Homeowners Protection: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

American Home Shield leads the Homeowners Protection benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 86.9%, ahead of Liberty Home Guard at 76.0%, a gap of 10.9 percentage points. American Home Shield has held the lead across all three measured months. The largest coverage increase in September 2026 belongs to Cinch Home Services, which reached 57.9% in September 2026, up from 51.7% in August 2026 and 52.1% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline belongs to 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty, which fell to 17.2% in September 2026, down from 17.9% in August 2026. This vertical showed mixed movement in September 2026, with meaningful gains for AFC Home Warranty and Cinch Home Services, and notable declines for 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty and Liberty Home Guard.

Across the full July 2026 to September 2026 series, the benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 717 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth refers to the number of canonical AI/search surface families (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode) with at least one qualified observation in the month. August 2026, the intermediate month, saw 659 qualified observations and a valid recommendation shortlist share of 87.3%.

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

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.

For more detail, see the AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned by name at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in a genuine recommendation shortlist. Top-three rate is the share in which the brand lands among the top three recommended options. Rank-one rate is the share in which the brand is the single first-listed recommendation. Net sentiment ranges from 0 (all negative) to 1 (all positive) based on the tone of mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

In the immediate month-over-month comparison, Cinch Home Services rose 6.2 points from August 2026 to September 2026. First American Home Warranty fell 4.0 points from August 2026 to September 2026, breaking the upward move it had made from July 2026 to August 2026.

Largest Increase: AFC Home Warranty

AFC Home Warranty rose in each of the two months since July 2026, climbing from 34.9% in July 2026 to 38.2% in August 2026 and then to 41.0% in September 2026, a cumulative gain of 6.1 points. This upward movement was accompanied by a rise in presence rate from 38.5% in July 2026 to 46.7% in September 2026.

Largest Increase: Cinch Home Services

Cinch Home Services also registered a significant rise, from 52.1% in July 2026 to 57.9% in September 2026, up 5.8 points. The movement was concentrated in the most recent month, with coverage rising 6.2 points from August 2026 to September 2026. Presence rate and top-three rate also rose meaningfully over the full period.

Largest Decline: 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty

2-10 Home Buyers Warranty declined in each of the two months since July 2026, from 22.5% in July 2026 to 17.9% in August 2026 and then to 17.2% in September 2026, a cumulative drop of 5.3 points. The brand's presence rate also fell, from 26.3% in July 2026 to 21.2% in September 2026.

Largest Decline: Liberty Home Guard

Liberty Home Guard declined in each of the two months since July 2026, from 81.0% in July 2026 to 77.8% in August 2026 and then to 76.0% in September 2026, a cumulative drop of 5.0 points. The top-three rate also fell over the period, from 61.2% in July 2026 to 54.0% in September 2026.

Category Leader: American Home Shield

American Home Shield held the lead in every month of the series, with coverage of 87.2% in July 2026, 85.7% in August 2026, and 86.9% in September 2026. The September 2026 figure was within normal month-to-month variation of the July 2026 baseline.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. American Home Shield's top-three and rank-one rates outpace those of other leading brands, indicating it is not only frequently recommended, but also positioned at the front of the shortlist.

While Cinch Home Services posted a significant rise in coverage over the series, its rank-one rate of 4.6% in September 2026 was actually slightly lower than its July 2026 rate of 5.7%, showing that similar overall coverage can still hide different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

In September 2026, all 717 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class, focused on discovering and considering providers.

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

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. 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, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across the leading AI chat and search surfaces. This benchmark provides a neutral, repeatable measure of brand visibility and recommendation share in AI-driven discovery.

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

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