Commercial Cleaning Services: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Jan-Pro led the Commercial Cleaning Services benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 48.4%, down from 57.2% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Stratus Building Solutions, narrowed to 21.4 points, with Stratus at 27.0% in September 2026, down from 38.8% in July 2026.

The largest coverage increase came from City Wide Facility Solutions, which rose to 15.2% in September 2026 from 4.6% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline was ServiceMaster Clean, which fell to 18.2% in September 2026 from 31.3% in July 2026.

This was a month of significant movement, with eight brands classified as significant decliners and one brand, City Wide Facility Solutions, as a significant riser. Most declines in September 2026 were within normal month-to-month variation relative to August 2026, but the cumulative drops from July 2026 were substantial. The benchmark produced 374 qualified observations in September 2026, up from 348 in July 2026.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 374 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth refers to the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. August 2026 sat between these months with 384 qualified observations and a recommendation-shaped answer share of 56.3%.

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

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.

Current Brand Standings

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommended option.
• Net sentiment: share of positive mentions minus negative mentions, relative to all mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Between August 2026 and September 2026, the largest single-month move was ABM Industries, down 4.1 points from 7.0% to 2.9%, a change that went beyond normal month-to-month variation.

Largest Increase: City Wide Facility Solutions

City Wide Facility Solutions rose to 15.2% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 4.6% in July 2026, on 57 valid recommendation observations. The brand's presence rate climbed to 18.2% in September 2026 from 4.9% in July 2026, and its top-three rate rose to 9.1% from 2.3%. The cumulative move from July to September went beyond normal month-to-month variation; the August-to-September change alone was within normal month-to-month variation. The brand's coverage gap widened every month relative to Stratus Building Solutions, Vanguard Cleaning Systems, and ServiceMaster Clean.

Largest Decline: ServiceMaster Clean

ServiceMaster Clean fell to 18.2% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 from 31.3% in July 2026, on 68 valid recommendation observations. The brand's presence rate dropped to 34.0% in September 2026 from 44.8% in July 2026, and its top-three rate fell to 11.0% from 17.5%. The brand declined in each of the two months since July 2026, with the largest single-month drop of 8.6 points occurring between July and August. This cumulative movement went beyond normal month-to-month variation.

Other Significant Declines

Seven additional brands declined beyond normal month-to-month variation between July 2026 and September 2026. ABM Industries fell to 2.9% in September 2026 from 10.3% in July 2026, declining in each of the two months. Anago Cleaning Systems fell to 13.1% from 23.8%, Coverall fell to 14.4% from 23.8%, Jan-Pro fell to 48.4% from 57.2%, and Jani-King fell to 24.6% from 31.9%. Stratus Building Solutions fell to 27.0% from 38.8% and Vanguard Cleaning Systems fell to 13.1% from 24.1%, each declining in both months since July 2026.

Category Leader: Jan-Pro

Jan-Pro remained the category leader in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 48.4%, down 8.8 points from 57.2% in July 2026. The brand's presence rate held relatively steady at 71.9% in September 2026 versus 74.1% in July 2026, a change within normal month-to-month variation. Its rank-one rate was 25.9% in September 2026, down 1.1 points from 27.0% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement patterns differ.

Close coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates. Jan-Pro's 41.7% top-three rate in September 2026 sits alongside a 25.9% rank-one rate, while Jani-King's 18.7% top-three rate sits alongside a 4.8% rank-one rate.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in September 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which represents direct requests for provider suggestions.

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

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands appear and are recommended across major AI search and assistant surfaces. Each month, the benchmark runs a standardized set of prompts across six canonical AI surface families and records whether and how each tracked brand is mentioned, recommended, and ranked.

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

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