5 benefits of conversational AI search for professional services firms

In professional services, knowledge is power, and it’s your product. How quickly, accurately, and securely that knowledge is delivered defines your clients’ experience.

But knowledge is often trapped in multiple, siloed content sources across professional service websites. Most traditional search tools struggle to resolve this complexity, often returning either too much or too little. Fifteen pages of search results on AI, or zero results on AI and copyright as a combined search are not uncommon.

Take this example: a consultant searches for “ESG and financial services”. They receive dozens of results mentioning “ESG” and “financial services” across insights, press releases, website bios, but zero results providing the overview they were looking for.

Worse, if a prospective client asks for that example in a meeting and it can’t be surfaced instantly through your website, it undermines trust and delays progression of the client relationship. Overall client experience drops, and your competition takes advantage.

Enter conversational AI search: an intelligent search solution that delivers precise, natural language answers on your website, drawn directly from your own content. Whether it’s AI search for law firms, consulting firms, or accounting firms, the goal is the same: to surface the right knowledge, faster, and with less effort for your clients, keeping them on your website.

Skip ahead:

• What is conversational AI search (and why now)?
• 5 Benefits of conversational AI search for professional services
  • 1. Instant access to firm knowledge through quick answers
  • 2. Safe, scoped access to sensitive content
  • 3. Higher productivity across teams
  • 4. Easy integration with your tech stack
  • 5. Better client experiences
• Your next steps

Conversational AI search is the next evolution of enterprise website search, mirroring how professionals and clients actually ask questions and seek information. It allows your clients to ask natural language questions and search for content on your website across multiple sources, receiving a unified conversational response.

Unlike traditional search, which relies on static keywords and filters, conversational search scans across your content, such as public case studies, client insights, bios, and service pages, and synthesizes a precise answer, linking back to each source for users to dig deeper if they need.

Examples:
(Law firms)

User asks:  “Who leads your corporate practice?”

Conversational AI Search responds:
“Our Corporate Practice is led by Jane Smith, a Partner with 15+ years of experience advising on complex M&A and corporate structuring. You can view her bio here [LINK] and recent publications here [LINK].”
(Consulting firm)

User asks: “What’s your experience with ESG strategy projects in the financial sector?”

Conversational AI Search responds:
“Our consulting team has delivered ESG strategy projects for multiple financial services clients across APAC, including sustainability frameworks and climate risk disclosures. View project summaries here [LINK] and ESG insights here [LINK].” 

(Financial services)

User asks: “What are the implications of the new APRA standards on risk management frameworks?”

Conversational AI Search responds:
“We’ve published an in-depth analysis of the recent APRA standards and their impact on risk management frameworks. You can access the article here [LINK] and our recent risk advisory webinar here [LINK].”

Apart from the examples above, you could also use conversational search to surface:

• Answers on specific macro and micro themes across website content that are most relevant to your clients
• Provide an overview of your experience advising on a particular area of law or advisory servicePartner and capability discovery
• Support prospective clients in discovering relevant partners, services, or case studies

Squiz’s Conversational AI Search uses a multi-step framework, also known as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), to handle complex, multi-part queries. These are questions that include more than one concept, like 'What’s your experience with ESG strategy projects in the financial sector?', where the system must search across multiple content sources and combine details into one cohesive answer. RAG also plays a significant part in how Squiz Conversational Search ensures answers are accurate and reliable.

Here’s how it works:

• First, it pulls relevant content from your firm’s approved sources, like FAQs, bios, case studies, reports, or insights - whatever sources you decide you want to provide to it.
• Second, an AI model generates a draft answer based only on that material - unlike external AI search platforms, Conversational Search won’t look for an answer anywhere that you haven’t told it to.
• Then, the system performs a “faithfulness check” – a built-in validation step that confirms the generated response draws only from your approved content sources and doesn’t include any external information. This two-step process ensures that all responses remain accurate and grounded in your organization’s content. We know this is important for all organizations, but particularly key for professional service businesses.
• Finally, the user sees a clear, trustworthy answer, complete with links back to the original sources for transparency.

This approach ensures that every response is grounded in your own content and stays within defined guardrails. For more detailed information on what conversational AI search is and how RAG works, check out this blog.

So why now?

Because the way people search and expect to find information has changed. Clients use AI tools every day. Staff are under pressure to deliver answers faster, with fewer resources. At the same time, firms are swimming in content that’s hard to navigate and even harder to leverage consistently. We’re all using AI for quick searches in our day-to-day lives. Perhaps you use Google to search a term, but jump onto an AI search platform to find more detail on specific questions.

Professional service firms that provide humanistic and natural client experiences on their websites, as AI does for us in our personal lives, will be providing the strongest initial client experience possible.

Firms that adopt conversational search early don’t just get a new interface, they get a competitive advantage:

• Faster insight delivery for staff
• Smarter self-service for clients
• Better visibility into what people are actually looking for from your website and services - you’re able to gain insight from search terms, adjust your marketing strategy, and have business development assist your Partners in reaching out where it matters the most

In an industry where knowledge is everything, the ability to surface it faster and more effectively is a strategic imperative.

Conversational search platforms offer professional service firms a smarter, faster, and more secure way to access and deliver knowledge. Key benefits include:

Turn dense public-facing documents such as policies, service descriptions, or published case studies into searchable assets. Instead of clicking through multiple menus or browsing entire sections, users can ask natural questions and get immediate, actionable answers.

For example, instead of navigating a services section, a user could ask:“What are your key service offerings in risk advisory?” or “Do you have any published case studies on ESG strategy?”

This helps:

• Eliminate repeated manual lookups
• Reduce duplication of effort
• Accelerate task completion and client delivery

Enable firm-wide knowledge access without compromising client trust. Security and confidentiality are non-negotiable in professional services, so Squiz Conversational Search was built with these principles in mind:

• It only retrieves content from sources you explicitly approve
• Data is never used to train public models
• All answers are link-backed and auditable

This makes it suitable for even the most regulated environments, including legal, accounting, and government-facing organizations.

Businesses that implement conversational AI search see improvements in client experience and efficiency:

• Enhanced client experience and satisfaction: Clients receive immediate, clear answers to common subject matter questions, without needing to navigate dense articles. Clients will find the information they need across a range of sources on your website, packaged into one conversational response.
• Help prospective clients find the right partner or specialist: Prospective clients can easily locate the most relevant specialist for their needs, ensuring they connect with the right expertise from the start. For example, questions such as “what experience do you have advising on M&A deals” would surface lawyers with the right experience, experience statements on your website, and relevant articles and press releases to paint the full picture for your clients.
• Knowledge is more accessible and actionable: Team members can reduce their reliance on peers, speeding up training processes such as onboarding.
• Strategic time saving: Less time looking for the right information equals more time to spend on billable or strategic client work that directly impacts your bottom line.
• Drive traffic with data-driven insights: Each search reveals what clients want to know, helping you identify content gaps, improve your website, and optimize content with real user insights.

This translates into reduced support burden, improved lead capture and conversion, and better use of team expertise.

For legal teams, conversational search platforms boost productivity by turning complex, content-rich websites into intuitive, question-and-answer experiences. Instead of relying on static filters or long-form navigation, users can ask targeted questions and surface relevant information instantly.

For example, a visitor could ask: “What’s your experience with cross-border SaaS agreements?” or “Have you published any insights on US data privacy law?”

This helps prospective clients find relevant expertise, published content, and thought leadership without needing to dig through multiple pages.

Squiz Conversational Search doesn’t require a major overhaul or replacement of your tech. It is designed to integrate with your existing systems, and it works within our own powerful Digital Experience Platform. You might integrate with:

• Document management platforms
• CMS tools like WordPress, Drupal
• CRM and practice management systems (via custom integration where required)

You can deploy it as an overlay, embedded module, or widget on your public site with minimal disruption. Many configurations can be managed through a low-code interface, giving business users control over content scope and response tuning without needing deep IT involvement.

Conversational AI search doesn’t just benefit your internal teams, it also improves how clients engage with your firm:

• Clients get immediate, accurate answers without needing to call or wait for an email
• Business development teams gain insight into what prospects are actively searching for
• Partners can align outreach or service offerings to real-time client interests

If a prospective client exploring your website asks, “Do you have experience advising on cross-border tax issues for tech startups?”, instead of navigating multiple pages, getting confused and potentially having to wait for a Partner to contact them, they will receive a tailored, conversational response complete with relevant bios, case studies, and articles.

Ultimately, a better experience on your website translates into better service, deeper trust, and increased client retention.

Ready to understand how this conversational AI search could transform your website?

Let’s explore how Squiz Conversational Search feature (powered by Squiz Funnelback Search) can boost client engagement, improve satisfaction, and reduce support load while keeping you in full control of the experience.

Want advice on how to get started with conversational AI search? Book a 30-minute chat with a Squiz strategy consultant here.