Annuities: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

MassMutual led the annuities benchmark in September 2026 with 68.3% valid recommendation coverage, 5.7 points ahead of Allianz Life and New York Life, which were tied at 62.6%. Valid recommendation coverage measures the share of qualified observations where a brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist. The largest month-over-month coverage increase came from Allianz Life, which rose to 62.6% in September 2026 from 21.7% in August 2026. The largest month-over-month decline was Pacific Life, which fell to 21.6% in September 2026 from 31.7% in August 2026.

The full July-to-September series shows a recovery month after a sharp August contraction. MassMutual led in each month of the series. Two brands posted declines beyond normal month-to-month variation relative to baseline: Corebridge Financial and New York Life. Eight brands moved within normal variation over the full series.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 227 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. August 2026 saw the lowest qualified observation count in the series at 161, with a corresponding dip in coverage rates across most brands.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark denominator reflects qualified observations only, after off-topic and irrelevant prompts are removed from the underlying collection. Every brand-level percentage in this report uses the qualified observation count as its denominator, not the raw collection volume.

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

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view.

Note: presence rate and net sentiment figures are rounded to one decimal place in the source data.

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist. Top-three rate is the share where the brand appears in the first three recommendation slots. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment describes the framing of benchmark mentions, not customer sentiment, and reflects the share of positive mentions minus negative mentions among mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Several brands posted large month-over-month recoveries in September 2026 after August declines. Allianz Life rose 40.9 points from August to September, Athene rose 34.9 points, and MassMutual rose 22.3 points, all beyond normal month-to-month variation. Pacific Life fell 10.1 points from August to September, also beyond normal variation.

Largest Decline: Corebridge Financial

Corebridge Financial fell to 10.6% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 20.7% in July 2026, the largest decline in the three-month series. The decline was accompanied by a drop in raw mention presence to 15.4% in September 2026 from 25.6% in July 2026. The brand did recover from a low of 5.0% in August 2026, rising 5.6 points into September, but remained below its July level.

Additional Significant Decline: New York Life

New York Life fell to 62.6% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 71.5% in July 2026, a decline beyond normal month-to-month variation. Despite the coverage decline, the brand's rank-one rate rose to 27.3% in September 2026 from 19.1% in July 2026. New York Life posted the highest rank-one rate in the benchmark for September 2026.

Category Leader: MassMutual

MassMutual remained the category leader at 68.3% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, though its coverage fell from 74.0% in July 2026. MassMutual also posted the highest presence rate in the benchmark at 86.3% in September 2026. Allianz Life and New York Life moved into a tie for second at 62.6%.

MassMutual's rank-one rate fell to 9.2% in September 2026 from 20.3% in July 2026, while its raw presence rate held steady at 86.3% in September 2026 compared with 85.0% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. New York Life posted a 27.3% rank-one rate in September 2026, the highest in the benchmark, despite sharing the second-place coverage position with Allianz Life at 62.6%.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. New York Life and Allianz Life matched on coverage in September 2026, but New York Life held a rank-one rate more than double Allianz Life's.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand 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 often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across six canonical AI surface families. Each month, a standardized set of prompts is run across ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, then qualified through a public research funnel.

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

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