Professional Liability Insurance: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which professional liability insurance brands led AI recommendation coverage in October 2026?
• Which brand posted the largest month-to-month coverage gain?
• What changed in qualified observations and recommendation-shaped answers this month?

The Hartford led the Professional Liability Insurance benchmark in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 73.0%, ahead of Next Insurance at 63.1%, a gap of 9.9 percentage points between the top two brands. The largest coverage increase across the full series was Hiscox Usa, which reached 42.4% in October 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026. The largest coverage decline was Hiscox, which fell from 62.3% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026, with the brand no longer appearing in the qualified set. biBERK recorded a decline of similar scale, from 35.0% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026.

Movement this month was mixed. The Hartford posted the largest prior-to-current gain, rising 6.3 percentage points from 66.7% in September 2026 to 73.0% in October 2026, a move beyond normal month-to-month variation. Next Insurance and Progressive Commercial also rose from their September 2026 levels, by 5.2 points and 3.7 points respectively, while Chubb added 1.6 points. CNA edged down 0.1 points and Travelers slipped 0.3 points.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 474 qualified observations in October 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. August 2026 and September 2026 sat between these months, with 493 and 466 qualified observations respectively and The Hartford leading in each.

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 Visibility Market Discovery Methodology for full details.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• How did the top professional liability insurance brands rank on valid recommendation coverage, top-three rate, and net sentiment?
• Which brands qualified for the October 2026 benchmark, and how wide is the gap between the leader and the rest?

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, describing benchmark framing rather than customer sentiment.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which brands gained or lost the most AI recommendation coverage since the July 2026 baseline?
• How much of the reported movement reflects a tracking-set change involving Hiscox and biBERK entities?

The month-over-month picture reflects a continued tracking change: Hiscox and biBERK, which appeared in the July and August 2026 measurements, registered at 0.0% from September 2026 onward, while Hiscox Usa and Biberk Business Insurance entered the qualified set in September 2026 and have risen in each of the two months since. The Hartford's prior-to-current move of 6.3 points was the largest upswing between consecutive months among brands present in both.

Largest Increase: Hiscox Usa

Hiscox Usa posted valid recommendation coverage of 42.4% in October 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026, the largest baseline-to-current increase in the benchmark. The brand has risen in each of the two months since entering the qualified set, from 38.8% in September 2026 to 42.4% in October 2026. Its presence rate stood at 49.6% and its top-three rate at 26.4% in October 2026. This entry coincided with the decline of Hiscox, which fell from 62.3% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026.

Largest Decline: Hiscox

Hiscox fell from 62.3% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026, a decline of 62.3 percentage points and the largest baseline-to-current drop in the benchmark. biBERK recorded a decline of similar scale over the same window, from 35.0% in July 2026 to 0.0% in October 2026, a drop of 35.0 points. Both movements track the same set change that brought Hiscox Usa and Biberk Business Insurance into the qualified set.

Category Leader: The Hartford

The Hartford remained the coverage leader in October 2026 at 73.0%, down 4.2 points from 77.2% in July 2026. It recorded the largest prior-to-current upturn among brands present in both months, rising 6.3 percentage points from 66.7% in September 2026. The Hartford also led on top-three and rank-one rates at 63.3% and 35.2% in October 2026, respectively. Next Insurance followed at 63.1% coverage in October 2026, up from 57.9% in September 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How does placement differ between brands with similar recommendation coverage?
• Which brands appear most often in the first position of AI recommendations?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, The Hartford held the strongest placement in October 2026 with a 63.3% top-three rate and a 35.2% rank-one rate. Next Insurance recorded a 50.0% top-three rate and a 19.2% rank-one rate, while Hiscox Usa posted a 26.4% top-three rate and a 2.7% rank-one rate.

Despite similar coverage levels, brands can differ sharply in how often they appear in the first position. Progressive Commercial, Thimble, and Chubb had comparable top-three rates ranging from 14.6% to 16.2% in October 2026, yet their coverage levels ranged from 31.4% to 38.0%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes were captured in the current benchmark?
• What do the zero counts for Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison mean for interpretation?

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. Price, value, and head-to-head comparison have no public signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Who has led AI recommendation coverage across the July to October 2026 measurements?
• What do the month-to-month leader coverage figures show about volatility in this benchmark?

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

The Hartford has led every measurement in the series, but the leader's coverage has swung by more than 16 points between months.

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, 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

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses in this category?
• How concentrated are AI citations across domains, and which source types appear most?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 8,247 citations drawn from 1,002 unique domains.

Citations are moderately concentrated: the top ten domains account for roughly 41% of all citations, spread across 1,002 unique domains, so no single source dominates the information environment. Three tracked brands own domains appear in the top ten, thehartford.com, progressivecommercial.com, and nextinsurance.com, alongside hiscox.com further down the list. The remaining sources skew toward third-party comparison and review sites such as insureon.com, nerdwallet.com, and moneygeek.com, with YouTube and Google the only general-purpose platforms in the top ten.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility 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 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 percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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