Business Insurance: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Next Insurance led valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 at 67.3%, down from 73.5% in July 2026. Hiscox followed at 65.3% in August 2026, down from 68.6% in July 2026, putting the gap between the two leaders at 2.0 percentage points in August 2026.

The largest coverage decline this month was Next Insurance, which fell 6.2 percentage points from 73.5% in July 2026 to 67.3% in August 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. No brand posted a significant coverage increase. Among smaller movers, Embroker and Vouch Insurance each rose 0.3 percentage points to 1.0% in August 2026, while Founder Shield declined 0.3 percentage points to 0.2% and Coterie Insurance was flat at 0.3%.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 611 qualified observations in August 2026 and 582 in July 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. Both months registered all six families.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

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

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all. 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 recommended positions. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, expressed on a scale from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Next Insurance

Next Insurance's valid recommendation coverage declined 6.2 percentage points from 73.5% in July 2026 to 67.3% in August 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. Supporting signals moved in the same direction: the top-three rate fell from 58.1% in July 2026 to 49.3% in August 2026, and the rank-one rate fell from 28.3% to 22.4% over the same period. Presence rate was essentially steady, so the decline was concentrated in how often Next Insurance was recommended rather than in how often it was mentioned.

Category Leader: Next Insurance

Next Insurance remained the coverage leader in August 2026 despite its decline. Its 67.3% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 was 2.0 percentage points above Hiscox's 65.3%. The gap between the two narrowed from 4.9 percentage points in July 2026.

Stable Brands

Hiscox declined 3.3 percentage points from 68.6% in July 2026 to 65.3% in August 2026, within normal month-to-month variation, while its presence rate rose from 88.7% to 91.0%. Embroker and Vouch Insurance each rose 0.3 percentage points to 1.0% in August 2026, both within normal variation. Founder Shield declined 0.3 percentage points to 0.2% in August 2026, within normal variation. Coterie Insurance was flat at 0.3% across both months.

Vouch Insurance: Company Focus

Vouch Insurance's valid recommendation coverage rose 0.3 percentage points to 1.0% in August 2026, up from 0.7% in July 2026, with a presence rate of 1.1% and a net sentiment of 0.86, the highest sentiment score of any tracked brand in the category. Vouch's rank-one rate of 0.3% and top-three rate of 0.3% mark small but measurable positions within the qualified observation set.

Next Insurance records 67.3% on valid recommendation coverage, while Vouch Insurance stands at 1.0%. The more important issue is what that gap means for Vouch Insurance's recommendation position: even against Hiscox, the second-place brand, coverage stands at 65.3% versus Vouch's 1.0%, and Next Insurance's rank-one rate of 22.4% dwarfs Vouch's 0.3%. Vouch's shortfall is not primarily a conversion problem but a scale problem, with far fewer qualified observations reaching Vouch in the first place. Leaving that scale gap unaddressed means Vouch's favorable sentiment score has almost no volume of recommendation occasions in which to matter commercially.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which specific prompt clusters and AI/search surfaces account for Next Insurance's and Hiscox's dominant valid recommendation coverage, and what would it take for Vouch Insurance to become a qualified candidate in a materially larger share of those same clusters?

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Next Insurance and Hiscox both hold large coverage shares, but their placement profiles differ sharply.

Though Hiscox's coverage trails Next Insurance by 2.0 percentage points in August 2026, the gap in first-position recommendations is much wider, at 17.2 percentage points. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which measures direct discovery and consideration of a brand.

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

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

This 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, or private and sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces present brands within a vertical, using prompt-level observations across six canonical AI surface families. New measurements are added to the same evergreen report each month.

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

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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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