Registered Agent Services: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend registered agent services. This public AI Market Discovery Index is updated monthly since July 2026.

By Mark Huntley, J.D.Growth Strategist & AI Discovery Analyst

5 minutes read

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On this page

01Benchmark Summary
02Current Benchmark at a Glance
03Research Scope and Qualification
04Current Brand Standings
05How to Read the Standings
06Recommendation Coverage Movement
07Largest Decline: LegalZoom
08Category Leader: Northwest Registered Agent
09Recommendation Placement Snapshot
10Buyer-Intent Distribution
11Historical Measurement Record
12Evidence and Source Layer

Benchmark Summary

Northwest Registered Agent led the Registered Agent Services benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 59.9%, ahead of ZenBusiness at 50.8%, a gap of 9.1 percentage points. No brand recorded a significant coverage increase or decline this month; movement was within normal month-to-month variation across the vertical. Over the full series, however, seven brands declined beyond normal variation from July 2026 to September 2026, led by LegalZoom, whose valid recommendation coverage fell from 57.0% in July 2026 to 42.3% in September 2026, a drop of 14.7 percentage points.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 504 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Sep 2026

Northwest Registered Agent59.9%
ZenBusiness50.8%
LegalZoom42.3%
Bizee (Incfile)41.9%
Harbor Compliance13.7%
Rocket Lawyer8.3%
InCorp6.6%
CSC (Corporation Service Company)0.4%
CT Corporation0.4%
Registered Agents Inc0.4%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	442	504	Up 62
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	38.0%	29.4%	Down 8.6 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	67.4%	60.3%	Down 7.1 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Northwest Registered Agent	Northwest Registered Agent	No change

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.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Registered Agent Services

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Research stage	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	800	800	Total prompts collected across AI/search surfaces
Unique questions	456	519	Distinct questions after deduplication
Brand / competitor mentions	800	800	Prompts mentioning a tracked brand or competitor
Relevant observations	757	767	On-topic observations for this vertical
Irrelevant observations	43	33	Off-topic observations excluded from analysis
Qualified benchmark observations	442	504	Public denominator after all qualification steps

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

Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Northwest Registered Agent	93.1%	59.9%	51.0%	24.2%	0.7
ZenBusiness	81.8%	50.8%	43.9%	22.2%	0.6
LegalZoom	82.7%	42.3%	16.7%	2.0%	0.5
Bizee (Incfile)	60.1%	41.9%	29.0%	3.8%	0.7
Harbor Compliance	35.1%	13.7%	9.1%	0.6%	0.5
Rocket Lawyer	17.1%	8.3%	2.8%	0.8%	0.5
InCorp	15.7%	6.6%	3.2%	0.6%	0.5
CSC (Corporation Service Company)	1.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3
CT Corporation	1.6%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2
Registered Agents Inc	2.6%	0.4%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2

LegalZoom's high coverage masks a strikingly weak first-choice position, with only a 2.0% rank-one rate versus its 16.7% top-three rate.

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How to Read the Standings

Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all. Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation. Top-three rate is the share where the brand appears among the top three recommendations. Rank-one rate is the share where the brand is the first recommendation. Net sentiment is the balance of positive to negative mentions.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Sep 2026	Movement since baseline
Bizee (Incfile)	49.3%	41.9%	Down 7.4 points
CSC (Corporation Service Company)	0.2%	0.4%	Up 0.2 points
CT Corporation	1.4%	0.4%	Down 1.0 points
Harbor Compliance	22.2%	13.7%	Down 8.5 points
InCorp	16.1%	6.6%	Down 9.5 points
LegalZoom	57.0%	42.3%	Down 14.7 points
Northwest Registered Agent	64.5%	59.9%	Down 4.6 points
Registered Agents Inc	2.3%	0.4%	Down 1.9 points
Rocket Lawyer	16.1%	8.3%	Down 7.8 points
ZenBusiness	57.2%	50.8%	Down 6.4 points

September 2026 was a quiet month: no brand moved beyond normal month-to-month variation from August to September. The declines that mark this benchmark accumulated earlier in the series, with LegalZoom recording its largest single-month decline of 12.5 percentage points from July 2026 to August 2026, followed by a further 2.2-point decline into September 2026.

Largest Decline: LegalZoom

LegalZoom's valid recommendation coverage declined from 57.0% in July 2026 to 42.3% in September 2026, a drop of 14.7 percentage points across two months. Coverage declined in each of the two months since July 2026. Presence rate held comparatively steady at 82.7% in September 2026 versus 85.3% in July 2026, pointing to a shift in whether LegalZoom was recommended rather than merely mentioned.

Category Leader: Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest Registered Agent remained the coverage leader at 59.9% in September 2026, down from 64.5% in July 2026, a decline within normal month-to-month variation. Leader coverage held above the next brand by 9.1 percentage points. Its presence rate rose to 93.1% in September 2026 from 88.5% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate reached 24.2% in September 2026, up from 23.1% in July 2026.

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Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading brands show distinct placement profiles in September 2026.

Brand	Sep 2026 top-three rate	Sep 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Northwest Registered Agent	51.0%	24.2%	56.8%	23.1%
ZenBusiness	43.9%	22.2%	44.1%	23.3%
Bizee (Incfile)	29.0%	3.8%	32.6%	2.7%

Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates. Northwest Registered Agent and ZenBusiness sat within 9.1 percentage points of each other on coverage, while their rank-one rates were closer at 24.2% versus 22.2% in September 2026. Bizee's top-three rate of 29.0% contrasts with a rank-one rate of only 3.8%, showing it appears often but rarely first.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Sep 2026
Brand Recommendation	442	504
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	442	504

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

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

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
July 2026	442	Northwest Registered Agent	64.5%	No baseline for comparison
August 2026	474	Northwest Registered Agent	61.4%	LegalZoom, down 12.5 points
September 2026	504	Northwest Registered Agent	59.9%	LegalZoom, down 14.7 points from baseline

The leader's coverage has declined in each measured month, from 64.5% to 59.9%, even as the leader has not changed.

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. It records changes in how AI surfaces present and recommend brands within qualified observations.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI chat and search surfaces mention and recommend brands within a vertical, based on a fixed set of prompt-surface observations collected monthly.

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