Identity and Access Management: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brand led the Identity and Access Management category in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage increase since the July 2026 baseline?
• How did qualified observations and recommendation-shaped answer share change from July to October 2026?

Okta led the Identity and Access Management category in October 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 51.6%, up from 42.4% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand stood at 2.7 percentage points, with SailPoint at 48.9% in October 2026, up from 35.1% in July 2026.

SailPoint recorded the largest coverage increase since baseline, rising 13.8 points from 35.1% in July 2026 to 48.9% in October 2026. Okta posted the largest absolute gain of the month, up 13.6 points from 38.0% in September 2026 to 51.6% in October 2026. No tracked brand recorded a significant coverage decline. BeyondTrust moved up 9.0 points from 10.6% in September 2026 to 19.6% in October 2026, a month-over-month shift beyond normal variation even as its change since July 2026 remained within normal range.

The October 2026 benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations and produced 219 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. In the intervening months, the benchmark produced 243 qualified observations in August 2026 and 255 in September 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Identity and Access Management

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark denominator is the qualified observation count for each month, not the full raw collection. The benchmark collection begins with 800 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and in October 2026. After accounting for unique questions, brand mentions, and relevance filtering, the qualified public benchmark narrowed to 191 observations in July 2026 and 219 in October 2026.

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands receive valid recommendations in the Identity and Access Management category, and how do their coverage rates compare?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ for the leading brands?
• Which tracked brands received no valid recommendations in October 2026?

This table is the primary current-month benchmark view, sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

The category shows a concentrated structure: Okta and SailPoint hold the leading positions, BeyondTrust holds a distant third, and seven tracked brands receive no valid recommendations in October 2026.

How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand was mentioned by the AI answer, regardless of recommendation. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which the brand received a valid recommendation. Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appeared among the first three recommendations. Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand was the first recommendation. Net sentiment measures the balance of positive over negative mention tone, from -1.0 to +1.0.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands moved beyond normal month-to-month variation in October 2026?
• How did Okta and SailPoint coverage change from September to October 2026?
• Which brands declined or held flat since the July 2026 baseline?

October 2026 reversed the prior month's direction for the two leading brands. Okta moved up 13.6 points from 38.0% in September 2026 to 51.6% in October 2026, and SailPoint moved up 14.8 points from 34.1% in September 2026 to 48.9% in October 2026, both beyond normal month-to-month variation. BeyondTrust also moved up 9.0 points from 10.6% in September 2026 to 19.6% in October 2026, beyond normal variation. Keyfactor held at 0.0% for a second consecutive month.

Largest Increase: SailPoint

SailPoint recorded the largest coverage increase of the month and the largest since baseline, rising 13.8 points from 35.1% in July 2026 to 48.9% in October 2026. The brand was present in 78.5% of qualified observations and reached the top three in 28.3%. Its month-over-month move was 14.8 points, beyond normal variation. SailPoint ranked second in the category on valid recommendation coverage in October 2026.

Category Leader: Okta

Okta held the category lead in October 2026 at 51.6% valid recommendation coverage, up from 42.4% in July 2026. The brand was present in 95.0% of qualified observations and reached the top three in 44.8%, with a rank-one rate of 24.7%. Okta led the category in all four months of the series. Its month-over-month coverage rose 13.6 points from 38.0% in September 2026 to 51.6% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Why do Okta and SailPoint show sharply different rank-one rates despite similar coverage?
• How did top-three and rank-one rates change for the two leading brands from July to October 2026?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Okta and SailPoint both show strong coverage, but their placement patterns diverge sharply.

Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates: Okta's rank-one rate of 24.7% in October 2026 was far ahead of SailPoint's 5.9%, even as the two brands sat within 2.7 points of each other on overall valid recommendation coverage.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the brand recommendation class of buyer-intent discovery.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Has Okta led the Identity and Access Management category across all measured months?
• Which monthly measurement produced the largest coverage movement, and by which brand?

New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

Questions This Section Answers

• What kinds of evidence and source attributes does the benchmark retain at the prompt level?
• Does source presence prove that a source caused an AI recommendation?

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. It measures how tracked brands appear and are recommended across qualified AI/search surface responses in the Identity and Access Management category.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, 5,864 citations were observed across 2,179 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top three domains together account for 16.8% of all citations, and no single domain exceeds 7.2%, with the count dropping sharply after the leading social and search platforms. Two tracked brands' own domains appear in the top 10, sailpoint.com at rank 6 and okta.com at rank 9. The list is led by general social and video platforms (youtube.com, reddit.com, facebook.com) alongside analyst and news sources (gartner.com, linkedin.com, finance.yahoo.com), with a technology publisher (majorkeytech.com) also present. Source presence is evidence about the information environment and is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, industry-level benchmark tracking how brands are discovered, mentioned, and recommended across canonical AI and search surfaces. It records the change; it does not, by itself, establish why the change occurred.

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

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper. The public benchmark cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources driving an individual brand's result.

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