Alcohol Rehab Centers: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

September 2026 was a stable month for the Alcohol Rehab Centers benchmark. No tracked brand crossed the threshold for a significant single-month move, though three brands broke their prior-month directional pattern: Hazelden Betty Ford, Gateway Foundation, and Recovery Centers of America each turned upward after declining or holding flat in August 2026.

Hazelden Betty Ford leads the index with valid recommendation coverage of 10.0% in September 2026, holding the top position it has held since the July 2026 baseline. The next closest brand, Caron Treatment Centers, reached 5.0%, a gap of 5.0 points.

Since the July 2026 baseline, Caron Treatment Centers has posted the largest cumulative coverage increase, rising from 1.5% to 5.0% across two consecutive months of gains. American Addiction Centers has posted the largest cumulative coverage decline, falling from 3.0% to 1.2%, though its coverage held flat between August and September 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families tested are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. In September 2026, the benchmark captured qualified observations across five of these six families. Copilot first appeared in August 2026 and remained present in September 2026.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how observations were qualified.

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

Current Brand Standings

The table below shows the current-month benchmark view for all tracked brands, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all, in any context.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a genuine recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the single top recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Average sentiment score across mentions, ranging from negative to positive, with neutral at zero.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

The table below shows baseline-to-current movement for all tracked brands. All movement in September 2026 was within normal month-to-month variation.

Between August 2026 and September 2026, Hazelden Betty Ford rose 2.9 points from 7.1% to 10.0%, Caron Treatment Centers rose 1.4 points from 3.6% to 5.0%, Gateway Foundation rose 1.2 points from 0.0% to 1.2%, and Recovery Centers of America rose 2.5 points from 0.0% to 2.5%. Ria Health declined 1.2 points from 1.2% to 0.0%.

Largest Increase: Caron Treatment Centers

Caron Treatment Centers rose to 5.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 1.5% in July 2026, an increase of 3.5 points. The brand has posted a valid recommendation coverage increase in each of the two months since the July 2026 baseline, making it the only tracked brand with a two-month upward streak. It moved from one valid recommendation to four, all within the top three and none yet at rank one.

Largest Decline: American Addiction Centers

American Addiction Centers fell to 1.2% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 3.0% in July 2026, a decline of 1.8 points. The brand went from two valid recommendations in July 2026 to one valid recommendation in September 2026. Presence also declined, from 84.8% in July 2026 to 76.2% in September 2026. Coverage held flat between August and September 2026.

Category Leader: Hazelden Betty Ford

Hazelden Betty Ford remains the category leader with 10.0% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, up from 7.6% in July 2026. The brand's top-three rate increased to 10.0% from 6.1%, and its rank-one rate increased to 8.8% from 6.1%. Net sentiment improved from 0.1 to 0.4. Hazelden Betty Ford reached 8 valid recommendations in September 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The placement rates below show where leading brands appear within recommendation lists.

Hazelden Betty Ford leads both coverage and placement, with 7 of its 8 top-three appearances also at rank one. Similar coverage rates can still hide different first-position rates, as seen with Caron Treatment Centers, which reached 5.0% coverage in September 2026 but never appeared at rank one, while Hazelden Betty Ford converted most of its top-three appearances into first position.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in July, August, and September 2026 fell into the brand recommendation class of buyer-intent discovery.

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

Historical Measurement Record

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

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 tracks how brands appear across major AI and search surfaces in response to real consumer prompts. It measures presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment as distinct signals.

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

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