Which employee benefits brokers and consultants do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (October 2026)
When US employers ask AI engines which employee benefits broker or consultant to use, national brokerages fill most of the answer. Marsh McLennan Agency was named most often, in 37 of 58 answers (63.8%), followed by OneDigital (36) and USI Insurance Services (32). All 58 answers named at least one firm, and 74 different firms were named in total, 45 of them only once.
By Frederik Jakobsen, founder of Danish Lead Co and SourceRank AI. Measured 11 October 2026, published October 2026.
The firms AI named most often
Share of all 58 answers that named the firm as a provider, and how many answers on each engine named it. An answer counts once per firm however often it repeats the name.
100.0%
Answers that named at least one provider firm: 58 of 58. Every answer named firms.
74 firms
Distinct firms named across all 58 answers. 45 of them were named in only one answer.
25.5%
Share of all 411 firm mentions taken by the three most named firms, Marsh McLennan Agency, OneDigital and USI Insurance Services.
| # | Firm | Answers naming it | Engines | ChatGPT of 12 | Gemini of 12 | Copilot of 10 | AI Mode of 12 | AI Overviews of 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marsh McLennan Agency | 37 of 58 63.8% | 5 of 5 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 8 |
| 2 | OneDigital | 36 of 58 62.1% | 5 of 5 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 8 |
| 3 | USI Insurance Services | 32 of 58 55.2% | 5 of 5 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 5 |
| 4 | Gallagher | 31 of 58 53.4% | 5 of 5 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | HUB International | 29 of 58 50.0% | 5 of 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 4 |
| 6 | Lockton | 24 of 58 41.4% | 5 of 5 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 | Alliant Insurance Services | 24 of 58 41.4% | 5 of 5 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 8 | NFP | 23 of 58 39.7% | 4 of 5 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 9 | Nava Benefits | 19 of 58 32.8% | 5 of 5 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| 10 | Mercer | 18 of 58 31.0% | 5 of 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 11 | Aon | 18 of 58 31.0% | 5 of 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| 12 | Sequoia Consulting Group | 11 of 58 19.0% | 4 of 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| 13 | WTW | 10 of 58 17.2% | 4 of 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 14 | Ignition Benefits | 7 of 58 12.1% | 4 of 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 15 | Woodruff Sawyer | 6 of 58 10.3% | 3 of 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Top 15 of 74 firms. Engine columns show answers naming the firm out of that engine's measured answers. Firms with the same count are listed in the order the data was read.
What the answers show
- +Marsh McLennan Agency (37 of 58 answers, 63.8%) and OneDigital (36) lead, then USI Insurance Services (32), Gallagher (31) and HUB International (29).
- +The engines largely agree: in 11 of 12 questions at least two engines named the same firm first. Gemini stands out for NFP (10 of 12, against 0 of 10 on Copilot) and Nava Benefits (8 of 12, against 1 of 12 on ChatGPT).
- +A broker's own content was the most cited source: ignitionbenefits.com, in 13 of the 37 answers with sources. Ignition Benefits was named in 7 answers. shrm.org was cited in 10.
What each engine named
The most named firm per engine.
| Engine | Answers | Named a provider | Distinct firms | Most named firm on that engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 36 | Marsh McLennan Agency (10 of 12) |
| Gemini | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 26 | OneDigital, NFP (10 of 12) |
| Microsoft Copilot | 10 | 10 of 10 100.0% | 34 | Gallagher, HUB International, Alliant Insurance Services and 1 more tied (5 of 10) |
| Google AI Mode | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 17 | Marsh McLennan Agency, OneDigital (10 of 12) |
| Google AI Overviews | 12 | 12 of 12 100.0% | 28 | Marsh McLennan Agency, OneDigital (8 of 12) |
First-pick agreement: in 11 of the 12 questions where at least two engines named a firm, two or more engines named the same firm first. Marsh McLennan Agency was named by 5 of 5 engines.
The sources behind the recommendations
Most cited domains in the 37 answers that showed a source list. HR publications and one broker's own guides lead.
| # | Cited domain | Kind | Answers citing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ignitionbenefits.com | A named firm's own website | 13 of 37 35.1% |
| 2 | hrtechsaas.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 11 of 37 29.7% |
| 3 | shrm.org | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 10 of 37 27.0% |
| 4 | worldmetrics.org | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 9 of 37 24.3% |
| 5 | mployeradvisor.com | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 9 of 37 24.3% |
| 6 | zipdo.co | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 7 of 37 18.9% |
| 7 | linkedin.com | Social and video | 6 of 37 16.2% |
| 8 | mercer.com | A named firm's own website | 5 of 37 13.5% |
| 9 | firsthr.app | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 5 of 37 13.5% |
| 10 | hubinternational.com | A named firm's own website | 5 of 37 13.5% |
| 11 | gitnux.org | Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 4 of 37 10.8% |
| 12 | onedigital.com | A named firm's own website | 4 of 37 10.8% |
Out of the 37 answers that carried a source list (99 distinct domains). Sources per engine: ChatGPT 0 of 12, Gemini 10 of 12, Copilot 10 of 10, AI Mode 5 of 12, AI Overviews 12 of 12.
| Source kind | Answers citing at least one |
|---|---|
| Other (blogs, listicles, publishers, other vendors) | 32 of 37 86.5% |
| A named firm's own website | 29 of 37 78.4% |
| Social and video | 7 of 37 18.9% |
| Directory, review or analyst site | 6 of 37 16.2% |
| Community forum | 2 of 37 5.4% |
| Government or education | 1 of 37 2.7% |
An answer can cite several kinds, so the rows do not sum to the total. "A named firm's own website" means the domain matches the name of a firm named in this category.
How a firm in this category gets named
Being named depends on what the engines read. In this category, of the 37 answers that showed their sources, 29 cited a named firm's own website and 6 cited a directory, review or analyst site. The questions describe a situation: self-funding, a 20% renewal increase, union and non-union staff, a multi-state workforce. A regional broker that publishes plain, specific pages on those situations, as Ignition Benefits did, is cited by the engines that read sources and has a route into a list the national firms otherwise fill. This is the work SourceRank AI does, described on the services page. The free site readiness check shows whether your site is structurally ready to be cited; it checks your site, it does not measure answers like the ones on this page. To see where your own firm stands in these answers, book a call.
Exactly what was measured
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Date | 11 October 2026, one run |
| Buyer questions | 12, each phrased as a buyer asking for a provider, varied by size, budget, situation and switching. Full list below |
| Answer engines | 5: ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews |
| Engine cells | 60. One question on one engine |
| Answers measured | 58 of 60. The denominator for every share on this page. 2 Copilot answers were written for a buyer outside the US, a side effect of the third-party service we query Copilot through, and are excluded |
| Market | United States, English. Google AI Mode and AI Overviews were queried with a US location. ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot were not given a location, the same as in our client measurement runs; Copilot answers that assumed a buyer abroad are excluded |
| Sources | Cited sources come from Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT's answers in this run came back without a machine-readable source list, so ChatGPT is not in the source tables |
| Firm extraction | One language model call per answer listed the firms the answer named as providers, excluding directories, publications, citation labels and tools. Names were normalised and aliases merged. A hand check of 20 answers across the study is reported on the hub page |
| Not measured | Location personalisation for the chat engines, logged-in or personalised sessions, run-to-run variation (this is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms), and model versions, which change without notice |
All 12 buyer questions
- Best employee benefits broker for a company with 200 employees
- Which employee benefits consulting firms are best for mid-size employers in the US?
- Top benefits brokers for a 500-person company that wants to cut health insurance costs
- We are unhappy with our current benefits broker. Which employee benefits firm should we switch to?
- Best benefits broker for a company moving to a self-funded health plan
- Which employee benefits brokers are best for tech companies with 100 to 300 employees?
- Recommend an employee benefits consultant for a multi-state employer with 1,000 employees
- Best employee benefits brokers in the Northeast for mid-size companies
- Which benefits brokers offer the best benefits administration technology for mid-size employers?
- Top national employee benefits brokerage firms
- Which employee benefits broker is best for a manufacturing company with union and non-union employees?
- Best benefits consultant for a 150-employee company facing a 20% increase on its group health plan renewal
Cite this research
Journalists, analysts and writers are welcome to quote, chart and republish the figures on this page. Please credit SourceRank AI and link to this page as the source. For the underlying data, a comment from Frederik Jakobsen or a category we have not covered, see the press page.
Suggested citation
SourceRank AI (2026). Which employee benefits brokers and consultants do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? Measured 11 October 2026. https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/employee-benefits-brokers/
Link to copy
<a href="https://sourcerankai.com/research/who-ai-recommends/employee-benefits-brokers/">Which employee benefits brokers and consultants do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend? (SourceRank AI, October 2026)</a>Where to go next
All 22 category studies
Who AI recommends across 22 B2B categories, with the cross-category findings and the full method.
What AI engines cite by industry
The source mix behind AI answers in ten industries, from our September 2026 measurement runs.
AEO for this industry
What we do for firms in this space, and the questions their buyers ask AI.
Common questions
Which employee benefits brokers and consultants does ChatGPT recommend?
In this October 2026 run ChatGPT named Marsh McLennan Agency most often, in 10 of its 12 answers. Across all five engines the most named were Marsh McLennan Agency (37 of 58 answers), OneDigital (36) and USI Insurance Services (32).
Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI recommend the same employee benefits brokers and consultants?
Partly. Marsh McLennan Agency was named by 5 of the 5 engines, and in 11 of the 12 questions at least two engines named the same firm first. Below the top few names the lists diverge: 45 of the 74 firms were named in only one answer.
How was this measured?
12 buyer questions asking for employee benefits brokers and consultants were put once to ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on 11 October 2026, from a US English context. 58 answers were measured, and the firms each answer named as providers were extracted and counted once per answer. It is a single run, and the same question asked again can return different firms.