Chatbots: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which chatbot brands lead the benchmark in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage increase and decrease across the series?
• How did qualified observations and tracked brands change between July and October 2026?

Intercom leads the Chatbots benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 67.4% in October 2026, up from 50.8% in July 2026, a rise of 16.6 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Tidio holds second place at 61.2% in October 2026, up from 43.9% in July 2026 (up 17.3 points), putting it 6.2 points behind the leader.

The largest coverage increase across the full series belongs to Zendesk Chat, which recorded 44.0% in October 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026. The largest decline belongs to Zendesk, which recorded 0.0% in October 2026, down from 50.8% in July 2026, a drop of 50.8 points tied to Zendesk Chat becoming a separately tracked brand label in September 2026. LiveChat recorded 0.0% in October 2026, down from 17.2% in July 2026, as it was tracked under the LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) label from September 2026.

On a month-over-month basis, Intercom recorded the largest prior-to-current move, rising 9.0 points from 58.4% in September 2026 to 67.4% in October 2026, a move beyond normal variation. Tidio rose 1.7 points over the same period, while Freshdesk rose 1.2 points and Drift rose 0.7 points. The benchmark produced 436 qualified observations in October 2026, down from 476 in July 2026, with August 2026 recording 500 and September 2026 recording 437.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 436 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both July 2026 and October 2026. August 2026 recorded 500 qualified observations, the highest in the series to date, while September 2026 recorded 437.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The table below shows each stage of the qualification pipeline.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See the AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does each chatbot brand rank on valid recommendation coverage?
• Which brands lead on top-three and rank-one recommendation rates?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears 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 recommended option.
• Net sentiment: positive mentions minus negative mentions, divided by total mentions, on a scale from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which chatbot brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation?
• Why did Zendesk and LiveChat drop to 0.0% coverage in October 2026?
• Which brands were classified as stable across the series?

Largest Increase: Intercom

Intercom recorded 67.4% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 50.8% in July 2026, a gain of 16.6 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Intercom's presence rate reached 85.8% in October 2026, up from 78.1% in July 2026, a rise of 7.7 points. Its top-three rate reached 47.2% in October 2026, up from 29.8% in July 2026 (up 17.4 points), and its rank-one rate reached 17.0% in October 2026, up from 8.6% in July 2026 (up 8.4 points). Intercom has risen in each of the three months since July 2026, and it recorded the largest prior-to-current move among all tracked brands, rising 9.0 points from 58.4% in September 2026 to 67.4% in October 2026.

Largest Decline: Zendesk

Zendesk recorded 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, down from 50.8% in July 2026, a drop of 50.8 points that moved beyond normal month-to-month variation. This decline corresponds with the introduction of Zendesk Chat as a separately tracked brand label in September 2026. LiveChat also recorded 0.0% in October 2026, down from 17.2% in July 2026, a drop of 17.2 points beyond normal variation, corresponding with the introduction of the LiveChat (Text S.A. (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) label in September 2026.

Category Leader: Intercom

Intercom holds the top position in the benchmark with 67.4% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 50.8% in July 2026, a gain of 16.6 points beyond normal month-to-month variation. Its top-three rate of 47.2% in October 2026 was the highest in the benchmark. Intercom has risen in each of the three months since July 2026.

Watch Item: Chatfuel

Chatfuel recorded 3.9% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 2.9% in July 2026, a gain of 1.0 point. Chatfuel has recorded three consecutive monthly increases, though the cumulative movement remains within normal month-to-month variation. This is not yet a trend.

Stable Brands

Ada, Drift, Freshdesk, Landbot, and ManyChat were classified as stable across the series. Ada recorded 9.2% coverage in October 2026, unchanged from 9.2% in July 2026. Drift recorded 10.1% in October 2026, unchanged from 10.1% in July 2026. Freshdesk recorded 20.0% in October 2026, down from 23.7% in July 2026 (down 3.7 points). Landbot recorded 4.1% in October 2026, up from 2.9% in July 2026 (up 1.2 points). ManyChat recorded 18.4% in October 2026, up from 15.3% in July 2026 (up 3.1 points).

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How did top-three and rank-one rates differ among the leading chatbot brands?
• Can similar coverage rates hide differences in first-position recommendation strength?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Intercom's top-three rate of 47.2% in October 2026 was the highest in the benchmark, while its rank-one rate of 17.0% showed it led with the first-position recommendation most often. Tidio's 61.2% coverage carried a 36.7% top-three rate, showing frequent placement within the top three. Zendesk Chat's 44.0% coverage carried a 28.0% top-three rate and an 11.0% rank-one rate.

Close coverage rates can still hide very different first-position rates, as seen with Tidio's 61.2% coverage carrying an 8.7% rank-one rate compared with Intercom's 67.4% coverage carrying a 17.0% rank-one rate.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes are represented in the qualified chatbot observations?
• Does the benchmark contain any qualified Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison observations?

All qualified observations in both reported months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which measures discovery and consideration.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

This public benchmark covers the brand-recommendation moment. Paid plans track all 10 buying moments for your company, including pricing, comparisons and alternatives. Compare plans

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What source-level evidence is retained for each chatbot recommendation observation?
• Does the presence of a source prove it caused the AI recommendation?

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.
• It does not measure attributable sales.
• It does not capture every possible AI response.
• It does not measure organic-search ranking.
• It does not measure social mention volume.
• It does not cover private or sponsored channels.
• A movement in a single metric does not by itself establish causality.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses in the chatbot category?
• How concentrated are citations across the top 10 domains?
• Which tracked chatbot brand domains appear in the top 10 cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in this measurement period, 5,797 citations were observed across 1,654 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed across the 1,654 unique domains observed, with the top 10 domains accounting for a combined 28.0% of all citations. Three tracked brand domains appear in the top 10: zendesk.com at rank 5, livechat.com at rank 6, and tidio.com at rank 7. Video platforms, search engines, community forums, software directories, and review sites dominate the top of the list, suggesting that AI recommendations in this category draw on a mix of user-generated content, official brand sites, and third-party review aggregators.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across major AI and search surfaces, using recommendation coverage as the primary metric. The benchmark is built from qualified public observations and updated monthly.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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