Goldman Sachs Group AI Market Strategy Report - Certificates of Deposits

Answer Capsule

Goldman Sachs Group holds a mid-tier position in AI-generated certificate of deposit recommendations, with valid recommendation coverage of 12.32% in September 2026, placing it third behind Morgan Stanley and Bread Savings. The firm shows a meaningful gap between its strong presence rate of 58.77% and its recommendation conversion, indicating it is frequently mentioned but not consistently shortlisted. Its clearest weakness is the 6.9-point decline in valid recommendation coverage since July 2026, from 19.2% to 12.3%. The clearest opportunity lies in converting its substantial neutral mention base into positive recommendation contexts, particularly on platforms where it already shows pockets of strength.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for marketing, digital strategy, and competitive intelligence leaders at Goldman Sachs Group responsible for understanding how AI systems recommend financial institutions in the certificates of deposit category.

Report Card

Executive Summary

Goldman Sachs Group holds third position in the certificates of deposit benchmark with 12.32% valid recommendation coverage in September 2026, behind Morgan Stanley at 32.7% and Bread Savings at 29.9%. The firm appears in 124 of 211 qualified observations, a presence rate of 58.77%, but converts only a fraction of that presence into actual recommendations. This gap between visibility and recommendation is the central finding of the September data.

The firm recorded 41 positive mentions, 83 neutral mentions, and zero negative mentions across the qualified observation set. Its net sentiment score of 0.3306 reflects a positive framing balance, but the high neutral count suggests Goldman Sachs is frequently referenced as context rather than actively recommended.

The strongest cluster for Goldman Sachs is the brand recommendation cluster covering best CD rates and top certificate of deposit accounts, which captured all 211 qualified observations in September. The weakest area is recommendation placement: the firm's top-three rate of 4.74% and rank-one rate of 2.37% trail the category leaders by wide margins.

The strongest platform signal comes from Perplexity, where Goldman Sachs achieves 26.67% valid recommendation coverage, its highest of any tracked platform. The clearest platform gap is on ChatGPT, where the firm appears in 41.18% of observations but receives zero valid recommendations.

The benchmark data indicates Goldman Sachs has lost ground since July 2026, when its valid recommendation coverage stood at 19.2%. The decline of 6.9 points occurred while Morgan Stanley and Bread Savings both strengthened their positions, suggesting competitor displacement rather than a category-wide contraction.

What Goldman Sachs Group Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does Goldman Sachs show its strongest recommendation signal in the certificates of deposit category?
• What does the firm's clean sentiment profile indicate about its recommendation base?

Goldman Sachs Group shows a narrow but meaningful recommendation pocket on Perplexity. The platform data shows 26.67% valid recommendation coverage, with a top-three rate of 10.0% and a rank-one rate of 10.0%. This is the firm's strongest platform performance and indicates that Perplexity surfaces Goldman Sachs as a recommended option more consistently than other AI surfaces.

The firm also maintains a clean sentiment profile with zero negative mentions across all 211 qualified observations. This absence of negative framing is not universal in the category; several competitors recorded negative mentions in September. A clean sentiment base provides a foundation for recommendation growth without the drag of cautionary or critical references.

Goldman Sachs also shows meaningful rank-one placement on two platforms. On Perplexity, its rank-one rate reaches 10.0%, and on Copilot it reaches 9.09%. While these come from small observation counts, they indicate that when Goldman Sachs is recommended, it can secure the top position rather than appearing only as a secondary option.

Where Goldman Sachs Group Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does Goldman Sachs appear frequently in AI answers but receive few valid recommendations?
• What does the firm's decline since July 2026 reveal about its competitive position?

The clearest gap for Goldman Sachs is the conversion of presence into recommendation. The firm appears in 58.77% of qualified observations but is recommended in only 12.32%. This means the majority of its AI visibility is non-recommendation presence, where the firm is named but not shortlisted. Morgan Stanley, by contrast, converts 74.88% presence into 32.7% recommendation coverage, a far tighter relationship.

ChatGPT represents the most pronounced platform gap. Goldman Sachs appears in 41.18% of ChatGPT observations but receives zero valid recommendations and zero top-three placements. The firm is present in the answer set but is never the recommended choice on this platform. This pattern suggests its source footprint supports mention-level visibility but not recommendation-stage eligibility on ChatGPT.

The decline from July 2026 is also a structural gap. Goldman Sachs moved from 19.2% valid recommendation coverage in July to 12.3% in September, a loss of 6.9 points. During the same period, Morgan Stanley rose from 3.0% to 32.7% and Bread Savings from 25.6% to 29.9%. The data suggests Goldman Sachs lost recommendation share to the two category leaders rather than experiencing a category-wide decline.

The firm's neutral-heavy mention profile compounds the problem. With 83 neutral mentions versus 41 positive mentions, Goldman Sachs is more often described as a factual reference point than as a recommended option. Competitors like Bread Savings show the opposite pattern, with 72 positive mentions and only 9 neutral mentions, which correlates with stronger recommendation outcomes.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Where should Goldman Sachs focus to convert neutral mentions into positive recommendation contexts?

The clearest opportunity for Goldman Sachs is converting its substantial neutral mention base on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode into positive recommendation contexts. The firm has presence on both platforms but minimal recommendation conversion. On ChatGPT, it holds 41.18% presence with zero recommendations. On Google AI Mode, it holds 47.83% presence with 15.22% recommendation coverage. The gap between presence and recommendation on these platforms indicates that AI systems can retrieve and cite Goldman Sachs but are not yet framing it as a recommended choice in certificate of deposit discovery answers.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• How does Goldman Sachs' recommendation placement compare with the category leaders and JPMorgan Chase?
• Where does Goldman Sachs rank by valid recommendation coverage relative to the full tracked competitor set?

Morgan Stanley and Bread Savings hold the dominant recommendation-stage strength in the certificates of deposit category, with Goldman Sachs Group positioned third but trailing the leaders by a wide margin. The table below shows where Goldman Sachs sits relative to the full tracked competitor set.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

Goldman Sachs holds third position by valid recommendation coverage but sits behind JPMorgan Chase & Co. on both top-three and rank-one placement. JPMorgan's average recommended rank of 1.76 indicates its recommendations land in first position more often relative to its top-three presence, while Goldman Sachs recommendations cluster around the fourth position on average.

Prompt Evidence

Perplexity / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who is offering the highest CD rates right now?" Result: Goldman Sachs appeared in a valid recommendation context with a rank-one placement, its strongest single-platform outcome.

ChatGPT / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What is the highest CD rate right now?" Result: Goldman Sachs was present in the answer but received no valid recommendation credit, illustrating the presence-to-recommendation gap.

Google AI Mode / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Which bank currently has the best savings account?" Result: Goldman Sachs appeared in 47.83% of observations on this platform but converted only 15.22% into valid recommendations, with a single rank-one placement.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Market Discovery Audit Map the specific prompt themes within CD discovery where Goldman Sachs is mentioned but not recommended, with emphasis on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Identify which product attributes, rate positioning, and trust signals AI systems associate with Goldman Sachs and where those associations fall short of recommendation-stage eligibility.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Develop owned content that directly answers high-intent CD discovery prompts, giving AI systems a clear basis for recommending Goldman Sachs rather than citing it as context.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Strengthen the external source footprint that supports recommendation-stage visibility, focusing on the evidence layer that AI systems appear to synthesize from.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Monitor whether the presence-to-recommendation gap narrows across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and other platforms where neutral mentions currently dominate.

Why This Matters

AI-generated recommendations are becoming the default starting point for certificate of deposit discovery. When a buyer asks which institution offers the best CD rates, the answer they receive shapes which brands enter consideration. Goldman Sachs is visible in those answers but is not consistently the recommended choice, which means it risks being present without being selected.

The next move is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that determine whether AI systems frame Goldman Sachs as a recommended option or merely as a reference point. Presence alone is not enough; the data shows that recommendation-stage visibility is what separates the category leaders from the middle tier.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

Sentiment Score = (positive mentions × 1 + neutral mentions × 0 + negative mentions × -1) / total mentions

For Goldman Sachs Group, the calculation is (41 × 1 + 83 × 0 + 0 × -1) / 124, producing a net sentiment score of 0.3306.

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A raw mention total of 124 says nothing about whether those mentions are positive recommendations, neutral references, or cautionary notes. Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI; being mentioned frequently is not the same as being recommended favorably. A positive recommendation, neutral reference, cautionary mention, and competitor-displaced mention are not equal in commercial impact. Counting all mentions as wins is bad measurement. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility, because the framing quality of each mention determines whether presence translates into buyer consideration.

Sentiment by Platform

Methodology

1. This report is a benchmark-based analysis of AI-generated recommendations in the certificates of deposit category, produced from the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index and supporting metrics aggregation. It is not a client implementation case study.
2. The reporting window is September 2026, with July 2026 and August 2026 referenced for movement context.
3. Six AI surface families were tracked: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews.
4. The benchmark collected 800 prompt-surface observations in September 2026, of which 658 were unique questions and 251 were relevant to the certificates of deposit vertical.
5. The qualified benchmark set contains 211 observations, which serves as the public denominator for all brand-level percentages.
6. The competitor universe includes 10 tracked brands: Bread Savings, American Express Co., Bank of America Corp., Capital One Financial Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo & Co.
7. The public benchmark captured one buyer-intent cluster in September 2026: Brand Recommendation. No qualified observations were recorded in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison clusters.
8. Stage 0 extraction retained prompt-level observations including query, AI surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and citations where exposed.
9. A mention is defined as any appearance of a tracked brand within a qualified observation, regardless of recommendation context.
10. A valid recommendation is defined as an appearance where the brand is explicitly recommended or shortlisted as a choice, distinct from a neutral reference or comparison-anchor mention.
11. The July-to-September series includes a brand re-identification event in August 2026, where Capital One and American Express were replaced by Capital One Financial Corp. and American Express Co. as tracked entities. This affects the historical comparison for those two brands.
12. Limitations: The qualified denominator is smaller than the raw collection universe. Several movements come from small absolute counts and should be read alongside their underlying counts. The benchmark records changes between months; it does not by itself establish what caused those changes.

See How AI Is Recommending Your Brand

The public benchmark shows where Goldman Sachs Group stands in AI-generated certificate of deposit recommendations, but the aggregate percentages hide the prompt-level patterns that determine competitive position. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the specific prompts, platforms, competitor displacements, and evidence sources behind each recommendation outcome, turning the benchmark signal into a prioritized strategy for converting presence into recommendation-stage visibility.