[ 01 ]
You do not need to beat a dominant incumbent, because there isn't one.
The category is open. A score of 43 out of 100 is the ceiling today, and the gap from first place to fourth is five points.
AI search visibility / Coeur d'Alene / Home lending / 2026
When customers ask AI for a mortgage lender in Coeur d'Alene, who shows up?
In short
We measured how visible 502 mortgage lenders and brokers are across the five AI engines people now ask for a local recommendation: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity. The short version: no local lender owns AI search. The highest-scoring business reached just 43 out of 100, the median business scored 26, and even the category leaders appear in only about one in five relevant AI answers. This is a wide-open category, and almost no one has claimed it.
By Andrew Eastlick and Josh Rekittke
[ 01 ]Key findings
What did the data show?
- The category leader scored just 43 out of 100 on AI visibility. No local lender is dominant.
- The median business scored 26 out of 100; 89% of the 502 tracked businesses scored under 30.
- Even the top lenders are mentioned in only about 21 to 23% of relevant AI answers.
- ChatGPT surfaced more than twice as many local lenders (258) as Google's AI Overviews (117).
- After lenders' own websites, the sources AI cites most for these queries are Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and Google.
Last updated 2026-08-09
The full report as a PDF, including the leaderboard, the per-engine table and the method. We email it to you, and that is all.
[ 02 ]Finding 1
Does anyone own AI search in local lending?
Across 502 tracked mortgage lenders and brokers competing for Coeur d'Alene searches, the highest AI Visibility Score was just 43 out of 100. The median was 26.
In classic Google terms, imagine a market where the “number one result” only shows up half the time, and everyone else far less. That is the state of AI search in local lending right now: fragmented, low-visibility, and wide open.
Current AI-visibility leaders, 30-day window
| Rank | Lender | AI Visibility (0-100) | Mention rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guild Mortgage | 43 | 23% |
| 2 | Planet Home Lending | 42 | 21% |
| 3 | ICCU (Idaho Central Credit Union) | 41 | 21% |
| 4 | At Home Lending (MxdifyLocal client) | 38 | 16% |
| 5 | CrossCountry Mortgage | 35 | 12% |
| 6 | Lake City Mortgage | 35 | 12% |
| 7 | Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions | 33 | 8% |
| 8 | D.L. Evans Bank | 33 | 10% |
Even first place is winnable ground: the gap from #1 to #4 is only five points.
[ 03 ]Finding 2
How often are local businesses mentioned at all?
Rarely. AI Visibility Score blends how often a business appears and how prominently, and the how-often part is stark.
Even the leaders are named in only about one in five relevant AI answers, and the typical tracked business appears in just a few percent of them. Most local lenders are, in practice, invisible in the moment a customer asks an assistant for a recommendation.
502
Lenders and brokers tracked
26
Median AI Visibility Score, out of 100
89%
Share of tracked businesses scoring under 30
[ 04 ]Finding 3
Is showing up on one AI engine the same as showing up on all of them?
No. Where a business appears depends heavily on which assistant the customer uses.
Local lenders surfaced, by engine
ChatGPT
258 local lenders surfaced
Perplexity
166 local lenders surfaced
Google AI Mode
150 local lenders surfaced
Gemini
123 local lenders surfaced
Google AI Overviews
117 local lenders surfaced
ChatGPT surfaced more than twice as many local lenders as Google’s AI Overviews. A business optimized for one engine can be completely absent on another. Being found everywhere means being built for all of them, not just one.
[ 05 ]Finding 4
What actually feeds AI answers?
When these AI engines cite a source for a local lending answer, the third-party sites they lean on most are Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and Google.
[ 01 ]
Yelp
[ 02 ]
Better Business Bureau
[ 03 ]
In plain terms: your Yelp and BBB presence, and consistent Google information, directly feed what AI says about you. For local businesses, that is a concrete, controllable lever.
Businesses’ own websites are excluded from this ranking so the finding is not skewed by any single company.
[ 06 ]Practical
What does this mean for local lenders?
[ 02 ]
Build for every engine, not one.
The engine gap means single-platform optimization leaves you invisible to a large share of buyers.
[ 03 ]
Feed the sources AI trusts.
Complete, consistent Yelp, BBB and Google profiles show up in the answers.
[ 04 ]
Being mentioned more often is the biggest lever.
Even the leaders have low mention rates, so there is enormous room to be the business AI names.
[ 07 ]Methodology
How was this measured?
Published in full, because a study you cannot check is not a study.
Data is from Surfer's AI Tracker over a 30-day window in mid-2026, covering 502 businesses that appeared for a set of real local buyer queries about Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho home lending: lender recommendations and reviews, local brokers, refinance, non-QM and self-employed, VA and FHA, and construction loans. AI Visibility Score (0 to 100) blends mention frequency and position across five engines: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity. The tracked set includes national lenders that compete in local queries, not only Coeur d'Alene businesses. This is one vertical, one region, one time window; it is a snapshot, not a projection.
The score itself is defined on our AI Visibility Score methodology page.
At Home Lending is an MxdifyLocal client. This report uses the same AI Visibility measurement we run for every client, applied to the full competitive field. The most-cited-sources finding excludes lenders' own domains, including At Home Lending's, so the result is not skewed by any single company.
[ 08 ]FAQ
Questions about the report
What is AI search visibility for a local lender?
It is how often, and how prominently, a business is named inside answers produced by AI engines such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity when a person asks a buying question in plain language. A lender can rank well on Google and still never be mentioned in an AI answer.
How is the AI Visibility Score measured?
The AI Visibility Score is a 0 to 100 measure that blends how often a business is mentioned and how prominently it is positioned, across five AI engines, over a fixed window. In this edition the score is a single combined figure per business across all five engines, measured over a 30-day window in mid-2026.
How many businesses are in this report?
502 mortgage lenders and brokers that appeared for a set of real local buyer queries about Coeur d'Alene and North Idaho home lending. The set includes national lenders that compete in those local queries, not only Coeur d'Alene businesses.
Which AI engines were measured?
ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity.
Why are only the top performers named?
Naming the leaders is a factual, positive ranking that readers can check. We do not publish a named list of the lowest performers. Low scores are reported in aggregate only.
Is the report free?
Yes. The full findings are published on this page. The PDF edition is available in exchange for your name, business and email.
Part of the Mxdify family
Same studio standards as Mxdify, scoped and priced for businesses that serve a town.