector pages (e.g. "Accountants for SaaS startups", "Ecommerce accountancy"). Publish structured tax guides and small-business checklists. Add FAQ schema to your site. Create comparison and "best of" content. Post consistent niche thought leadership on LinkedIn. Rafiki helps accountancy firms do all of this end to end.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) for accountancy? ▼
Generative Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring your public content so AI tools can retrieve, understand and cite your firm when answering buyer questions. For accountancy, GEO covers sector pages, tax guides, comparison content and structured FAQs — the things AI systems read first.
Are Google reviews included in the AI visibility leaderboard? ▼
Yes, where available. Reviews are treated as one public trust signal alongside content authority and LinkedIn presence — not the main ranking factor. Review volume varies heavily by accountancy niche, so we deliberately weight it as a supporting signal.
How is the leaderboard scored? ▼
We run 11 neutral buyer-intent prompts against ChatGPT for each speciality, extract every firm GPT mentions, then score based on appearance frequency, mention position and category relevance. Full methodology is documented above and the queries are open for anyone to reproduce.
How often is the UK accountants leaderboard updated? ▼
The leaderboard is refreshed quarterly. AI-generated answers shift as the underlying models update, so we re-run the full benchmark every three months and publish a changelog of what moved.
Is this a paid ranking? ▼
No. The leaderboard ranking is generated by what ChatGPT actually says in response to buyer-intent prompts. Firms cannot pay to appear higher. Rafiki publishes the methodology, the prompts, and the raw appearance data so anyone can audit the result.
Can Rafiki help our firm improve its AI visibility? ▼
Yes. Rafiki helps accountancy firms structure their content so AI systems can read it, build comparison and sector pages that get cited, and run growth automation that compounds visibility over time. Start a conversation above to see where your firm currently sits.
