Annuities: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

MassMutual led the annuities benchmark in August 2026 with 46.0% valid recommendation coverage, 1.3 points ahead of New York Life at 44.7%. The largest coverage increase came from Pacific Life, which rose to 31.7% in August 2026 from 22.4% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline was Allianz Life, which fell to 21.7% in August 2026 from 64.6% in July 2026.

The broader baseline-to-current series shows a mixed month with widespread movement. Seven brands registered declines beyond normal month-to-month variation, while Pacific Life was the only significant riser. The benchmark produced 246 qualified observations in July 2026 and 161 in August 2026.

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.

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. The July 2026 measurement produced 246 qualified observations; the August 2026 measurement produced 161 qualified observations. Every brand-level percentage in this report uses the qualified observation count as its denominator, not the raw collection volume.

AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view.

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

The July-to-August moves match the baseline-to-current movements for every brand in this two-month series.

Largest Increase: Pacific Life

Pacific Life was the only brand to post a significant increase, rising to 31.7% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 from 22.4% in July 2026. The move accompanied a rise in raw mention presence to 39.1% in August 2026 from 31.3% in July 2026, though that presence movement was within normal month-to-month variation.

Largest Decline: Allianz Life

Allianz Life fell to 21.7% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 from 64.6% in July 2026, the largest single-month decline in the series. The drop was echoed across supporting metrics: raw mention presence fell to 24.2% from 70.7%, top-three rate fell to 12.4% from 55.7%, and rank-one rate fell to 4.3% from 21.5%.

Category Leader: MassMutual

MassMutual remained the category leader at 46.0% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, though its coverage fell from 74.0% in July 2026. New York Life held the second position at 44.7% in August 2026, down from 71.5% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. MassMutual and New York Life both held 6.8% rank-one rates in August 2026 despite different top-three rates, and New York Life edged out MassMutual on top-three placement.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. New York Life and MassMutual matched on rank-one rate in August 2026, while Allianz Life held lower overall coverage but a higher rank-one rate than several brands ranked above it on coverage alone.

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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