Small Business Loans: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Bluevine led the Small Business Loans benchmark in August 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 63.5%, down from 69.8% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, onDeck, was 22.0 points, as onDeck recorded 41.5% in August 2026, down from 46.0% in July 2026.

The largest coverage increase among tracked brands was Biz2Credit, which rose from 3.7% in July 2026 to 5.3% in August 2026. The largest coverage decline was Bank of America, which fell 13.3 points, from 56.5% in July 2026 to 43.2% in August 2026.

Chase also registered a significant decline, moving from 49.0% in July 2026 to 36.2% in August 2026, a fall of 12.8 points. Beyond these two decliners, most other brands moved within normal month-to-month variation.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 437 qualified observations in July 2026 and 414 in August 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are 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 Small Business Loans

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design. The table below shows how the raw prompt pool narrows to the qualified benchmark observations that form the public denominator.

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

Current Brand Standings

Bluevine holds a 22.0-point coverage lead over onDeck, but its rank-one rate of 14.5% is more than three times onDeck's 4.1%, showing first-choice preference is far more concentrated than overall coverage.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation.
• Valid recommendation coverage: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: the share of qualified observations in which the brand is the first recommended option.
• Net sentiment: the balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Decline: Bank of America

Bank of America recorded the largest coverage decline of the month, moving from 56.5% in July 2026 to 43.2% in August 2026. The top-three rate also fell, from 27.0% to 18.8%, and the rank-one rate dropped from 10.3% to 5.1%. Presence held more steady at 71.3%, indicating the issue is recommendation conversion, not discoverability.

Largest Decline: Chase

Chase was the other significant decliner, moving from 49.0% in July 2026 to 36.2% in August 2026. The top-three rate fell from 28.4% to 22.0%, while the rank-one rate moved from 12.4% to 10.6%, which was within normal variation. Presence declined from 65.5% to 60.6%, also within normal variation, but the 12.8-point coverage drop was not.

Category Leader: Bluevine

Bluevine remained the category leader in August 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 63.5%, down from 69.8% in July 2026. The decline was within normal month-to-month variation. Bluevine also led on presence rate at 77.5% in August 2026, up slightly from 77.3% in July 2026, and on rank-one rate at 14.5%, up from 14.4% in July 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The table below adds placement detail for the leading brands.

Similar coverage hides different first-position outcomes. Bluevine and Chase both converted a substantial share of their coverage into top-three placements, but Bluevine converted more of those into first position. onDeck's 41.5% coverage produces a rank-one rate of only 4.1%, showing second-tier placement without first-choice strength.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, where the AI response names or recommends specific lenders.

The current public series cannot answer pricing, value, or head-to-head comparison questions because it contains no qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

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 automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

• Market share or sales attribution
• Every possible AI response to a given query
• Organic-search ranking performance
• Social media mention volume
• Private or sponsored AI channels
• Causality from a metric movement alone

The August movements, including the Bank of America and Chase declines, should not yet be treated as trends until further monthly measurements confirm direction.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces discover, mention, and recommend brands within a vertical. Each brand is measured on presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment across 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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