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 August 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 61.4%, ahead of ZenBusiness at 52.3%, a gap of 9.1 percentage points. The largest coverage decline among tracked brands was LegalZoom, whose valid recommendation coverage fell from 57.0% in July 2026 to 44.5% in August 2026, a drop of 12.5 percentage points. Multiple brands saw significant declines this month, and no brand recorded a significant coverage increase.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 474 qualified observations in August 2026 after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Aug 2026

Northwest Registered Agent-3.1%
Jul 202664.5%
Aug 202661.4%
ZenBusiness-4.9%
Jul 202657.2%
Aug 202652.3%
Bizee (Incfile)-2.7%
Jul 202649.3%
Aug 202646.6%
LegalZoom-12.5% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202657.0%
Aug 202644.5%
Harbor Compliance-6.4% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202622.2%
Aug 202615.8%
Rocket Lawyer-7.0% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202616.1%
Aug 20269.1%
InCorp-7.5% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202616.1%
Aug 20268.6%
CT Corporation-0.3%
Jul 20261.4%
Aug 20261.1%
CSC (Corporation Service Company)+0.2%
Jul 20260.2%
Aug 20260.4%
Registered Agents Inc-2.1% · beyond normal variation
Jul 20262.3%
Aug 20260.2%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	442	474	Up 32
Tracked brands	10	10	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	38.0%	28.5%	Down 9.5 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	67.4%	62.7%	Down 4.7 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	Aug 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	764	On-topic observations for this vertical
Irrelevant observations	43	36	Off-topic observations excluded from analysis
Qualified benchmark observations	442	474	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	92.4%	61.4%	53.8%	25.3%	0.7
ZenBusiness	82.5%	52.3%	45.4%	23.2%	0.7
Bizee (Incfile)	69.8%	46.6%	30.8%	3.8%	0.7
LegalZoom	84.4%	44.5%	17.7%	1.9%	0.5
Harbor Compliance	34.2%	15.8%	11.2%	1.3%	0.5
Rocket Lawyer	14.3%	9.1%	3.2%	1.1%	0.8
InCorp	16.5%	8.6%	4.2%	1.1%	0.6
CSC (Corporation Service Company)	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.8
CT Corporation	2.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.6
Registered Agents Inc	4.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1

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.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement since baseline
Bizee (Incfile)	49.3%	46.6%	Down 2.7 points
CSC (Corporation Service Company)	0.2%	0.4%	Up 0.2 points
CT Corporation	1.4%	1.1%	Down 0.3 points
Harbor Compliance	22.2%	15.8%	Down 6.4 points
InCorp	16.1%	8.6%	Down 7.5 points
LegalZoom	57.0%	44.5%	Down 12.5 points
Northwest Registered Agent	64.5%	61.4%	Down 3.1 points
Registered Agents Inc	2.3%	0.2%	Down 2.1 points
Rocket Lawyer	16.1%	9.1%	Down 7.0 points
ZenBusiness	57.2%	52.3%	Down 4.9 points

August 2026 was a month of broad declines across the vertical. No brand recorded a significant coverage increase, while five brands moved down beyond normal month-to-month variation: Harbor Compliance, InCorp, LegalZoom, Registered Agents Inc, and Rocket Lawyer.

Largest Decline: LegalZoom

LegalZoom's valid recommendation coverage fell from 57.0% in July 2026 to 44.5% in August 2026, a decline of 12.5 percentage points. Presence rate held comparatively steady at 84.4% in August 2026 versus 85.3% in July 2026, which points to a shift in whether LegalZoom was recommended rather than mentioned. InCorp also declined sharply, from 16.1% to 8.6% over the same period.

Category Leader: Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest Registered Agent remained the coverage leader at 61.4% in August 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. Northwest Registered Agent's presence rate rose to 92.4% in August 2026 from 88.5% in July 2026, and its rank-one rate reached 25.3% in August 2026, up from 23.1% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

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

Brand	Aug 2026 top-three rate	Aug 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Northwest Registered Agent	53.8%	25.3%	56.8%	23.1%
ZenBusiness	45.4%	23.2%	44.1%	23.3%
Bizee (Incfile)	30.8%	3.8%	32.6%	2.7%

Close coverage can still hide 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 25.3% versus 23.2% in August 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Aug 2026
Brand Recommendation	442	474
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	442	474

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

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

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The paid deep-dive adds competitor threat profiles, the gap matrix, citation failure map, platform-by-platform recovery roadmap, and client-specific economic modeling.

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