Resume Builders: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Canva led valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 at 56.8%, down from 60.3% in July 2026. Kickresume followed at 52.9%, down from 61.0% in July 2026, a 3.9 percentage point gap between the two leaders. The largest coverage decline belonged to Zety, falling from 27.1% in July 2026 to 17.1% in September 2026. Kickresume also declined significantly, dropping from 61.0% in July 2026 to 52.9% in September 2026.

September 2026 saw movement beyond normal month-to-month variation for six brands, all in a downward direction. Zety declined in each of the two months since July 2026, moving from 27.1% to 24.4% in August 2026 and then to 17.1% in September 2026. Kickresume fell from 61.0% in July 2026 to 58.9% in August 2026 and then to 52.9% in September 2026. Resume Genius declined from 18.8% in July 2026 to 13.7% in August 2026 and then to 11.8% in September 2026. MyPerfectResume moved from 6.5% in July 2026 to 4.0% in August 2026 and then to 2.0% in September 2026. Novoresume and LiveCareer also declined beyond normal variation, while the gap between Resume.io and Zety widened from 11.1 percentage points in July 2026 to 21.0 percentage points in September 2026. No significant increases were recorded.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 637 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

In August 2026, the recommendation-shaped answer share stood at 39.2% and the valid recommendation shortlist share at 80.3%, before settling at their September 2026 levels.

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

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. AI Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in any form.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in one of the top three recommendation positions.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Positive mentions minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, scored from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Zety

Zety recorded the largest coverage decline in the series, falling from 27.1% in July 2026 to 17.1% in September 2026, a 10.0-point drop beyond normal month-to-month variation. Zety declined in each of the two months since July 2026, moving to 24.4% in August 2026 before reaching 17.1% in September 2026. Presence rate stayed relatively stable, moving from 50.5% in July 2026 to 52.4% in September 2026, while net sentiment moved from 0.4 to -0.1 over the same period. Presence remained stable while net sentiment turned negative.

Second Largest Decline: Kickresume

Kickresume's valid recommendation coverage declined from 61.0% in July 2026 to 52.9% in September 2026, an 8.1-point drop beyond normal variation. Kickresume declined in each of the two months since July 2026, moving to 58.9% in August 2026 before reaching 52.9% in September 2026. Presence rate fell from 69.1% in July 2026 to 63.3% in September 2026, and rank-one rate declined from 14.8% to 10.2% over the same period. Kickresume lost its leadership position across both coverage and rank-one rate.

Other Significant Declines

Resume Genius declined from 18.8% in July 2026 to 11.8% in September 2026, a 7.0-point drop beyond normal variation. Novoresume moved from 24.0% in July 2026 to 18.4% in September 2026, down 5.6 points, with the decline concentrated between August and September 2026. MyPerfectResume fell from 6.5% in July 2026 to 2.0% in September 2026, down 4.5 points beyond normal variation. LiveCareer declined from 3.5% in July 2026 to 0.5% in September 2026, down 3.0 points. The declines are broad-based rather than isolated to any single brand.

Category Leader: Canva

Canva became the category leader in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 56.8%, down from 60.3% in July 2026. The decline was within normal month-to-month variation. Canva also held the highest rank-one rate among tracked brands at 14.0% in September 2026, up from 8.5% in July 2026.

Enhancv rose within stable bounds, increasing coverage from 23.2% in July 2026 to 25.6% in September 2026, with top-three rate moving from 6.1% to 12.6% and rank-one rate from 0.8% to 3.5%. Resume.io held steady at 38.1% in September 2026, down from 38.2% in July 2026, while its presence rate rose from 58.4% to 70.5% over the same period, a 12.1-point increase. Resume.io's presence rose sharply while its recommendation coverage stayed flat. VisualCV moved within normal variation, from 5.2% in July 2026 to 4.9% in September 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, top-three and rank-one rates reveal meaningful differences in placement. Canva's rank-one rate of 14.0% in September 2026 trails its top-three rate of 27.5%, while Kickresume shows a similar pattern with 33.6% top-three and 10.2% rank-one. Kickresume's higher top-three rate did not translate into first-choice leadership.

Similar coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates, as the contrast between Canva at 14.0% rank-one and Kickresume at 10.2% despite Kickresume's higher top-three rate shows.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in the current public series fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

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

Evidence and Source Layer

This 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, or private or sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces recommend and mention brands across industry verticals. The index uses a reproducible methodology covering six canonical AI surface families.

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