Mortgage Industry Professional Association: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Mortgage Professionals Canada led valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 at 7.5%, down from 21.7% in July 2026. The gap to the next closest brand narrowed to 5.0 percentage points, as Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association recorded 2.5% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026.

No brand posted a significant coverage increase this month. The one significant move in the series remains a decline: Mortgage Professionals Canada fell from 21.7% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 8.4% in August 2026, then to 7.5% in September 2026, a cumulative decline of 14.2 percentage points that exceeds normal month-to-month variation. The leader declined in each of the two months since July 2026.

The benchmark began with 211 prompt-surface observations in September 2026 and produced 120 qualified observations 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. In September 2026, all six families were represented; Perplexity was not present in the July 2026 baseline period.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Mortgage Industry Professional Association

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.

For methodology details, see AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a top-three recommendation. Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommendations. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions among observations where the brand appears.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Mortgage Professionals Canada

Mortgage Professionals Canada moved from 21.7% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 7.5% in September 2026, a cumulative decline of 14.2 percentage points that exceeds normal month-to-month variation. The brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026. The single largest monthly move occurred between July and August, a drop of 13.3 percentage points from 21.7% to 8.4%. Presence also moved lower, from 64.1% raw mention presence in July 2026 to 51.7% in September 2026. The brand's top-three rate and rank-one rate each moved from 5.7% in July 2026 to 3.3% in September 2026. Despite the decline, Mortgage Professionals Canada remains the category leader, though its lead over the next closest brand narrowed from 19.8 percentage points in July 2026 to 5.0 percentage points in September 2026.

Category Leader: Mortgage Professionals Canada

Mortgage Professionals Canada remains the September 2026 category leader on valid recommendation coverage at 7.5%, and also leads on presence rate (51.67%), top-three rate (3.33%), and rank-one rate (3.33%), with a net sentiment score of 0.18.

Leadership on volume, however, sits alongside a clear conversion gap. Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association converts a 10.0% presence rate into 2.5% valid recommendation coverage, while Mortgage Professionals Canada converts a far larger 51.67% presence rate into 7.5% valid recommendation coverage. Although Mortgage Professionals Canada already appears across the majority of qualified AI responses, that visibility is converting into recommendation-stage outcomes less efficiently, relative to presence, than it does for Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association. This sits alongside a narrowing lead — the gap to the next-closest brand on valid recommendation coverage fell from 19.8 percentage points in July 2026 to 5.0 percentage points in September 2026, as Mortgage Professionals Canada's coverage declined in each of the last two months while Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association's coverage moved upward. The commercial question is not whether the brand appears in AI answers — the data shows it clearly does — but whether that presence is converting into recommendation at a rate sufficient to protect a lead that is closing month over month.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Why is Mortgage Professionals Canada's substantially larger presence rate not converting into valid recommendation coverage at a rate comparable to Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association, and what is driving the two-month consecutive decline in coverage that has cut the category lead from 19.8 points to 5.0 points?

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading brands show distinct placement patterns as of September 2026.

Mortgage Professionals Canada converts all of its top-three placements into first-position recommendations, as does Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association. REMIC, by contrast, appears in the top three in 1.67% of observations in September 2026 but never at rank one. Close coverage rates can still hide different first-position rates; REMIC holds a 1.67% top-three rate but a 0.0% rank-one rate in September 2026, meaning its recommendations never placed first.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In both July 2026 and September 2026, all qualified observations 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. The benchmark records the change. It does not, by itself, establish why the change occurred.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral industry benchmark tracking how AI search and chat surfaces recommend brands in response to real user queries. Each monthly measurement is built from qualified observations across six canonical AI surface families.

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

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