Recruiting Agencies: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which recruiting agency leads AI recommendations in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brands were significant risers against the July 2026 baseline?
• How much did Randstad's recommendation coverage gain since the baseline?

Robert Half leads the Recruiting Agencies category in October 2026 with 53.4% valid recommendation coverage, holding a 6.5-point lead over second-place Randstad at 46.9%. Korn Ferry follows at 40.0%.

The category recorded movement this month. Robert Half, Randstad, and Korn Ferry are classified as significant risers relative to the July 2026 baseline. No tracked brand recorded a significant decline.

Randstad posted the largest baseline-to-current gain in valid recommendation coverage, rising from 38.2% in July 2026 to 46.9% in October 2026, an increase of 8.7 points. Korn Ferry recorded the strongest prior-month move, rising 13.1 points from September 2026, part of an 8.3-point gain since the July 2026 baseline. Aerotek posted the largest baseline-to-current decline, but the 1.9-point slide sits within normal month-to-month variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 603 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode) with at least one qualified observation. All six families were present in each month of the series.

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

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 size.

For full methodology, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which recruiting agencies rank highest for AI recommendation coverage?
• How do presence rate and valid recommendation coverage differ across the ten tracked brands?

Robert Half holds the strongest position in October 2026 with 53.4% valid recommendation coverage, followed by Randstad at 46.9% and Korn Ferry at 40.0%. The table below is sorted by valid recommendation coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations in which the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations in which the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative sentiment among mentions, on a scale from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which recruiting agencies posted the largest baseline-to-current coverage gains?
• Which tracked brands lost recommendation coverage since July 2026?

Largest Increase: Randstad

Randstad's valid recommendation coverage rose from 38.2% in July 2026 to 46.9% in October 2026, an increase of 8.7 points, the largest baseline-to-current gain of any tracked brand. The brand also recorded a significant prior-month move, rising 7.8 points from September 2026. Its top-three rate climbed from 15.7% to 32.0% across the same window, and its rank-one rate moved from 5.4% to 10.1%.

Largest Increase: Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry's valid recommendation coverage rose from 31.7% in July 2026 to 40.0% in October 2026, an increase of 8.3 points. The brand also recorded the strongest single-month move in the category, rising 13.1 points from September 2026. Its top-three rate climbed from 11.7% to 22.9%, and its rank-one rate moved from 8.2% to 15.4%, a significant gain.

Category Leader: Robert Half

Robert Half leads the category with 53.4% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, holding a 6.5-point lead over Randstad. The brand's coverage rose 6.6 points from its July 2026 baseline and 6.7 points from September 2026. Its 21.4% rank-one rate is the highest in the category, more than double Randstad's 10.1%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How can two brands with similar AI recommendation coverage differ in placement?
• Why does Randstad's top-three rate exceed Robert Half's while its rank-one rate trails?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Robert Half and Randstad, the two brands with the highest coverage in October 2026, illustrate how placement can differ.

Randstad's top-three rate now slightly exceeds Robert Half's, 32.0% versus 30.9%, yet its rank-one rate of 10.1% trails Robert Half's 21.4% by roughly half. Close overall coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in October 2026 fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures Brand Recommendation discovery exclusively and cannot yet answer pricing, value, or head-to-head comparison questions.

Historical Measurement Record

Questions This Section Answers

• Does the available history show a consistent coverage leader across measurement periods?
• Which brand recorded the largest coverage movement in each measurement period?

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

The August 2026 measurement produced no coverage leader at all, a break that complicates any read of a consistent leadership pattern across periods.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains do AI platforms cite most often for recruiting agency recommendations?
• How concentrated are AI citations across domains in this vertical?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark observed 5,723 citations drawn from 1,361 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed: the top 10 domains account for roughly a quarter of all citations across 1,361 unique domains, indicating that AI recommendations in this vertical draw from a wide and varied information base rather than concentrating on a handful of sources. Two tracked brand domains appear in the top 10: roberthalf.com at rank 5 and adecco.com at rank 9. The list is otherwise dominated by job marketplaces (indeed.com, ziprecruiter.com, pin.com), general reference and social platforms (google.com, reddit.com, youtube.com), and industry trade media (staffingindustry.com).

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 or sales attributable to AI-driven discovery
• Every possible AI response, only the sampled prompt-surface combinations
• Organic-search ranking or social mention volume
• Private or sponsored channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how often brands are present and recommended across leading AI search and assistant surfaces. Each month, the benchmark publishes category-level standings based on qualified prompt-surface observations.

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

Get a Company-Level Authority Index

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper.

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