LawSHIFT Launches AI for PI Index™ to Track Which Personal Injury Firms AI Recommends
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, August 5th, 2026, FinanceWire
New weekly benchmark measures law firm visibility across leading AI platforms as injured people increasingly uses AI to evaluate legal options
LawSHIFT, the Pre-Intake AI for PI company, today announced the launch of the AI for PI Index, a weekly benchmarking system designed to measure how artificial intelligence platforms surface and recommend personal injury law firms.
The index tracks the visibility of over 1500 firms in 256 markets across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, giving personal injury firms insight into an emerging discovery channel that traditional search rankings and marketing analytics do not measure.
“For years, law firms optimized to be found. Now they also have to be understood,” said Nick Kringas, Founder and CEO of LawSHIFT. “We built the AI for PI Index because firms had no clear way to see how AI systems were interpreting their authority or whether they were being recommended when an injured person asked for help.”
LawSHIFT developed the index as part of its research into the Pre-Intake Problem, the period when injured people seek information and evaluate their options before speaking with an attorney. The company believes AI is becoming increasingly influential during this window as consumers ask questions about potential claims, case value, legal rights, and which attorneys they should consider.
The latest AI for PI Index analyzed 22,560 AI answers and found substantial differences in how firms appear across platforms and markets. Morgan & Morgan was the most frequently named personal injury firm nationally, appearing in 6% of analyzed answers, yet led the index in only Florida and Kentucky. The remaining 48 states were each led by different firms.
LawSHIFT said the results suggest national brand recognition does not automatically translate into dominant AI visibility within individual markets.
“A firm can be well known to people and still be difficult for AI to understand or recommend in a specific market,” Kringas said. “Reputation now has to be expressed through information that AI can interpret, verify, cite, and connect to the questions people are actually asking.”
The index also found that approximately 87% of analyzed AI answers repeated at least one concrete marketing claim from a law firm's own materials, including information about consultations, contingency fees, case results, years in practice, or areas of focus. About 93% of those answers presented the claim without attribution.
Common language offered little differentiation. Phrases such as “free consultation” and “no fee unless you win” appeared in roughly 81% of answers analyzed during the week. LawSHIFT's research found that specific and verifiable information, including named verdicts, dollar figures, clearly defined practice areas, and recognizable local authority signals, provided AI systems with more substantive information to reference.
Movement within the index can also happen quickly. Ben Crump Law increased its national appearance rate from 2.82% to 4.03% over a two-week period, a 43% increase. LawSHIFT's analysis found that Perplexity accounted for most of the movement and cited the firm's own website 817 times during the latest measurement period.
“It’s not about website rankings anymore,” Kringas said. “We are measuring which firms AI systems can understand well enough to surface and recommend. That is becoming a new layer of the legal market, and despite spending an enormous amount on traditional marketing, the vast majority of personal injury law firms are now AI invisible.”
The AI for PI Index is part of LawSHIFT's broader work in Pre-Intake AI for PI. The company also developed its proprietary AI Authority Protocol, a system focused on how personal injury firms establish relevant, structured, and durable authority signals across the web.
LawSHIFT said its work with Greenstein Pittari Law Firm provides an early example of the commercial implications of AI visibility. According to the company, the firm moved from 0% to 20% AI visibility in 45 days and signed a six-figure slip-and-fall matter attributed to an AI referral during the same period.
“We have always believed that understanding market shifts is essential to meeting clients where they are. For more than 30 years, we have anticipated how changes in technology and consumer behavior would reshape the way people seek legal help," said Robert Greenstein, founding partner of Greenstein & Pittari, LLP. "Now, as more injured people turn to AI before contacting an attorney, we want to be present in those critical moments—providing the clarity and guidance they need to understand and protect their rights. Working with LawSHIFT helped us increase our AI visibility from 0% to 43% in less than six weeks, positioning our firm to lead in the next evolution of the client journey.”
“The client journey has already changed, and law firm marketing has not caught up,” Kringas said. “AI is increasingly shaping which attorneys injured people discover and consider before intake ever begins. The first step for law firms is understanding whether they are part of that conversation.”
The AI for PI Index is updated weekly.
About LawSHIFT
LawSHIFT is the Pre-Intake AI for PI company, building AI systems, visibility infrastructure, and pre-intake tools for the personal injury legal market. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York, the company brings together more than 50 years of combined experience across personal injury marketing, legal technology, category design, and growth strategy. LawSHIFT's technology includes the AI for PI Index, CASETIMATOR, and its proprietary AI Authority Protocol, all developed around its mission to help injured people move from early questions and AI-assisted research toward trusted legal counsel.
Contact
Lydia Flocchinilydia@lawshift.ai
Disclaimer. This is a paid press release.