Hearing Aids: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which hearing aid brand leads the October 2026 benchmark, and by how much?
• Which brand posted the largest gain since the May 2026 baseline, and which posted the largest month-over-month decline?

Jabra Enhance led the Hearing Aids benchmark in October 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 67.2%, ahead of the next brand, Audien Hearing, at 33.0%, a gap of 34.2 percentage points. The largest cumulative increase in valid recommendation coverage since the May 2026 baseline was Jabra Enhance, rising 41.0 percentage points from 26.2% in May 2026 to 67.2% in October 2026. The largest month-over-month decline was Eargo, which fell 15.1 percentage points, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. The largest month-over-month increase was Audicus at 0.6 percentage points.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 467 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

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 same leader has held every measurement since the baseline.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does the public benchmark use fewer observations than the raw collection?
• What is the public denominator for brand-level recommendation rates?

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. AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How do the leading hearing aid brands compare on recommendation coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate?
• Which brands appear in AI recommendations but rarely convert that presence into a valid recommendation?

Jabra Enhance leads on every placement measure, and its 47.5% rank-one rate is more than seven times the next brand's. Eargo and Audien Hearing carry similar coverage, but Eargo converts far less of its presence into first-choice placement. ZipHearing and hear.com appear in AI answers while converting almost none of that presence into valid recommendations.

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

Questions This Section Answers

• Which hearing aid brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation in October 2026?
• How did Jabra Enhance and Eargo's coverage change from their 2026 peaks?

From September 2026 to October 2026, Eargo declined 15.1 percentage points, its second consecutive monthly decline and a move beyond normal variation. Lexie Hearing fell 7.9 percentage points, its third consecutive monthly decline. Jabra Enhance and Audien Hearing both moved within normal month-to-month variation.

Largest Cumulative Increase: Jabra Enhance

Jabra Enhance rose 41.0 percentage points from the May 2026 baseline to October 2026, though the brand peaked in August and has declined modestly in each of the two months since. Its top-three rate climbed from 19.9% to 65.1%, and its rank-one rate rose from 10.4% to 47.5% over the same period.

Largest Month-over-Month Decline: Eargo

Eargo's 15.1-point drop is its second consecutive monthly decline, following a peak of 57.2% in August 2026. Despite the recent declines, Eargo remains up 16.5 percentage points from its May 2026 baseline of 13.5%.

Category Leader: Jabra Enhance

Jabra Enhance holds the highest valid recommendation coverage in October 2026 at 67.2%. The gap between Jabra Enhance and the next brand widened from 20.8 percentage points in May 2026 to 34.2 percentage points in October 2026.

Audien Hearing, MDHearing, and Lexie Hearing all posted double-digit cumulative gains from the baseline, but none has closed the distance to the leader.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Which hearing aid brands convert recommendation coverage into first-position placement?
• Why can similar coverage levels hide very different rank-one rates?

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.

Jabra Enhance's 47.5% rank-one rate against the next brand's 6.6% shows 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 current public series cannot answer pricing or head-to-head comparison questions, because those intent classes no longer contain qualified observations.

Historical Measurement Record

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

Qualified observations have fallen every measurement period, so month-over-month comparisons should be read with the shrinking base in mind.

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, not proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

• This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains do AI platforms cite most often when recommending hearing aids?
• Are brand-owned domains represented among the most-cited sources?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 6,797 total citations referencing 812 unique domains. The table below shows the ten most-cited domains in this measurement period.

Citations are moderately concentrated at the top, with the leading domain accounting for 10.9% and the top ten domains together accounting for approximately 44% of all citations. No tracked brand's own domain appears in the top ten — independent review and information sources dominate the list, including hearingtracker.com, consumerreports.org, hearadvisor.com, soundly.com, and seniorliving.org, alongside general platforms such as YouTube, Google, Forbes, and Reddit.

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.

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

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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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