Professional Liability Insurance: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

The Hartford led the Professional Liability Insurance benchmark in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 82.8%, up from 77.2% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Next Insurance, widened to 9.8 percentage points in August 2026, compared with 6.7 percentage points in July 2026.

The largest coverage increase among tracked brands was The Hartford, rising from 77.2% in July 2026 to 82.8% in August 2026. The largest coverage decline was Progressive Commercial, falling from 47.2% in July 2026 to 40.8% in August 2026. CNA also declined significantly, moving from 4.5% in July 2026 to 0.0% in August 2026, and was replaced in the tracking set by CNA Surety, which entered at 3.2%.

This was a month of mixed movement across the benchmark. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 491 qualified observations in July 2026 and 493 in August 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Professional Liability Insurance

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The table below shows how raw prompt-surface observations were filtered to the qualified set.

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

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in the first three positions of a recommendation.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations in which the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Increase: The Hartford

The Hartford's valid recommendation coverage rose from 77.2% in July 2026 to 82.8% in August 2026, a gain of 5.6 percentage points. This was the largest increase in the benchmark. The Hartford also led all brands on presence rate, at 94.9% in August 2026, up from 93.7% in July 2026, and held the highest top-three rate at 64.1%, up from 60.3%.

Largest Decline: Progressive Commercial

Progressive Commercial's valid recommendation coverage fell by 6.4 percentage points, from 47.2% to 40.8%. Presence rate also declined, from 60.5% to 54.0%. The brand remained in the middle of the field but moved closer to Thimble, which held steady at 40.8%.

Category Leader: The Hartford

The Hartford's lead over Next Insurance widened from 6.7 to 9.8 percentage points in August 2026. The Hartford also led on rank-one rate, appearing first in 40.2% of qualified observations in August 2026, up from 38.1% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the three leading brands, The Hartford held the strongest placement: a 64.1% top-three rate and a 40.2% rank-one rate in August 2026. Next Insurance showed a 55.4% top-three rate and a 20.9% rank-one rate, while Hiscox recorded a 34.9% top-three rate and a 3.6% rank-one rate.

Despite similar coverage levels, brands can differ sharply in how often they appear in the first position. Hiscox and Next Insurance had very different rank-one rates at 3.6% and 20.9%, respectively, even though their coverage gaps were smaller.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class of discovery.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison 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, sales, or revenue attributable to any brand
• Every possible AI response to every possible query
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume or engagement
• Private or sponsored channels, including gated or authenticated AI experiences
• Causality from a metric movement alone; the benchmark records the change, not the reason for it

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable industry benchmark that tracks how brands appear in AI-generated answers and recommendation surfaces across six canonical AI/search families. Each month, a fixed set of prompt-surface observations is collected, qualified, and scored for presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment.

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

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