Staffing Agencies: AI Market Discovery Index

Tracking how AI platforms recommend staffing agencies. 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: Robert Half
08Category Leader: Robert Half
09Recommendation Placement Snapshot
10Buyer-Intent Distribution
11Historical Measurement Record
12Evidence and Source Layer

Benchmark Summary

Robert Half leads the Staffing Agencies index in August 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 22.9%, down from 50.6% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand, Randstad, is 5.4 points, as Randstad recorded 17.5% in August 2026, down from 43.2% in July 2026.

The largest coverage increase was not observed this month, as no tracked brand rose. The largest coverage decline was Robert Half, falling 27.7 points from 50.6% in July 2026 to 22.9% in August 2026.

The benchmark saw no coverage gains across any tracked brand, while Robert Half posted the largest single-month decline in the index.

The benchmark began with 772 prompt-surface observations in July 2026 and 788 in August 2026, producing 498 and 547 qualified observations respectively after qualification.

AI recommendation trend

valid recommendation coverage, Jul 2026 to Aug 2026

Robert Half-27.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202650.6%
Aug 202622.9%
Randstad-25.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202643.2%
Aug 202617.5%
Adecco-27.2% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202643.6%
Aug 202616.4%
Insight Global-15.4% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202631.7%
Aug 202616.3%
Aerotek-19.3% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202634.1%
Aug 202614.8%
ManpowerGroup-12.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202623.7%
Aug 202611.0%
Express Employment Professionals-15.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202625.9%
Aug 202610.2%
Kelly Services-15.8% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202625.1%
Aug 20269.3%
Kforce-8.8% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202616.1%
Aug 20267.3%
PeopleReady-12.8% · beyond normal variation
Jul 202616.5%
Aug 20263.7%
PrideStaff-3.2% · beyond normal variation
Jul 20265.8%
Aug 20262.6%
Spherion-7.0% · beyond normal variation
Jul 20269.4%
Aug 20262.4%
Employbridge-4.3% · beyond normal variation
Jul 20265.0%
Aug 20260.7%
AppleOne Employment Services-2.7% · beyond normal variation
Jul 20263.2%
Aug 20260.5%
Staffmark Group-1.2%
Jul 20261.6%
Aug 20260.4%
Openjobmetis SpAno change
Jul 20260.0%
Aug 20260.0%

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Measure	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement
Qualified benchmark observations	498	547	Up 49
Tracked brands	16	16	No change
Qualified surface breadth	6	6	No change
Recommendation-shaped answer share	39.2%	20.1%	Down 19.1 points
Valid recommendation shortlist share	60.4%	26.7%	Down 33.7 points
Leader by valid recommendation coverage	Robert Half	Robert Half	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 Staffing 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.

Research stage	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	What it represents
Source prompt-surface observations	772	788	Total prompts collected across AI/search surfaces
Unique questions	496	577	Distinct questions after deduplication
Brand / competitor mentions	772	788	Prompts mentioning a tracked brand or competitor
Relevant observations	608	703	Prompts relevant to the staffing agencies vertical
Irrelevant observations	164	85	Prompts not relevant to the vertical
Qualified benchmark observations	498	547	Public denominator for all brand-level percentages

For full methodology, see AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Brand	Presence rate	Valid recommendation coverage	Top-three rate	Rank-one rate	Net sentiment
Robert Half	27.8%	22.9%	13.9%	10.1%	0.9
Randstad	22.7%	17.5%	11.2%	3.5%	0.8
Adecco	21.6%	16.4%	7.9%	1.3%	0.8
Insight Global	18.6%	16.3%	7.7%	1.1%	0.9
Aerotek	18.3%	14.8%	4.9%	1.3%	0.8
ManpowerGroup	14.6%	11.0%	6.4%	1.5%	0.8
Express Employment Professionals	12.1%	10.2%	3.1%	0.9%	0.8
Kelly Services	11.7%	9.3%	2.6%	0.0%	0.8
Kforce	8.2%	7.3%	1.5%	0.2%	1.0
PeopleReady	4.8%	3.7%	1.5%	0.9%	0.8
PrideStaff	3.1%	2.6%	1.1%	0.5%	0.9
Spherion	2.7%	2.4%	1.3%	0.2%	0.9
Employbridge	1.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.7
AppleOne Employment Services	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	1.0
Staffmark Group	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4
Openjobmetis SpA	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0

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How to Read the Standings

Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommendations.
Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
Net sentiment: Balance of positive over negative mentions, from 0 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Brand	Jul 2026	Aug 2026	Movement since baseline
Adecco	43.6%	16.4%	Down 27.2 points
Aerotek	34.1%	14.8%	Down 19.3 points
AppleOne Employment Services	3.2%	0.5%	Down 2.7 points
Employbridge	5.0%	0.7%	Down 4.3 points
Express Employment Professionals	25.9%	10.2%	Down 15.7 points
Insight Global	31.7%	16.3%	Down 15.4 points
Kelly Services	25.1%	9.3%	Down 15.8 points
Kforce	16.1%	7.3%	Down 8.8 points
ManpowerGroup	23.7%	11.0%	Down 12.7 points
Openjobmetis SpA	0.0%	0.0%	No change
PeopleReady	16.5%	3.7%	Down 12.8 points
PrideStaff	5.8%	2.6%	Down 3.2 points
Randstad	43.2%	17.5%	Down 25.7 points
Robert Half	50.6%	22.9%	Down 27.7 points
Spherion	9.4%	2.4%	Down 7.0 points
Staffmark Group	1.6%	0.4%	Down 1.2 points

Largest Decline: Robert Half

Robert Half saw the largest single-month drop in the index, declining 27.7 points from 50.6% to 22.9%. Presence fell from 70.9% to 27.8% in the same period. The top-three rate declined 11.2 points from 25.1% to 13.9%, while rank-one placement fell 3.8 points from 13.9% to 10.1%.

Category Leader: Robert Half

Despite the decline, Robert Half remains the category leader in August 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 22.9%, ahead of Randstad at 17.5% and Adecco at 16.4%. The category leadership gap narrowed sharply, even though Robert Half still holds the top position across all primary metrics.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, Robert Half leads in first-position placement, while Randstad and Adecco show lower rank-one rates relative to their coverage.

Brand	Aug 2026 top-three rate	Aug 2026 rank-one rate	Jul 2026 top-three rate	Jul 2026 rank-one rate
Robert Half	13.9%	10.1%	25.1%	13.9%
Randstad	11.2%	3.5%	23.5%	7.6%
Adecco	7.9%	1.3%	21.9%	5.8%

Close coverage levels can still hide different first-position rates, as Randstad and Adecco show rank-one rates well below Robert Half despite comparable overall coverage. First-choice preference is much less competitive than coverage suggests.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in the current series fell into the Brand Recommendation class, representing discovery and consideration queries.

Buyer-intent class	Jul 2026	Aug 2026
Brand Recommendation	498	547
Pricing & Value	0	0
Multi-Brand Comparison	0	0
Total qualified observations	498	547

The current public series measures brand-recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing or comparison classes. Price, value, and head-to-head comparison have no public signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Measurement	Qualified observations	Coverage leader	Leader coverage	Largest coverage movement
Jul 2026	498	Robert Half	50.6%	-
Aug 2026	547	Robert Half	22.9%	Robert Half, Down 27.7 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. Source presence is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure:

Market share or attributable sales
Every possible AI response a model could generate
Organic-search ranking positions
Social media mention volume
Private or sponsored channels
Causality from a metric movement alone

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated responses across the six canonical AI/search surface families. Each monthly measurement follows the same research protocol, allowing consistent comparison over time.

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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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