Treadmills: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

NordicTrack led valid recommendation coverage in September 2026 at 69.7%, ahead of Sole Fitness at 58.0%, a gap of 11.7 percentage points. The largest coverage decline was ProForm, which fell from 39.0% in July 2026 to 27.5% in September 2026, a drop of 11.5 points that is beyond normal month-to-month variation. No brand recorded a significant coverage increase in September 2026.

Looking at the full three-month series, the category leader remained stable, with NordicTrack moving from 72.2% in July 2026 to 69.7% in September 2026, a decline of 2.5 points that falls within normal month-to-month variation. Sole Fitness declined from 59.7% to 58.0%, a move of 1.7 points, also within normal variation. Peloton was the only brand to gain coverage across the baseline-to-current period, rising 5.3 points from 40.9% to 46.2%.

The September 2026 benchmark comprised 429 qualified observations, compared with 464 in July 2026.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Both months recorded all six families.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

This benchmark reports on qualified observations only. Brand-level percentages in this report use the qualified observation count for each month as the public denominator: 464 qualified observations in July 2026 and 429 in September 2026. See the AI Market Discovery Methodology for the full qualification process.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation.
• Valid recommendation coverage is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the first three recommendations.
• Rank-one rate is the share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment is the balance of positive over negative mentions, from -1.0 to 1.0.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Peloton posted the only coverage increase from July 2026 to September 2026, rising 5.3 points from 40.9% to 46.2%. It rose in each of the two months since July 2026, climbing from 40.9% in July 2026 to 42.4% in August 2026 and then to 46.2% in September 2026. Its top-three rate also rose across the series, from 15.3% in July 2026 to 17.5% in September 2026.

Two brands that showed no coverage in August 2026 returned in September 2026. Horizon Fitness rose from 0.0% in August 2026 to 57.8% in September 2026, and Precor rose from 0.0% in August 2026 to 14.7% in September 2026.

Largest Decline: ProForm

ProForm fell by 11.5 points, from 39.0% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 27.5% in September 2026, a decline beyond normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate fell from 56.0% in July 2026 to 44.3% in September 2026, and top-three rate fell from 14.2% to 7.9%. The brand moved down in each of the two months between measurements, with a decline of 7.3 points into September 2026 that also exceeded normal variation.

Category Leader: NordicTrack

NordicTrack remained the coverage leader in September 2026 at 69.7%, down 2.5 points from 72.2% in July 2026, within normal month-to-month variation. Presence rate was 96.7% in September 2026, essentially unchanged from 96.3% in July 2026. Top-three rate held steady at 60.4%, and rank-one rate rose from 48.9% to 52.0%.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, NordicTrack holds a 52.0% rank-one rate in September 2026, while Sole Fitness holds 40.8% top-three placement but only 4.7% rank-one. Horizon Fitness shows top-three placement of 38.7% but a rank-one rate of just 1.9%.

Close coverage can still hide very different first-position rates, as the gap between NordicTrack and the next two brands demonstrates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both July 2026 and September 2026 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 or 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. 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. The monthly movements recorded here reflect changes in AI-generated recommendations and presence across the six canonical surface families, not necessarily changes in brand quality or consumer preference.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands appear in AI-generated recommendations across ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. Each month, a standardized set of prompts is submitted to each surface, and the responses are qualified and scored for brand presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment.

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

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