Old Republic Home Protection AI Visibility Market Strategy Report - Home Warranties

Answer Capsule

Old Republic Home Protection holds a stable but limited position in AI-generated home warranty recommendations in October 2026, with valid recommendation coverage of 17.6% across 694 qualified observations. The brand is mentioned in 20.8% of qualified observations but converts that presence into a top-three recommendation only 7.3% of the time, and into a first-position recommendation just 2.2% of the time. The clearest win is a rank-one rate that more than doubled against the July 2026 baseline, though on small absolute counts. The clearest weakness is the brand's distance from category leaders in recommendation-stage visibility. The clearest opportunity is converting existing presence into stronger placement within the brand recommendation cluster.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for home warranty category executives, brand strategists, and marketing leaders evaluating how AI assistants recommend protection plans and where Old Republic Home Protection stands relative to competitors in AI-led discovery.

Report Card

Executive Summary

Old Republic Home Protection recorded 17.6% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, placing it eighth among the ten tracked home warranty brands. The brand appeared in 20.8% of qualified observations, meaning it is mentioned in roughly one in five AI responses but recommended in fewer than one in five. This gap between presence and recommendation is the defining characteristic of the brand's current AI visibility position.

The brand's net sentiment score of 0.9028 indicates that when Old Republic Home Protection is mentioned, the framing is overwhelmingly positive or neutral. The brand recorded 130 positive mentions, 14 neutral mentions, and zero negative mentions across the qualified observation set. This suggests the issue is not reputation or framing quality but rather recommendation conversion and placement prominence.

Old Republic Home Protection's strongest platform signal came from Perplexity, where the brand achieved 44.8% valid recommendation coverage and a 14.9% top-three rate. The brand also recorded meaningful presence on ChatGPT with 18.9% valid recommendation coverage and on Google AI Overviews with 10.2% coverage. However, the brand recorded zero mentions on Gemini, a complete absence from that platform in the October 2026 dataset.

The brand's rank-one rate of 2.2% represents 15 observations where Old Republic Home Protection was the first recommendation. This is a modest but measurable signal, and it more than doubled against the July 2026 baseline of 1.0%. The absolute counts remain small, and single-observation shifts can register as visible percentage moves.

The clearest gap is the brand's distance from category leaders. American Home Shield holds 91.5% valid recommendation coverage and a 65.1% rank-one rate. Liberty Home Guard holds 76.8% coverage. Old Republic Home Protection's 17.6% coverage places it in the lower tier of the tracked set, ahead of American Residential Warranty at 4.9% and just behind 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty at 22.6%.

The brand's average recommended rank of 3.84 indicates that when Old Republic Home Protection does receive a valid recommendation, it typically lands in the third or fourth position rather than the first or second. This placement pattern limits the brand's visibility at the decision moment when buyers are forming their shortlist.

What Old Republic Home Protection Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where is Old Republic Home Protection seeing its strongest AI recommendation performance?
• What does the brand's sentiment profile and rank-one movement suggest about its current visibility?

Old Republic Home Protection's clearest win is its sentiment profile. The brand recorded zero negative mentions across 694 qualified observations, with a net sentiment score of 0.9028. This indicates that AI systems are not surfacing cautionary or critical framing about the brand.

The brand's rank-one rate more than doubled from 1.0% in July 2026 to 2.2% in October 2026. While the absolute counts are small, this movement suggests the brand is occasionally being positioned as the first recommendation in AI-generated responses.

Perplexity represents the brand's strongest platform by recommendation behavior. Old Republic Home Protection achieved 44.8% valid recommendation coverage on Perplexity, with a 14.9% top-three rate and a 1.2% rank-one rate. The brand's presence on Perplexity reached 44.8%, which means the platform surfaces the brand in nearly half of qualified observations on that surface.

The brand also maintained stable coverage on ChatGPT, with 18.9% valid recommendation coverage and a 4.4% rank-one rate. That represents 17 valid recommendations out of 90 observations on that platform.

Where Old Republic Home Protection Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• How far behind the category leaders is Old Republic Home Protection in recommendation coverage?
• Which platforms or metrics show the widest gaps for the brand?

Old Republic Home Protection's most significant gap is its distance from category leaders in recommendation-stage visibility. American Home Shield holds 91.5% valid recommendation coverage, while Liberty Home Guard holds 76.8% and Cinch Home Services holds 61.2%. Old Republic Home Protection's 17.6% coverage places it 73.9 percentage points behind the category leader.

The brand's top-three rate of 7.3% is similarly distant from the category leaders. American Home Shield achieves an 88.9% top-three rate, Liberty Home Guard achieves 53.8%, and Cinch Home Services achieves 36.9%. Old Republic Home Protection appears in the top three in fewer than one in thirteen qualified observations.

The brand's rank-one rate of 2.2% is the third-lowest among tracked brands, ahead of only Select Home Warranty at 0.4% and American Residential Warranty at 0.1%. When AI systems generate recommendation lists, Old Republic Home Protection rarely occupies the first position.

The brand recorded zero mentions on Gemini across 92 qualified observations on that platform, a complete absence from one of the six tracked AI platforms. By contrast, American Home Shield achieved 90.2% valid recommendation coverage on Gemini, and Liberty Home Guard achieved 75.0% coverage.

Old Republic Home Protection's average recommended rank of 3.84 indicates that when the brand does receive a valid recommendation, it typically lands in the third or fourth position. This placement pattern means the brand is visible but not prominently positioned when buyers are forming their shortlist.

The brand's coverage declined 1.8 percentage points from July 2026 to October 2026, from 19.4% to 17.6%. While this movement is within normal variation, it places Old Republic Home Protection among the seven brands that registered declines against the July baseline across the full series.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• What is the clearest path from being mentioned to being recommended for Old Republic Home Protection?
• Which platforms offer the best chance to extend the brand's strongest recommendation signal?

Old Republic Home Protection's clearest opportunity is converting its existing presence into stronger recommendation placement within the brand recommendation cluster. The brand is mentioned in 20.8% of qualified observations but receives a valid recommendation in only 17.6% of those observations. This gap suggests that AI systems are surfacing the brand as context or comparison rather than as a primary recommendation.

The brand's strongest platform signal on Perplexity, where it achieves 44.8% valid recommendation coverage, indicates that the brand can perform well when the underlying source layer supports recommendation-stage visibility. The opportunity is to extend that pattern to ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, where the brand's coverage ranges from 10.2% to 18.9%.

The brand's rank-one rate of 2.2% represents a narrow but meaningful pocket of first-position recommendations. Identifying which prompts and surfaces produce those placements, and building the citation and content layer to support similar prompts, represents the clearest path from reference to recommendation.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does Old Republic Home Protection rank against the other tracked home warranty brands?
• How does the brand's top-three and rank-one performance compare to category leaders?

American Home Shield holds dominant recommendation-stage strength in the home warranty category, with Liberty Home Guard and Cinch Home Services occupying the second and third positions. Old Republic Home Protection sits in the lower tier of the tracked set, ahead of only 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty and American Residential Warranty by top-three rate.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

Old Republic Home Protection's 7.35% top-three rate places it eighth among the ten tracked brands, ahead of 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty and American Residential Warranty. The brand's 2.16% rank-one rate is the highest among the bottom three brands in the table, though it remains far below the category leaders.

Prompt Evidence

Perplexity / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What is the best home warranty provider?" Result: Old Republic Home Protection appeared in the recommendation set with a valid recommendation, contributing to the brand's 44.8% coverage on Perplexity.

ChatGPT / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What company is the best home warranty company?" Result: Old Republic Home Protection was mentioned but placed outside the top three, consistent with the brand's 13.3% top-three rate on ChatGPT.

Google AI Overviews / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "home warranty companies" Result: Old Republic Home Protection received a valid recommendation in a limited share of observations, with the brand achieving 10.2% coverage on this platform.

Gemini / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What is the most reputable home warranty?" Result: Old Republic Home Protection was not mentioned in any qualified Gemini observation, a complete absence from this platform.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Questions This Section Answers

• What specific steps would address Old Republic Home Protection's recommendation gap?
• Which platforms and content layers would the next phase prioritize for the brand?

Phase 1: AI Visibility Market Discovery Audit Map the specific prompts and surfaces where Old Republic Home Protection appears versus where competitors are recommended, identifying the gap between the brand's 20.8% presence rate and its 17.6% recommendation coverage.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Prioritize the platforms where the brand has the strongest signal, particularly Perplexity and ChatGPT, and develop a plan to extend that performance to Gemini and Google AI Mode.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Strengthen the brand's owned content to provide AI systems with clear, retrievable information about coverage options, pricing structure, and service differentiators that support recommendation-stage placement.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Build the third-party editorial and review source footprint that AI systems appear to rely on, given that consumer review and personal-finance outlets dominate the citation layer in this category.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Track the brand's coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate across all six platforms to measure whether the brand is converting presence into recommendation placement.

Why This Matters

AI presence alone is not enough. Old Republic Home Protection is mentioned in 20.8% of qualified observations but receives a valid recommendation in only 17.6% of those observations. The brand's average recommended rank of 3.84 means that even when it is recommended, it typically lands in the third or fourth position rather than the first or second.

The next move is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that shape how AI systems describe and recommend the brand. The brand's zero mentions on Gemini and its limited coverage on Google AI Mode represent specific platform gaps that can be addressed through content and source development. The brand's positive sentiment profile provides a foundation, but sentiment alone does not convert to recommendation placement.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

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

Old Republic Home Protection's sentiment score of 0.9028 reflects 130 positive mentions, 14 neutral mentions, and zero negative mentions across 144 total mentions. This score indicates that AI systems frame the brand positively or neutrally when they mention it.

This matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A positive recommendation, a neutral reference, a cautionary mention, and a competitor-displaced mention are not equal. Counting all mentions as wins is bad measurement. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility.

Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI. Old Republic Home Protection's 20.8% presence rate tells us the brand appears in AI responses, but it does not tell us whether those appearances translate into recommendation placement. The brand's 17.6% valid recommendation coverage and 7.3% top-three rate provide a more accurate picture of the brand's position at the decision moment.

Sentiment by Platform

Methodology

1. Report orientation: This is a benchmark-based analysis of Old Republic Home Protection's AI visibility and recommendation performance in the home warranty category. It is not a client implementation case study.
2. Reporting window: October 2026, with comparison to the July 2026 baseline where available.
3. Platforms tracked: Six canonical AI and search surface families were included: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.
4. Observation count: The October 2026 benchmark produced 694 qualified observations after qualification from 800 source prompt-surface observations.
5. Competitor universe: Ten home warranty brands were tracked: 2-10 Home Buyers Warranty, AFC Home Warranty, American Home Shield, American Residential Warranty, Choice Home Warranty, Cinch Home Services, First American Home Warranty, Liberty Home Guard, Old Republic Home Protection, and Select Home Warranty.
6. Public clusters used: All 694 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters recorded no qualified observations in the public benchmark.
7. Stage 0 role: Stage 0 extraction provided the prompt-level observations that form the basis for all metrics. Source presence is treated as evidence about the information environment, not as proof of causation.
8. Definition of a mention: A mention occurs when Old Republic Home Protection appears in an AI response to a qualified prompt, regardless of whether the brand is recommended.
9. Definition of a valid recommendation: A valid recommendation occurs when Old Republic Home Protection appears in a recommendation-shaped answer and receives rank credit within the top ten positions.
10. Limitations: The public benchmark does not measure market share, sales attributable to AI recommendations, or causality from metric movements. Several brands in this category have small absolute observation counts, and single-prompt shifts can register as visible percentage moves. The benchmark does not distinguish between prompts that were collected but disqualified and prompts that were not surfaced for the brand.
11. Unique prompt count: The October 2026 benchmark included 390 unique questions across the surface universe.
12. Ranking interpretation: Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only. Brands with no rank-eligible recommendations are shown with an em dash in the competitive landscape table.

See How AI Is Recommending Your Brand

Old Republic Home Protection holds a stable position in AI-generated home warranty recommendations, but the gap between presence and recommendation placement limits the brand's visibility at the decision moment. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the specific prompts, surfaces, and citation sources that shape how AI systems describe and recommend the brand, moving from what is happening to why it is happening and what to do about it.