Hearing Aids: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend hearing aids. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since May 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

6 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Cumulative Increase: Jabra Enhance
08Largest Cumulative Increase (Second): Eargo
09Largest Month-over-Month Increase: MDHearing
10Category Leader: Jabra Enhance
11Recommendation Placement Snapshot
12Buyer-Intent Distribution

Benchmark Summary

Jabra Enhance led the Hearing Aids benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 70.6%, ahead of the next brand, Eargo, at 45.1%, a gap of 25.5 percentage points. Jabra Enhance posted the largest cumulative increase in valid recommendation coverage, rising 44.4 percentage points from 26.2% to 70.6%. The largest coverage decline was Eargo, which fell from 57.2% in August 2026 to 45.1% in September 2026, a drop of 12.1 percentage points, while the largest month-over-month increase was MDHearing, which rose from 17.4% in August 2026 to 25.1% in September 2026, a gain of 7.7 percentage points.

The current measurement is based on 517 qualified observations in September 2026, down from 684 in May 2026.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, May 2026 to Sep 2026

Jabra Enhance70.6%
Eargo45.1%
Audien Hearing33.9%
MDHearing25.1%
Lexie Hearing24.0%
Audicus3.7%
ZipHearing1.9%
hear.com0.4%
Nano Hearing Aids0.0%
Yes Hearing0.0%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	May 2026	September 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	684	517	Down 167
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	7.6%	42.7%	Up 35.1 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	42.8%	69.8%	Up 27.0 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Jabra Enhance	Jabra Enhance	No change

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The intermediate July 2026 month recorded 66.0% for the leader, and August 2026 recorded 73.7%.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Research stage	May 2026	September 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	684	800	Total prompt-surface observations collected
Unique questions	684	543	Distinct questions posed to AI surfaces
Brand / competitor mentions	684	800	Prompts containing brand or competitor names
Relevant observations	684	786	Observations relevant to the benchmark
Irrelevant observations	0	14	Observations excluded as irrelevant
Qualified benchmark observations	684	517	Public denominator for brand-level rates

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

Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Jabra Enhance	91.5%	70.6%	60.7%	41.8%	0.85
Eargo	62.5%	45.1%	26.5%	0.8%	0.80
Audien Hearing	47.2%	33.9%	20.3%	5.6%	0.77
MDHearing	38.1%	25.1%	13.5%	2.5%	0.73
Lexie Hearing	34.2%	24.0%	11.6%	0.8%	0.76
Audicus	7.9%	3.7%	2.1%	0.0%	0.56
ZipHearing	8.5%	1.9%	0.8%	0.4%	0.30
hear.com	2.7%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.43
Nano Hearing Aids	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.00
Yes Hearing	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.00

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How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of whether it is recommended.
Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
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: positive mentions minus negative mentions, divided by total mentions, among observations where the brand appears.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	May 2026	September 2026	Movement since baseline
Jabra Enhance	26.2%	70.6%	Up 44.4 points
Eargo	13.5%	45.1%	Up 31.6 points
Audien Hearing	5.4%	33.9%	Up 28.5 points
Lexie Hearing	3.8%	24.0%	Up 20.2 points
MDHearing	5.1%	25.1%	Up 20.0 points
Audicus	0.7%	3.7%	Up 3.0 points
ZipHearing	0.3%	1.9%	Up 1.6 points
hear.com	0.1%	0.4%	Up 0.3 points
Nano Hearing Aids	0.0%	0.0%	No change
Yes Hearing	0.0%	0.0%	No change

From August 2026 to September 2026, Jabra Enhance declined 3.1 percentage points from 73.7% to 70.6%, a move within normal month-to-month variation. Eargo declined 12.1 percentage points from 57.2% to 45.1%, a move beyond normal variation, and its first decline after several months of cumulative rise.

Largest Cumulative Increase: Jabra Enhance

Jabra Enhance rose from 26.2% in May 2026 to 70.6% in September 2026, an increase of 44.4 percentage points. The brand peaked at 73.7% in August 2026. Its top-three rate climbed from 19.9% in May 2026 to 60.7% in September 2026, and its rank-one rate rose from 10.4% to 41.8% over the same period.

Largest Cumulative Increase (Second): Eargo

Eargo rose from 13.5% in May 2026 to 45.1% in September 2026, an increase of 31.6 percentage points. Despite the September decline of 12.1 percentage points from 57.2% in August 2026, Eargo remains up substantially from its May 2026 baseline. Its top-three rate rose from 7.9% in May 2026 to 26.5% in September 2026.

Largest Month-over-Month Increase: MDHearing

MDHearing recorded the largest month-over-month increase in valid recommendation coverage, rising from 17.4% in August 2026 to 25.1% in September 2026, a gain of 7.7 percentage points. The brand rose from 5.1% in May 2026, an increase of 20.0 percentage points over the full period.

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Category Leader: Jabra Enhance

Jabra Enhance holds the highest valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 at 70.6%. The brand also leads on presence at 91.5%, top-three rate at 60.7%, and rank-one rate at 41.8%. The gap between Jabra Enhance and the next brand, Eargo, widened from 12.7 percentage points in May 2026 to 25.5 percentage points in September 2026.

Audien Hearing rose from 5.4% in May 2026 to 33.9% in September 2026, an increase of 28.5 percentage points, with a decline of 4.8 percentage points from August 2026. Lexie Hearing rose from 3.8% in May 2026 to 24.0% in September 2026, an increase of 20.2 percentage points, declining slightly from 24.7% in August 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Jabra Enhance leads on both top-three and rank-one placement among the leading brands.

Brand	September 2026 top-three rate	September 2026 rank-one rate	May 2026 top-three rate	May 2026 rank-one rate
Jabra Enhance	60.7%	41.8%	19.9%	10.4%
Eargo	26.5%	0.8%	7.9%	0.6%
Audien Hearing	20.3%	5.6%	4.1%	2.3%

Jabra Enhance's rank-one rate of 41.8% in September 2026 is substantially higher than the next brand's 5.6%, showing that close coverage levels can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in the current public series fell into the Brand Recommendation class, meaning they represent buyers seeking hearing aid brand recommendations. The benchmark does not currently contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Buyer-intent class	May 2026	September 2026
Brand Recommendation	397	517
Pricing & Value	27	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	260	0
Total qualified observations	684	517

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the empty classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
May 2026	684	Jabra Enhance	26.2%	Baseline (no prior month)
July 2026	567	Jabra Enhance	66.0%	Eargo, Up 41.4 points
August 2026	558	Jabra Enhance	73.7%	Jabra Enhance, Up 7.7 points
September 2026	517	Jabra Enhance	70.6%	MDHearing, Up 7.7 points

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.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI assistants and search surfaces discover, discuss, and recommend brands across categories, based on a defined set of prompts and surfaces each month.

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