Dental insurance: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Spirit Dental leads valid recommendation coverage in August 2026 at 81.2%, up from 21.8% in the May 2026 baseline, with a 2.0 percentage point lead over Delta Dental, which reached 79.2% in August 2026, up from 25.1% in May 2026. The largest coverage gain since the May 2026 baseline came from Spirit Dental, rising 59.4 points. The largest coverage decline since the May 2026 baseline was Humana, which moved from 40.8% in May 2026 to no qualified observations in August 2026.

Since the May 2026 baseline, the category shows mixed movement: five brands are significant risers while five brands are significant decliners. The tracked company set narrowed from 10 brands with qualified observations in May 2026 to 5 brands with qualified observations in August 2026. Month over month between July 2026 and August 2026, only Denali Dental posted a significant gain, rising 6.0 points; the remaining tracked brands were stable versus the prior month.

The August 2026 benchmark month began with 800 prompt-surface observations and produced 725 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. Breadth held at six across both months.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Dental 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 the full qualification process.

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 of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three positions of a recommendation list.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment reflects the balance of positive versus negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Between July 2026 and August 2026, Denali Dental gained 6.0 points, moving from 46.4% to 52.4%, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. Other prior-to-current moves were within normal variation.

Largest Increase: Spirit Dental

Spirit Dental rose from 21.8% valid recommendation coverage in May 2026 to 81.2% in August 2026, an increase of 59.4 points. This brand has increased in each of the two months since May 2026.

Largest Decline: Humana

Humana fell from 40.8% valid recommendation coverage in May 2026 to no qualified observations in August 2026. Aetna, Ameritas, Cigna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare all moved to zero qualified observations as the qualified observation set changed.

Category Leader: Spirit Dental

Spirit Dental leads valid recommendation coverage at 81.2% in August 2026. Delta Dental follows at 79.2%, a gap of just 2.0 percentage points.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage shows whether a brand is recommended at all, while placement shows how prominently. Among the two leaders, first-position rates differ meaningfully in August 2026.

Delta Dental and Spirit Dental show nearly identical top-three rates in August 2026, yet Delta Dental holds first position in 30.9% of qualified observations versus 18.8% for Spirit Dental. Close coverage can still hide markedly different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in August 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

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 for August 2026.

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 movement in a single metric does not by itself establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI chat and search surfaces recommend brands within a category. It measures presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment across six canonical AI surface families. Research links:

• 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. The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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