Fintel Connect has dropped a new reality check for financial marketers: in the AI era, banks are losing the visibility game—and affiliate publishers are winning it. The company’s latest industry report, Competing for Visibility in the Age of AI (2025/2026), breaks down how large language models source financial information and what it means for the institutions that depend on consumer discovery.

The key finding is blunt. More than 60% of AI-generated financial content comes from affiliate publishers, not the institutions that actually provide the products. While that may surprise traditional marketers, it aligns with a growing shift toward zero-click search, where AI summaries replace the need for a direct website visit.

AI Favors Affiliates, Not Banks

According to the study, AI systems consistently pull from consumer-facing financial guides produced by major affiliate players like NerdWallet, Bankrate, and Investopedia. These sites have spent years optimizing for credibility, structure, and breadth—features that large language models tend to reward.

Fintel Connect CEO Nicky Senyard says this shift underscores a larger change in how trust and visibility are built.

“Our goal has always been to help financial brands grow through partnerships grounded in transparency and performance,” Senyard said. “As AI changes how consumers search and trust information, affiliates are becoming a critical pipeline of information for the LLMs.”

That pipeline now has outsized influence. When AI tools summarize credit card options, savings rates, or loan products, the underlying data often originates from affiliate content—not the bank’s own site.

Zero-Click Search Is Reshaping Marketing Strategy

Financial marketers have traditionally relied on paid search, SEO, and direct site traffic to bring customers into the funnel. Zero-click search disrupts all three. Because AI-generated answers rarely require a click-through, visibility now depends on whether an institution’s product data appears in the sources AI trusts most.

Fintel Connect’s findings reinforce a trend that has been building across the search landscape. In the consumer tech sector, Google’s Search Generative Experience has already reduced traditional organic visibility for many brands. The financial industry is now facing a similar transition—but with higher regulatory stakes.

Affiliate publishers, with their deep content libraries and structured comparison formats, now serve as a primary point of entry for AI training models. Banks without strong affiliate pipelines risk slipping out of the conversation entirely.

Why Affiliates Are Winning the LLM Game

There are several reasons AI systems lean so heavily on affiliate content:

• Structured data formats make product comparisons easy to parse.

• Frequent updates ensure rate and offer information stays fresh—something AI models favor.

• High domain authority signals reliability to both search and AI systems.

• Consumer-first content language maps closely to the natural queries users ask LLMs.

Banks, by contrast, often struggle with rigid product pages, compliance-heavy language, and slower content updates. Even well-known institutions rarely produce the type of informational guides that AI systems prefer.

What This Means for Banks, Credit Unions, and Fintechs

The report suggests a clear path forward: strengthen affiliate relationships or risk disappearing from AI-driven financial discovery altogether.

Senyard notes that the research offers a roadmap for institutions adapting to fast-changing search mechanics. “This research gives financial institutions a window into that evolving landscape and shows how to strengthen affiliate relationships to ensure their products stay visible,” she said.

That visibility is now tied directly to revenue. If AI summaries highlight a competitor’s product because the model draws from affiliate comparisons, a bank may lose a customer before they ever reach its website.

In a marketplace where consumers increasingly trust AI assistants to filter financial options, product placement within affiliate content becomes a critical competitive lever.

The Bigger Industry Picture

Other sectors—insurance, travel, ecommerce—have experienced similar shifts. In each case, aggregators and comparison sites became gateways to visibility long before AI arrived. The financial industry is now confronting the AI-enhanced version of that trend.

With regulatory pressures pushing institutions toward clearer disclosures and more standardized information, the affiliate model may become even more influential. AI tools prefer consistency, and affiliates offer it at scale.

A New Playbook for Financial Visibility

Fintel Connect’s report signals that the era of controlling your own digital visibility through owned content is fading. The companies that adapt quickest will treat affiliate ecosystems not as optional marketing channels but as essential infrastructure for AI relevance.

The takeaway is simple: If financial brands want to shape AI-generated search results, they must ensure their product data lives where AI systems are already looking.

And right now, that place is not their own website.

Get in touch with our MarTech Experts.