Credit Monitoring: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Aura leads the Credit Monitoring index in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 68.2%, maintaining the top position it has held across all three months of the series. The gap to the next brand, LifeLock, stands at 12.7 points.

Four tracked brands showed significant declines over the baseline-to-current period: IdentityForce fell to 32.3% in September 2026 from 46.6% in July 2026, IDShield declined to 23.3% from 32.8%, Identity Guard dropped to 30.0% from 37.9%, and LifeLock fell to 55.5% from 62.7%. There were no significant risers in the current month.

The month-over-month picture was mixed, with several brands showing movement that remains within normal variation. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 557 qualified observations in September 2026 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 saw 511 qualified observations before the current month's 557.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The funnel below shows how the qualified set is derived.

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

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate measures the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage measures the share where the brand appears in a clear recommendation. Top-three rate captures the share of observations where the brand is among the top three recommendations, and rank-one rate the share where it is the first recommendation. Net sentiment reflects the tone of mentions, on a scale where positive outweighs negative.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Several brands moved from August to September 2026 in notable ways. Chase Credit Journey declined from 7.4% in August to 4.1% in September, a drop beyond normal month-to-month variation. Experian declined from 44.6% in August to 40.0% in September, and Credit Karma from 34.4% to 29.4%, both within normal variation.

Largest Decline: IdentityForce

IdentityForce fell 14.3 points from 46.6% in July 2026 to 32.3% in September 2026, the largest decline in the index. It has declined in each of the two months since July. Its presence rate also fell from 54.4% to 41.3% over the same period.

Significant Decliners: IDShield, Identity Guard, LifeLock

IDShield declined 9.5 points from 32.8% in July 2026 to 23.3% in September 2026, declining in each of the two months since baseline. Presence fell from 37.9% to 28.9%. IDShield has now lost nearly a third of its baseline coverage.

Identity Guard declined 7.9 points from 37.9% in July 2026 to 30.0% in September 2026. Its presence rate fell from 46.0% to 35.5%.

LifeLock declined 7.2 points from 62.7% in July 2026 to 55.5% in September 2026, declining in each of the two months since baseline. Presence fell from 81.2% to 72.4%, while its rank-one rate rose from 3.2% to 9.3%.

Category Leader: Aura

Aura has led the index across all three months. Its coverage eased from 73.1% in July 2026 to 68.2% in September 2026, within normal month-to-month variation, while its top-three rate and rank-one rate each moved lower across the same period (see Recommendation Placement Snapshot).

Stable Brands

Aura, Chase Credit Journey, Credit Karma, Experian, myFICO, and PrivacyGuard showed no significant baseline-to-current movement. myFICO rose 5.0 points from 20.0% in July 2026 to 25.0% in September 2026, a shift at the edge of normal month-to-month variation. PrivacyGuard, with its low base, saw modest absolute changes.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading cluster shows how placement varies even among brands with close coverage.

Aura's first-position rate is far above the others, while LifeLock's higher coverage shares are concentrated in lower positions, with a rank-one rate of 9.3% in September 2026. Close coverage can still hide materially different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in each month fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

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

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 or 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 brands appear in AI-generated answers across major AI search surfaces, providing a neutral industry-level view of the recommendation environment.

• 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