Contract Management Software: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

PandaDoc led the Contract Management Software benchmark in August 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 13.7%, ahead of DocuSign at 13.2%. The largest coverage decline belonged to DocuSign, which fell from 56.4% in July 2026 to 13.2% in August 2026, while the largest proportional decline belonged to Agiloft, which fell from 25.0% in July 2026 to 4.4% in August 2026.

This was a month of broad downward movement across the entire tracked brand set. All ten tracked brands declined in valid recommendation coverage between July 2026 and August 2026, each move registering beyond normal month-to-month variation. The declines were consistent in direction across presence rates, top-three rates, and rank-one rates for most brands.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 700 in August 2026, producing 468 and 453 qualified observations respectively after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode) with at least one qualified observation. August 2026 recorded qualified observations across five of the six families, with no qualified observations attributed to Perplexity in that month.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Contract Management Software

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. Learn more in the AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all in the AI answer.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a bona fide recommendation, excluding passing mentions.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a recommended shortlist's top three.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the single first recommendation.
• Net sentiment is the share of positive minus negative mentions among all sentiment-bearing mentions, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Every tracked brand declined from July 2026 to August 2026. In each case, this single-month move constituted the entire baseline-to-current movement, since the series spans two comparable months. No brand increased in valid recommendation coverage.

Largest Decline: DocuSign

DocuSign recorded the largest absolute decline in valid recommendation coverage, falling 43.2 points from 56.4% to 13.2%. The decline appeared across supporting metrics: presence rate fell from 91.5% to 23.2%, top-three rate fell from 35.3% to 10.4%, and rank-one rate fell from 16.2% to 6.8%. Net sentiment moved from 0.7 to 0.5.

Category Leader: PandaDoc

PandaDoc became the coverage leader with 13.7% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, down from 47.6% in July 2026, a decline of 33.9 points. Its lead over DocuSign in second place was 0.5 points. Despite leading the category on coverage, PandaDoc's presence rate (18.8%) was lower than DocuSign's (23.2%), and its rank-one rate (1.3%) was below DocuSign's (6.8%), illustrating that coverage leadership can coexist with weaker top placement.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the top brands by valid recommendation coverage, placement rates reveal a different ordering.

DocuSign held the highest top-three rate (10.4%) and rank-one rate (6.8%) among tracked brands in August 2026, despite ranking second on overall coverage. Close coverage figures can still hide markedly different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In both months, the qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class of discovery.

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

Historical Measurement Record

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 and how prominently contract management software brands surface across major AI and search surfaces in response to real buyer-style queries. The benchmark is rebuilt monthly from a consistent, documented research protocol.

• 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.

Get my free AI Company Index