Building Credit Services: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

In August 2026, Self leads the Building Credit Services benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 55.2%, up from 0.0% in July 2026. Kikoff holds the next position at 44.8% in August 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026, a gap of 10.4 percentage points between the two leaders. The largest coverage increase was Self, rising 55.2 percentage points from 0.0% in July 2026 to 55.2% in August 2026. Kikoff also recorded a significant rise, moving 44.8 percentage points from 0.0% in July 2026 to 44.8% in August 2026. There were no significant coverage declines this month.

This is the second month of the public series, so the July to August movement represents both the month-over-month and baseline-to-current change. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 96 qualified observations in August 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. In August 2026, all six families were represented, compared with two in July 2026.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The qualification funnel shows how the August 2026 public series was derived.

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

Current Brand Standings

Current-month figures for all tracked brands, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears at all, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended entries.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment ranges from -1 (all negative) to +1 (all positive) across mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Coverage movement from July 2026 to August 2026 for every tracked brand.

The series only has two comparable months, so the baseline-to-current movement equals the month-over-month movement.

Largest Increase: Self

Self moved from 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 55.2% in August 2026, a rise of 55.2 percentage points. This was the largest single-month move in the series. Self appears in 57 of 96 qualified observations, with a presence rate of 59.4% in August 2026. Its top-three rate was 38.5% and rank-one rate was 33.3% in August 2026.

Second-Largest Increase: Kikoff

Kikoff moved from 0.0% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 44.8% in August 2026, a rise of 44.8 percentage points. Kikoff appears in 56 of 96 qualified observations, with a presence rate of 58.3% in August 2026. Its top-three rate was 32.3% and rank-one rate was just 2.1% in August 2026.

Category Leader: Self

Self leads the Building Credit Services benchmark with 55.2% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026. The lead over the next brand, Kikoff at 44.8%, was 10.4 percentage points in August 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement within the top three and at rank one shows where brands sit in the recommendation order.

Self received the top recommendation in 33.3% of qualified observations in August 2026, while Kikoff's rank-one rate was just 2.1% despite a similar presence rate. Near-equal coverage hides very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

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

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, not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to a given query
• Organic-search ranking positions
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

The movement should not yet be treated as a trend, since the series has only two months of comparable data.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI search and assistant surfaces surface and recommend brands in response to real consumer queries. Each month, a new measurement is added to the same public series.

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

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

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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