AI Chatbots: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend conversational ai platforms. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

4 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Category Leader: WATI
08Recommendation Placement Snapshot
09Buyer-Intent Distribution
10Historical Measurement Record
11Evidence and Source Layer
12Scope Boundaries

Benchmark Summary

In August 2026, WATI led the benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 20.3%, ahead of Yellow.ai at 10.2%. The largest coverage movement this month was WATI's decline, falling from 26.2% in July 2026 to 20.3% in August 2026. No brand recorded a significant increase in coverage this month.

This was a quiet month for the benchmark overall, with all eight tracked brands classified as stable and no significant movement beyond normal month-to-month variation. Across the full series from July 2026 to August 2026, WATI's rank-one rate moved from 13.3% to 6.4% in August 2026, the largest change among tracked placement metrics for the period.

The benchmark began with 397 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 491 in August 2026, producing 225 and 236 qualified observations respectively.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Aug 2026

WATI-5.9%
Jul 202626.2%
Aug 202620.3%
Yellow.ai-0.9%
Jul 202611.1%
Aug 202610.2%
Interakt+0.5%
Jul 20269.3%
Aug 20269.8%
Gupshup-1.5%
Jul 20264.9%
Aug 20263.4%
Gallaboxno change
Jul 20261.3%
Aug 20261.3%
Engatino change
Jul 20260.4%
Aug 20260.4%
Haptik-0.9%
Jul 20261.3%
Aug 20260.4%
Geta.aino change
Jul 20260.0%
Aug 20260.0%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	July 2026	August 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	225	236	Up 11
Tracked brands	8	8	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	13.8%	18.2%	Up 4.4 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	38.2%	28.8%	Down 9.4 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	WATI	WATI	No change

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation, drawn from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Geta.ai

Research Scope and Qualification

Research stage	July 2026	August 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	397	491	Raw collection universe
Unique questions	308	385	Distinct questions asked
Brand / competitor mentions	359	435	Prompts naming a tracked brand or competitor
Relevant observations	269	312	On-topic responses after relevance review
Irrelevant observations	90	123	Off-topic responses excluded
Qualified benchmark observations	225	236	Public denominator for brand-level rates

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection universe. See the AI Market Discovery Methodology for the full qualification rules.

Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
WATI	54.2%	20.3%	14.0%	6.4%	0.5
Yellow.ai	28.8%	10.2%	7.2%	3.0%	0.5
Interakt	30.9%	9.8%	7.2%	2.5%	0.4
Gupshup	11.9%	3.4%	1.3%	0.9%	0.3
Gallabox	3.8%	1.3%	0.9%	0.4%	0.3
Engati	1.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.3
Haptik	2.1%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.2
Geta.ai	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears at all.
Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand is named in a valid recommendation shortlist.
Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended options.
Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first or sole recommendation.
Net sentiment: Positive minus negative mention tone, scaled.

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For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	July 2026	August 2026	Movement since baseline
Engati	0.4%	0.4%	No change
Gallabox	1.3%	1.3%	No change
Geta.ai	0.0%	0.0%	No change
Gupshup	4.9%	3.4%	Down 1.5 points
Haptik	1.3%	0.4%	Down 0.9 points
Interakt	9.3%	9.8%	Up 0.5 points
WATI	26.2%	20.3%	Down 5.9 points
Yellow.ai	11.1%	10.2%	Down 0.9 points

No tracked brand recorded movement beyond normal month-to-month variation in August 2026. The month was quiet across the board despite several directional shifts.

Category Leader: WATI

WATI remains the category leader with valid recommendation coverage of 20.3% in August 2026, down from 26.2% in July 2026. WATI's rank-one rate moved from 13.3% in July 2026 to 6.4% in August 2026, the largest placement shift in the benchmark. Its net sentiment held steady at 0.5 in both months.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended when it appears. The table below contrasts top-three and rank-one placement for the leading brands in August 2026.

Brand	August 2026 top-three rate	August 2026 rank-one rate	July 2026 top-three rate	July 2026 rank-one rate
WATI	14.0%	6.4%	17.8%	13.3%
Yellow.ai	7.2%	3.0%	7.1%	2.7%
Interakt	7.2%	2.5%	6.2%	3.6%

Two brands with identical top-three rates of 7.2% in August 2026 showed different first-position rates: Yellow.ai at 3.0% versus Interakt at 2.5%. Similar coverage can hide different placement prominence.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

The qualified observations in both months fell into the discovery and consideration class.

Buyer-intent class	July 2026	August 2026
Brand Recommendation	225	236
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	225	236

The current public series measures brand discovery and consideration and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Baseline (Jul 2026)	225	WATI	26.2%	WATI down 5.9 points
Aug 2026	236	WATI	20.3%	WATI down 5.9 points

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable benchmark of how AI-driven search and chat surfaces present brands in response to discovery-oriented questions. It records presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment as distinct signals.

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper. The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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Want the full Authority Index

The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

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