Walk-in Tubs: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Kohler remained the Walk-in Tubs category leader in October 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 52.0%, ahead of American Standard at 51.2% by 0.8 percentage points. The month was mixed rather than quiet: one brand moved beyond normal month-to-month variation on the upside and four moved beyond it on the downside.

The largest coverage increase in October 2026 was Universal Tubs (Spa World (SWCORP), which rose from 5.2% in July 2026 to 12.1% in October 2026, up 6.9 percentage points. The largest coverage decline was Kohler, which fell from 62.5% in July 2026 to 52.0% in October 2026, down 10.5 percentage points. Ella's Bubbles and Safe Step each declined 9.0 points over the same window, and Meditub Spa World (SWCORP) declined 2.2 points.

Across the full four-month series, the category's largest single-month move remains Kohler's 10.4 point coverage drop between July 2026 and August 2026. Safe Step declined in each of the three months since July 2026, the longest sustained decline in the series. Universal Tubs (Spa World (SWCORP) has now risen in two consecutive months.

The benchmark began with 700 prompt-surface observations in October 2026 and produced 381 qualified observations after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The October benchmark registered activity across five of the six families, with Perplexity absent from the qualified set.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Walk-in Tubs

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 Visibility Market Discovery Methodology

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which walk-in tub brands lead on valid recommendation coverage and presence rate?
• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ among the leading brands?
• Which brands have the highest net sentiment despite lower coverage?

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 clear, attributable recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the single top recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive mentions minus negative mentions divided by total mentions, scored from -1 to 1.

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

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which walk-in tub brand showed the largest coverage increase, and which showed the largest decline?
• How did American Standard's coverage move in October compared with September?
• Which brands declined for multiple consecutive months?

Several brands showed additional month-over-month movement in October 2026. American Standard rose 4.6 points from 46.6% in September 2026 to 51.2% in October 2026, within normal variation. Boca Walk-In Tubs fell 1.5 points from 1.5% to 0.0% over the same period, a move that exceeded normal month-to-month variation. Universal Tubs (Spa World (SWCORP) rose 5.8 points from 6.3% to 12.1% between September 2026 and October 2026, also beyond normal variation.

Largest Increase: Universal Tubs (Spa World (SWCORP)

Universal Tubs (Spa World (SWCORP) recorded the only significant coverage increase in October 2026, with valid recommendation coverage rising from 5.2% in July 2026 to 12.1% in October 2026, up 6.9 percentage points, beyond normal month-to-month variation. The brand has now risen in two consecutive months. Presence rate moved from 15.3% in July 2026 to 20.0% in October 2026, while top-three rate rose from 1.4% to 4.7% and rank-one rate rose from 0.3% to 2.1% over the same window. The brand recorded 46 valid recommendations in October 2026, up from 19 in July 2026.

Largest Decline: Kohler

Kohler recorded the largest baseline-to-current decline among tracked brands, with valid recommendation coverage falling from 62.5% in July 2026 to 52.0% in October 2026, down 10.5 percentage points, beyond normal month-to-month variation. The steepest single-month move came between July 2026 and August 2026, when coverage dropped 10.4 points. Coverage has since held close to that level: 52.1% in August 2026, 52.2% in September 2026, and 52.0% in October 2026. Presence remained near-saturated at 94.5% in October 2026, and rank-one rate moved up from 22.2% in July 2026 to 23.6% in October 2026.

Category Leader: Kohler

Kohler remained the category leader in October 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 52.0%, ahead of American Standard at 51.2% by 0.8 percentage points. The gap between the top two brands narrowed markedly from July 2026, when Kohler led American Standard by 5.0 percentage points. Kohler recorded 198 valid recommendations in October 2026, ahead of American Standard at 195.

Ella's Bubbles and Safe Step, the next two brands by coverage, both declined 9.0 points from July 2026 to October 2026. Jacuzzi declined 4.0 points over the same window and 2.1 points from September 2026 to October 2026, both within normal variation. American Tubs recorded no presence and no valid recommendations in October 2026, based on 381 qualified observations.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• How can brands with similar coverage have very different rank-one rates?
• Where did American Standard and Ella's Bubbles diverge on top-three versus first-position recommendations?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Among the leading brands, placement patterns diverged in October 2026.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. American Standard's top-three rate of 38.1% in October 2026 exceeded Ella's Bubbles at 30.7%, but the rank-one rates ran the other way: Ella's Bubbles led in first position at 20.2% versus American Standard's 4.5%.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes are currently measured in the walk-in tub benchmark?
• Are pricing and multi-brand comparison queries represented in the qualified data yet?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class, which captures discovery and consideration queries.

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

Questions This Section Answers

• Did any brand other than Kohler lead the category across the four-month series?
• What was the largest single-month coverage movement recorded so far?

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

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI platform responses about walk-in tubs?
• Which walk-in tub brand's own domain appears among the top cited sources?
• How concentrated or distributed are citations across domains in this category?

Across all AI platform responses in October 2026, the benchmark recorded 5,614 citations drawn from 964 unique domains.

Citations are broadly distributed rather than concentrated: no single domain accounts for more than 8.7% of the total, and the top 10 together account for roughly 40% of 5,614 citations across 964 unique domains. One tracked brand's own domain appears in the top 10: safesteptub.com, the site associated with Safe Step, at rank 7 with 133 citations and a 2.4% share. The cited set is led by general-purpose platforms and retail sites, alongside review and comparison destinations and two nonprofit or senior-advocacy organizations, ncoa.org and seniorliving.org.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index is a neutral, repeatable industry benchmark that tracks how AI and search surfaces discover, recommend, and describe brands across a vertical. It is rebuilt monthly from a structured prompt collection and qualification process.

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

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