Learning Management Systems: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Docebo leads the Learning Management Systems category with 44.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, ahead of TalentLMS at 43.1%, a 0.9-point gap that leaves the top position tightly contested. Absorb LMS recorded the largest increase from the prior month, rising 6.4 points from 26.7% in September 2026 to 33.1% in October 2026, while Docebo rose 5.9 points from 38.1% to 44.0% and Moodle rose 5.9 points from 29.6% to 35.5% over the same period. Blackboard (Anthology) is the only brand classified as a significant decliner against the July 2026 baseline, falling 10.6 points from 17.8% to 7.2%, though it edged up 1.2 points from 6.0% in September 2026 to 7.2% in October 2026.

Measured against the July 2026 baseline, nine of ten brands are classified as stable. The category recorded a broad rebound from August 2026's compressed readings, and every brand moved up from September 2026 to October 2026, with Absorb LMS, Docebo, and Moodle recording the largest prior-month increases. Blackboard (Anthology) remains the sole significant decliner against baseline, and its gap to Docebo widened to 36.8 points in October 2026 from 23.1 points in July 2026.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 529 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. September 2026 recorded a 30.1% recommendation-shaped answer share and a 41.4% valid recommendation shortlist share before the October 2026 increase.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• How many prompts were collected, and how many qualified for the public benchmark?
• Why are brand-level percentages based on qualified observations rather than the raw collection?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The following table shows how observations moved through the research stages.

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

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which Learning Management Systems brands lead on valid recommendation coverage and top-three placement?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ across the tracked brands?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three recommendation positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mention tone, divided by total mentions, ranging from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands recorded the largest gains from September to October 2026?
• Why is Blackboard (Anthology) classified as the only significant decliner against the July 2026 baseline?

Absorb LMS, Docebo, and Moodle recorded significant prior-month increases, rising 6.4 points from 26.7% to 33.1%, 5.9 points from 38.1% to 44.0%, and 5.9 points from 29.6% to 35.5% respectively. Every tracked brand moved up from September 2026 to October 2026, extending the broad recovery that began after August 2026's compressed readings.

Largest Decline: Blackboard (Anthology)

Blackboard (Anthology) fell 10.6 percentage points, from 17.8% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 7.2% in October 2026. The decline moved in step with the brand's top-three rate, which fell from 9.0% to 4.3% over the same period, while presence rate held nearly steady at 51.8% in October 2026, up from 51.2% in July 2026. The brand's coverage rose 1.2 points from 6.0% in September 2026 to 7.2% in October 2026, a second consecutive month of increase from August 2026's 0.7% reading, but has not recovered to its July baseline. Presence held steady while recommendation outcomes remained well below baseline.

Category Leader: Docebo

Docebo holds the lead at 44.0% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, followed by TalentLMS at 43.1%, a 0.9-point gap that leaves the top position tightly contested. Docebo recorded a significant prior-month increase of 5.9 points from 38.1% in September 2026, and its top-three rate rose 8.3 points from 23.1% in July 2026 to 31.4% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands appear most often in the first three recommendation positions?
• How can a brand lead on coverage while another brand has a higher rank-one rate?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Placement rates reveal whether a brand appears early in recommendation shortlists or farther down.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. Docebo leads on valid recommendation coverage at 44.0% in October 2026, yet TalentLMS records a higher rank-one rate of 14.4% versus Docebo's 11.7%, inverting the coverage order at the first position.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes does the current public benchmark measure?
• Why do pricing and multi-brand comparison classes contain no qualified observations?

In October 2026, all qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation class, where users asked for direct brand suggestions.

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

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• How has the coverage leader and leader coverage changed across the July to October 2026 measurements?
• What were the largest coverage movements recorded in the benchmark history?

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.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses?
• Which of the most-cited domains belong to tracked Learning Management Systems brands?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 5,819 citations spanning 1,538 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed rather than concentrated: the top ten domains account for roughly 26 percent of all cited sources, and no single domain exceeds 8 percent share. Three tracked brands' own domains appear in the top ten: docebo.com at rank 5, talentlms.com at rank 6, and 360learning.com at rank 7. Vendor-linked domains (docebo.com, talentlms.com, 360learning.com) and category content sites (elearningindustry.com) account for a large share of citations, alongside general-purpose sources including YouTube, Google, Reddit, Gartner, Wikipedia, and G2.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how AI assistants surface and recommend brands across major AI and search surfaces. This neutral industry benchmark measures presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment for tracked brands in each category.

• 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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