New American Funding AI Visibility Market Strategy Report - Mortgage Refinance Lenders

Answer Capsule

New American Funding holds a stable but modest position in AI-generated mortgage refinance recommendations, with 17.20% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026. The lender appears in 18.90% of qualified AI responses but converts that presence into top-three recommendations only 4.16% of the time. Its clearest strength is exceptionally high sentiment at 0.91, indicating that when AI systems mention the brand, they frame it positively. The clearest gap is recommendation conversion: New American Funding is visible but rarely shortlisted, while Rocket Mortgage captures 79.21% coverage and 69.94% top-three placement in the same prompt set.

Who This Report Is For

This report is for mortgage lending executives, brand strategists, and growth leaders evaluating how New American Funding appears in AI-generated recommendations for refinance and home loan products.

Report Card

Executive Summary

New American Funding recorded 17.20% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, placing it seventh among ten tracked mortgage refinance brands. The lender appeared in 100 of 529 qualified AI observations, a raw mention presence rate of 18.90%, but received valid recommendation credit in only 91 observations. This gap between presence and recommendation indicates that AI systems reference the brand without consistently placing it in shortlists.

The brand's net sentiment score of 0.91 is the second highest in the tracked set, behind only Better.com at 0.97. Among 100 mentions, 91 were classified as positive, 9 as neutral, and none as negative. This framing quality suggests that when AI systems do discuss New American Funding, they do so favorably.

New American Funding's top-three recommendation rate was 4.16%, meaning it appeared among the top three recommended options in only 22 of 529 qualified observations. Its rank-one rate was 0.76%, with the brand named first in just 4 observations. The average recommended rank was 4.37 when the brand received rank-eligible credit.

The strongest platform signal for New American Funding came from Google AI Overviews, where the brand achieved 10.32% valid recommendation coverage and 4.76% top-three placement. The weakest platform signal was Copilot, where the brand recorded 15.85% coverage but only 2.44% top-three placement, suggesting presence without recommendation conversion.

The clearest competitive gap is against Rocket Mortgage, which holds 79.21% coverage and 69.94% top-three placement. loanDepot, Bank of America Corp., Better.com, and PennyMac all rank above New American Funding on valid recommendation coverage. The brand's stable position against the July 2026 baseline, down only 2.70 points, indicates neither significant momentum nor significant decline.

The primary opportunity lies in converting existing positive mentions into top-three placements. New American Funding is mentioned in nearly one in five qualified observations but recommended in the top three in fewer than one in twenty. Closing that gap requires targeted work on the prompt, page, and citation layers that shape how AI systems form refinance shortlists.

What New American Funding Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• How does New American Funding's sentiment score compare with other refinance lenders?
• Where does New American Funding perform best across AI platforms?
• Has the brand's AI recommendation coverage changed since the July 2026 baseline?

New American Funding's clearest win is sentiment quality. At 0.91, its net sentiment score reflects 91 positive mentions against zero negative mentions across 100 total mentions. This is the second-highest sentiment score among tracked brands and indicates that AI systems frame the brand favorably when they discuss it.

The brand also shows stable presence against the July 2026 baseline. Coverage moved from 19.90% in July to 17.20% in October, a decline of 2.70 points that fell within normal month-to-month variation. This stability suggests the brand has not experienced the entity-name disruptions that affected Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo in the tracked set.

On Google AI Overviews, New American Funding achieved its strongest platform-specific performance with 10.32% valid recommendation coverage and 4.76% top-three placement. The brand also recorded 1.75% rank-one placement on Google AI Mode, its highest rank-one rate across platforms.

These wins are meaningful but narrow. The brand's absolute recommendation counts remain modest relative to category leaders, and its top-three rate of 4.16% places it well behind Rocket Mortgage, loanDepot, Bank of America Corp., Better.com, and United Wholesale Mortgage.

Where New American Funding Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• Why is New American Funding mentioned so often but rarely placed in top-three refinance recommendations?
• On which AI platforms is the gap between mention and top-three placement widest?
• How far behind are New American Funding's top-three rate and average recommended rank compared with Rocket Mortgage and loanDepot?

New American Funding's most significant gap is recommendation conversion. The brand appears in 18.90% of qualified observations but receives valid recommendation credit in only 17.20% and top-three placement in just 4.16%. This means that in the vast majority of observations where the brand is mentioned, it is not being shortlisted as a leading option.

The gap is most pronounced on Copilot. New American Funding recorded 15.85% valid recommendation coverage on Copilot but only 2.44% top-three placement. The brand is present in Copilot responses but almost never positioned as a top recommendation. This pattern suggests that Copilot may reference New American Funding as context or comparison rather than as a recommended option.

On ChatGPT, the brand achieved 16.67% valid recommendation coverage but only 1.52% top-three placement. The single top-three placement on ChatGPT represents a significant underperformance relative to the platform's overall recommendation volume.

The competitive displacement is stark. Rocket Mortgage holds 79.21% coverage and 69.94% top-three placement, meaning it is recommended in the top three in nearly seven of every ten qualified observations. loanDepot holds 49.34% coverage and 23.82% top-three placement. Bank of America Corp. holds 35.54% coverage and 18.71% top-three placement. Even Better.com, which declined against the July baseline, holds 27.60% coverage and 19.09% top-three placement.

New American Funding's average recommended rank of 4.37 indicates that when the brand does receive rank-eligible credit, it typically appears in the fourth position. This is behind Rocket Mortgage at 1.51, United Wholesale Mortgage at 2.39, Better.com at 2.66, Wells Fargo & Co. at 3.19, Bank of America Corp. at 3.59, and PennyMac at 3.81.

The brand's rank-one rate of 0.76% is among the lowest in the tracked set. Only Chase Credit Journey, at 0.00%, recorded a lower rank-one rate. This indicates that New American Funding is almost never the first or primary recommendation in AI-generated refinance responses.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Which high-intent refinance prompts reveal the gap between mention presence and top-three recommendation?
• How could strengthening the citation and evidence layer improve New American Funding's shortlist placement?
• Where should the brand focus to extend its Google AI Overviews performance to other platforms?

The clearest opportunity for New American Funding is to convert its existing positive mention presence into top-three recommendation placement on high-intent refinance prompts. The brand already achieves strong sentiment and stable presence. The gap is not awareness but recommendation conversion.

The prompt evidence shows that high-intent questions such as "Who is the best mortgage lender right now?" and "Who is the easiest mortgage lender?" are generating responses where New American Funding appears but is not shortlisted. These prompts represent the decision moment where buyers form their consideration set. Being mentioned without being recommended in these contexts means the brand is visible but not actionable.

The specific opportunity is to strengthen the citation and evidence layer that AI systems use when forming refinance recommendations. The benchmark's top cited domains include bankrate.com, nerdwallet.com, and lendingtree.com, which are review and comparison sites that heavily influence AI-generated shortlists. New American Funding's presence in these source environments, and the framing quality of that presence, likely shapes whether AI systems place the brand in top-three positions.

On Google AI Overviews, where the brand already achieves its strongest performance, there is an opportunity to extend that pattern to ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity. The brand's 1.52% top-three rate on ChatGPT and 2.44% on Copilot suggest that these platforms are not yet treating New American Funding as a leading refinance option.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does New American Funding rank among mortgage refinance lenders on top-three recommendation rate?
• Which competitors outperform New American Funding on recommendation placement despite weaker sentiment?
• What separates Rocket Mortgage's recommendation power from the rest of the tracked refinance brands?

Rocket Mortgage holds dominant recommendation power in the mortgage refinance category, with loanDepot as the strongest challenger and Bank of America Corp. in third position. New American Funding sits in seventh place, behind Better.com, PennyMac, and United Wholesale Mortgage on top-three recommendation rate.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

New American Funding's 4.16% top-three rate places it in the lower tier of the tracked set, above only Wells Fargo & Co., Rate, and Chase Credit Journey. Its sentiment score of 0.91 is the second highest, indicating that the brand's challenge is not framing quality but recommendation frequency and placement.

Prompt Evidence

ChatGPT / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who is the best mortgage lender right now?" Result: New American Funding received valid recommendation credit in 16.67% of ChatGPT observations but achieved top-three placement in only 1.52%, indicating presence without shortlist conversion.

Google AI Overviews / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who is the easiest mortgage lender?" Result: New American Funding achieved its strongest platform performance on Google AI Overviews with 10.32% valid recommendation coverage and 4.76% top-three placement.

Copilot / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Which bank is best for home loan interest?" Result: New American Funding recorded 15.85% valid recommendation coverage on Copilot but only 2.44% top-three placement, suggesting the brand is referenced but not recommended as a leading option.

Perplexity / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "What is the interest rate on home loans right now?" Result: New American Funding achieved 18.64% valid recommendation coverage on Perplexity with 3.39% top-three placement, reflecting the brand's pattern of presence without strong recommendation conversion.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Visibility Market Discovery Audit Map the specific prompt families where New American Funding appears but is not shortlisted, with focus on ChatGPT and Copilot where the presence-to-recommendation gap is widest.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Identify the attributes, differentiators, and proof points that AI systems associate with top-three refinance recommendations and assess where New American Funding's public evidence layer is missing those signals.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Strengthen the brand's owned content to clearly state refinance eligibility, process simplicity, and borrower outcomes in formats that AI systems can retrieve and synthesize into recommendation shortlists.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Improve the brand's presence and framing in the review sites, comparison pages, and financial news sources that AI systems cite most frequently when forming refinance recommendations.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Track top-three placement rate, rank-one rate, and platform-specific recommendation conversion to measure whether the brand is closing the gap between presence and shortlist inclusion.

Why This Matters

Questions This Section Answers

• What is the commercial difference between being mentioned and being shortlisted in AI refinance recommendations?
• Why does a strong sentiment score of 0.91 not translate into buyer consideration on its own?

AI-generated recommendations are becoming the first stage of the refinance buyer journey. When a homeowner asks an AI system which lender to consider, the response shapes the consideration set before any branded search or direct visit occurs. New American Funding's 18.90% presence rate means the brand is part of the conversation, but its 4.16% top-three rate means it is rarely part of the shortlist.

The difference between being mentioned and being recommended is commercially significant. A neutral reference in an AI response does not create the same consideration as a top-three recommendation. New American Funding's strong sentiment score of 0.91 indicates that AI systems frame the brand positively, but positive framing without shortlist placement does not convert into buyer action. The next move is targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that determine whether the brand appears in the recommendation set or merely in the response.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

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

For New American Funding, the calculation is: (91 × 1 + 9 × 0 + 0 × -1) / 100 = 0.91.

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A brand that appears frequently but is framed negatively or neutrally is not achieving the same visibility outcome as a brand that appears less often but is consistently recommended. Share of voice is a diagnostic metric, not a business KPI. A positive recommendation, a neutral reference, a cautionary mention, and a competitor-displaced mention are not equal in commercial value.

New American Funding's 0.91 sentiment score indicates that AI systems frame the brand positively when they discuss it. However, sentiment alone does not drive shortlist inclusion. The brand's challenge is not framing quality but recommendation frequency. Counting all mentions as wins would overstate the brand's position. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility, and New American Funding's classified sentiment is strong but not sufficient to close the recommendation gap.

Sentiment by Platform

Methodology

1. Report orientation: This is a benchmark-based AI Visibility Company Market Strategy Report for New American Funding in the Mortgage Refinance Lenders category, derived from the LLM Authority Index October 2026 measurement.
2. Reporting window: The October 2026 measurement was extracted on October 1, 2026, and reflects AI responses collected during the reporting period.
3. Platforms tracked: Six canonical AI surface families were tracked: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
4. Observation count: The October 2026 benchmark produced 529 qualified observations from an initial collection of 800 prompt-surface observations and 584 unique questions.
5. Competitor universe: Ten brands were tracked: New American Funding, Rocket Mortgage, loanDepot, Bank of America Corp., Better.com, PennyMac, United Wholesale Mortgage, Wells Fargo & Co., Rate, and Chase Credit Journey.
6. Public clusters used: All 529 qualified observations fell into the Brand Recommendation cluster. No observations were captured in Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison clusters, which remains an open data gap for this reporting period.
7. Stage 0 role: The benchmark retains prompt-level observations including query, AI surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and citations where exposed.
8. Definition of a mention: A mention occurs when New American Funding 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 New American Funding appears in a recommendation shortlist with positive sentiment and rank-eligible placement.
10. Ranking interpretation: Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only. Brands with no rank-eligible recommendations receive no average rank credit.
11. Dataset normalization: Brand-level percentages use the 529 qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw 800-prompt collection. The public version does not expose a unique prompt count per brand, so rates should be read at the observation level.
12. Limitations: The public benchmark measures brand recommendation discovery only. It does not measure pricing, value, or multi-brand comparison prompts. Source presence in AI answers is evidence about the information environment, not proof of causation.

See How AI Is Recommending Your Brand

The LLM Authority Index shows where New American Funding appears in AI-generated refinance recommendations. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the specific prompts, platforms, and citation sources that determine whether the brand is mentioned or shortlisted, and shows which competitors are being chosen in the same responses.