The shift has already happened. Buyers are moving from search behavior to answer behavior. This shift will keep accelerating as AI becomes the primary way people look for information and make decisions.

Here is the simple truth. AI changes everything about referrals, and AI changes nothing about referrals. Both statements are true at the same time.

If you run a professional advisory firm, especially one that depends on referrals, you cannot afford to misunderstand what this shift means. In Can I Borrow Your Car, I teach that referrals are based on trust and human connection. That does not change. What changes is how buyers validate the names they receive and the questions they bring into those conversations.

Referrals work because humans trust humans.

AI will simply give buyers one more tool to validate the recommendations they receive. It does not erase human trust. It enhances it.

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