Surety Bonds: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Travelers led the Surety Bonds benchmark in August 2026 with 61.2% valid recommendation coverage, extending its position as category leader from July 2026's 51.7% coverage. The Hartford followed at 55.3%, a gap of 5.9 points, with Liberty Mutual Surety third at 35.5%.

CNA Surety posted the largest coverage increase this month, rising from 0.0% in July 2026 to 16.4% in August 2026 as the brand replaced CNA in the tracking data. CNA registered the largest coverage decline, falling from 25.1% to 0.0% over the same span; both changes reflect the same tracking transition rather than a market outcome. Liberty Mutual Surety (up 13.0 points, from 22.5% to 35.5%) and JW Surety Bonds (up 4.4 points, from 2.2% to 6.6%) were the other brands whose August movement was large enough to register as a significant riser this month. Travelers gained 9.5 points, from 51.7% to 61.2%, though the increase falls just short of this month's significant-riser classification.

This measurement covers 152 qualified observations in August 2026 against 271 in July 2026, drawn from the same 800 prompt-surface observations collected in each month.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search 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 Surety Bonds

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.

For the full research process, see AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand is recommended in a way that qualifies as a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommendations.
• 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; ranges from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Increase: CNA Surety

CNA Surety registered 16.4% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, up from 0.0% in July 2026. This coincided with the tracking shift from CNA to CNA Surety. Presence rate stood at 30.9% in August 2026, while the top-three rate was 2.6% and the rank-one rate was 0.0%.

Largest Decline: CNA

CNA's valid recommendation coverage fell from 25.1% in July 2026 to 0.0% in August 2026. Presence rate declined from 43.2% in July 2026 to not tracked in August 2026, reflecting the brand name transition to CNA Surety in the tracking data. The decline is treated as a brand identity change within the measurement series.

Category Leader: Travelers

Travelers led with 61.2% valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, up from 51.7% in July 2026. Travelers also held the highest presence rate at 82.9% and the highest top-three rate at 33.6% in August 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The table below shows the leading brands by valid recommendation coverage.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates: Travelers and The Hartford are within 5.9 points of each other on coverage, yet The Hartford leads Travelers on rank-one rate at 12.5% versus 11.2% in August 2026.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

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

New measurements are added to the same report.

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.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how AI and search surfaces discover, mention, and recommend brands across industries. Each monthly measurement reflects a qualified set of prompt-level observations across six canonical AI/search surface families. Canonical research links:

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

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