New American Funding AI Market Strategy Report - VA Loans Lenders

Answer Capsule

New American Funding holds visible but under-recommended status in AI-generated VA loans lender recommendations for September 2026. The brand appeared in 16.72% of qualified observations but converted only 12.57% into valid recommendations, a gap that widened after a 5.9-point coverage decline from August 2026. The clearest weakness is the brand's near-absence from top-three placements at 2.66%, while the clearest opportunity sits in converting its strong positive sentiment score of 0.8673 into higher recommendation placement across ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.

Who This Report Is For

This report serves marketing leaders, brand strategists, and competitive intelligence teams at New American Funding who need to understand how AI assistants recommend VA loans lenders and where the brand is losing shortlist positions to competitors.

Report Card

Executive Summary

New American Funding occupies a precarious position in AI-generated VA loans lender recommendations. The brand registered 113 mentions across 676 qualified observations in September 2026, translating to a raw mention presence rate of 16.72%. However, only 85 of those mentions qualified as valid recommendations, producing a valid recommendation coverage rate of 12.57%. This gap between presence and recommendation conversion indicates that AI systems recognize New American Funding as a relevant entity in the VA loans category but frequently decline to include the brand in recommendation shortlists.

The September 2026 benchmark marked New American Funding as the only significant decliner in the category. Valid recommendation coverage fell from 18.5% in August 2026 to 12.6% in September 2026, a drop of 5.9 points that exceeded normal month-to-month variation thresholds. This decline was accompanied by parallel drops in raw mention presence, which fell from 21.0% to 16.7%, and top-three recommendation rate, which declined from 5.2% to 2.7%. The benchmark cannot establish causation from these movements alone, but the pattern suggests reduced inclusion in AI-generated recommendation sets rather than a sentiment problem.

Sentiment remains a genuine strength for New American Funding. The brand recorded 98 positive mentions, 15 neutral mentions, and zero negative mentions, producing a net sentiment score of 0.8673. This places New American Funding among the highest-scoring brands in the category on framing quality. The challenge is not how AI systems describe the brand when mentioned; it is how often the brand enters the recommendation conversation at all.

The strongest platform signal for New American Funding appeared on Google AI Mode, where the brand achieved a valid recommendation coverage rate of 19.34% and a top-three rate of 4.42%. ChatGPT also showed meaningful engagement with 8.64% positive visibility rate and a valid recommendation coverage of 6.17%. Perplexity generated the highest raw mention presence rate at 29.85%, though recommendation conversion on that platform remained limited at 14.93%.

The clearest platform gap appears on Copilot, where New American Funding registered only 3.19% valid recommendation coverage despite a 12.5% positive visibility rate. Gemini showed similarly weak recommendation conversion at 6.59% coverage. These platforms represent underdeveloped recommendation channels where the brand has some presence but fails to convert that presence into shortlist inclusion.

The competitive context intensifies the challenge. Rocket Mortgage leads the category with 70.0% valid recommendation coverage and a 45.71% top-three rate. Navy Federal Credit Union holds second place at 60.21% coverage. Veterans United Home Loans, the most direct competitor in the VA loans specialty space, commands 45.56% coverage with a 27.66% top-three rate and 15.98% rank-one rate. New American Funding's 12.57% coverage places it sixth in the ten-brand category, trailing loanDepot at 26.48% and CrossCountry Mortgage at 15.98%.

The benchmark data does not explain why New American Funding's recommendation coverage declined in September 2026. Possible factors include changes in how AI systems retrieve and synthesize source material, shifts in competitor content strategies, or variations in prompt phrasing that altered which brands qualified for recommendation shortlists. A company-level analysis would be required to identify the specific prompts, surfaces, and source patterns driving the decline.

What New American Funding Is Winning

Questions This Section Answers

• Where does New American Funding's sentiment score rank among the ten tracked VA loans lenders?
• Which platform produced the brand's strongest recommendation coverage, and how does it compare to category leaders?

New American Funding's clearest win is sentiment quality. The brand's net sentiment score of 0.8673 ranks third among all ten tracked brands, trailing only Movement Mortgage at 0.875 and Navy Federal Credit Union at 0.8411. With 98 positive mentions against zero negative mentions, AI systems consistently frame New American Funding positively when the brand appears in responses.

The brand also demonstrates strength on Google AI Mode, where it achieved the highest valid recommendation coverage among all platforms at 19.34%. This platform generated 35 valid recommendations for New American Funding across 181 observations, with a top-three rate of 4.42% and a rank-one rate of 0.55%. Google AI Mode represents the brand's most productive recommendation channel in the current benchmark.

Perplexity produced the highest raw mention presence rate for New American Funding at 29.85%, indicating that the brand appears frequently in Perplexity responses about VA loans lenders. The platform generated 20 mentions across 67 observations, with 19 classified as positive and one as neutral. While recommendation conversion on Perplexity remained modest at 14.93% coverage, the high presence rate suggests the brand has established entity recognition on that platform.

These wins are meaningful but narrow. Positive sentiment without recommendation conversion does not translate into buyer shortlist inclusion. High presence on Perplexity has not yet produced proportional recommendation outcomes. The brand's Google AI Mode performance, while the strongest among its platform results, still trails category leaders by substantial margins.

Where New American Funding Has the Clearest AI Visibility Gaps

Questions This Section Answers

• Why does New American Funding fail to convert its AI mentions into valid recommendations?
• How far behind are the brand's top-three and rank-one placements compared to Rocket Mortgage and Veterans United?
• What gaps exist on Copilot and Gemini where the brand appears but does not get recommended?

The most significant gap is recommendation conversion. New American Funding appeared in 113 qualified observations but received valid recommendation credit in only 85 of those instances. This 24.8% conversion loss means that in roughly one in four cases where AI systems mention New American Funding, the brand does not make the recommendation shortlist. Competitors like Rocket Mortgage convert mentions to recommendations at a 74.1% rate, appearing in 638 observations and receiving 473 valid recommendations.

Top-three placement represents an even starker gap. New American Funding achieved top-three status in only 18 observations, producing a top-three rate of 2.66%. By comparison, Rocket Mortgage reached the top three in 309 observations for a 45.71% rate, Navy Federal Credit Union in 207 observations for a 30.62% rate, and Veterans United Home Loans in 187 observations for a 27.66% rate. The brand's rank-one rate of 0.15% reflects a single first-place recommendation across the entire benchmark period.

The September 2026 decline widened competitive gaps. The distance between loanDepot and New American Funding grew from 5.1 points in August 2026 to 13.9 points in September 2026. CrossCountry Mortgage moved from trailing New American Funding by 5.2 points in August to leading by 3.4 points in September. These shifts occurred primarily because of New American Funding's decline rather than outsized gains by competitors.

Platform-level gaps compound the challenge. On Copilot, New American Funding registered only 3.19% valid recommendation coverage despite appearing in 18.18% of observations. On Gemini, the brand achieved 6.59% coverage. These platforms represent recommendation channels where the brand has established some presence but fails to convert that presence into shortlist inclusion. The gap between presence and recommendation on Copilot, where the brand appears in 16 observations but receives only 9 valid recommendations, suggests that AI systems on that platform recognize New American Funding as a relevant entity but do not position the brand as a recommended option.

The absence of qualified observations in the Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters limits visibility into how New American Funding performs when buyers ask cost-focused or head-to-head comparison questions. The current benchmark measures brand recommendation discovery only, leaving questions about price positioning and direct competitive comparisons unanswered.

Biggest Opportunity

Questions This Section Answers

• Which platforms offer the clearest path from AI visibility to top-three recommendation placement?

New American Funding's clearest path from reference to recommendation runs through improving top-three placement on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode. These two platforms generated the highest volume of qualified observations and produced the brand's strongest recommendation signals. On ChatGPT, New American Funding achieved a 6.17% valid recommendation coverage rate with 5 valid recommendations across 81 observations. On Google AI Mode, the brand reached 19.34% coverage with 35 valid recommendations across 181 observations.

The opportunity is not to increase raw mentions, which already occur at meaningful rates on Perplexity and Google AI Mode. The opportunity is to convert existing presence into higher placement within recommendation shortlists. This requires understanding which prompts generate recommendations where New American Funding appears but does not rank in the top three, and which competitors capture those positions instead.

The brand's strong sentiment profile provides a foundation. AI systems already frame New American Funding positively when the brand appears. The task is to ensure that positive framing translates into recommendation inclusion and higher placement. This likely involves strengthening the public evidence layer that AI systems retrieve when forming recommendations, including owned content, third-party citations, and source material that supports the brand's positioning as a top-tier VA loans lender.

Competitive Landscape

Questions This Section Answers

• How does New American Funding's top-three recommendation rate compare to competitors with similar or lower sentiment scores?
• Where does New American Funding rank in top-three and rank-one placement relative to Rocket Mortgage, Navy Federal, and Veterans United?

Rocket Mortgage and Navy Federal Credit Union hold dominant recommendation-stage strength in the VA loans lenders category, with Veterans United Home Loans as the strongest specialist challenger. New American Funding sits in the middle of the pack, visible but under-recommended relative to its presence rate.

Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only.

New American Funding ranks seventh in top-three rate and seventh in rank-one rate despite holding the third-highest sentiment score in the category. The table shows that the brand's positive framing has not translated into recommendation placement at rates comparable to competitors with similar or lower sentiment scores. Freedom Mortgage, with a sentiment score of 0.6214, achieves a higher top-three rate at 2.96%, while CrossCountry Mortgage, with a sentiment score of 0.6995, reaches 6.95%.

Prompt Evidence

Google AI Mode / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who is currently the best mortgage lender?" Result: New American Funding appeared in the response with positive framing but did not receive a top-three recommendation placement.

ChatGPT / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who are the top 6 mortgage lenders?" Result: New American Funding received a valid recommendation but ranked outside the top three positions.

Perplexity / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "mortgage lenders" Result: New American Funding appeared in the response with positive sentiment, contributing to the brand's 29.85% raw mention presence rate on Perplexity.

Google AI Overviews / Brand Recommendation Prompt: "Who is the best mortgage lender right now?" Result: New American Funding received a valid recommendation with an average recommended rank of 4.12 across rank-eligible observations.

What CiteWorks Studio Would Do Next

Phase 1: AI Market Discovery Audit Map the specific prompts, platforms, and competitor displacement patterns driving New American Funding's recommendation coverage decline, with focus on the 5.9-point drop from August to September 2026.

Phase 2: Recommendation Readiness Plan Identify the gap between the brand's 16.72% presence rate and 12.57% recommendation coverage, then prioritize the prompts and platforms where conversion improvement would produce the highest placement gains.

Phase 3: Owned Answer Layer Buildout Strengthen owned content that AI systems retrieve when forming VA loans lender recommendations, ensuring that New American Funding's positioning as a top-tier option is clearly supported by source material.

Phase 4: Citation / Authority Layer Development Develop the third-party citation and authority signals that AI systems use to validate recommendation candidates, particularly on ChatGPT and Copilot where the brand's recommendation conversion lags its presence.

Phase 5: Monthly AI Visibility and Recommendation Tracking Monitor recommendation coverage, top-three rate, and rank-one rate month over month to detect early signals of further decline or recovery, with alerts for movements exceeding normal variation thresholds.

Why This Matters

AI presence alone does not determine buyer outcomes. New American Funding appears in AI-generated responses about VA loans lenders at meaningful rates, but the brand frequently fails to make the recommendation shortlist. When a buyer asks an AI assistant for the best VA loans lenders, the response that names New American Funding without recommending it does not advance the brand toward consideration.

The September 2026 decline demonstrates how quickly recommendation position can erode. A 5.9-point drop in valid recommendation coverage moved New American Funding from a competitive middle position to a trailing position relative to loanDepot and CrossCountry Mortgage. The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why the decline occurred and what would reverse it.

The path forward requires targeted correction of the prompt, page, and citation layers that shape AI recommendations. Positive sentiment provides a foundation, but sentiment without recommendation placement does not produce shortlist inclusion. The next move is to understand which prompts generate recommendations where New American Funding appears but does not rank, which competitors capture those positions, and what source material would shift the recommendation outcome.

Core Metrics

Sentiment Score

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

New American Funding's sentiment score for September 2026 is 0.8673, calculated from 98 positive mentions, 15 neutral mentions, and zero negative mentions across 113 total mentions.

This score matters because unclassified mention counts are misleading. A brand that appears frequently in AI responses but receives neutral or cautionary framing is not in the same position as a brand that receives positive recommendations. 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 outcomes.

Counting all mentions as wins is bad measurement. New American Funding's 113 mentions include 15 neutral references where the brand appeared without positive framing. These neutral mentions do not carry the same weight as the 98 positive mentions. Classified sentiment is required before interpreting AI visibility because it distinguishes between brands that are recommended and brands that are merely mentioned.

The sentiment score also reveals a paradox in New American Funding's position. The brand holds the third-highest sentiment score in the category at 0.8673, yet ranks seventh in top-three recommendation rate at 2.66%. Positive framing has not translated into recommendation placement. This suggests that the challenge is not how AI systems describe New American Funding but whether they include the brand in recommendation shortlists at all.

Sentiment by Platform

Questions This Section Answers

• On which AI platforms does New American Funding's strong sentiment translate into actual recommendations?

Methodology

1. This report analyzes New American Funding's position in AI-generated VA loans lender recommendations using data from the LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index for September 2026.
2. The reporting window covers September 2026, with comparison data from August 2026 where available.
3. Six AI platforms were tracked: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
4. The benchmark analyzed 676 qualified observations in September 2026, drawn from an initial collection of 800 prompt-surface observations.
5. The competitor universe includes ten tracked brands: Rocket Mortgage, Navy Federal Credit Union, Veterans United Home Loans, loanDepot, CrossCountry Mortgage, New American Funding, Freedom Mortgage, Rate, Fairway Independent Mortgage, and Movement Mortgage.
6. One public high-intent cluster was measured: Best VA Loan Lenders, Discovery & Evaluation. The Pricing & Value and Multi-Brand Comparison clusters contained zero qualified observations in the current benchmark.
7. Stage 0 extraction retained the query, AI surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and citations where exposed.
8. A mention is defined as any appearance of New American Funding in an AI-generated response, regardless of recommendation status.
9. A valid recommendation is defined as an instance where New American Funding appears in a recommendation shortlist, as marked by the dataset.
10. Top-three rate measures the share of qualified observations where New American Funding appears among the top three recommended options.
11. Rank-one rate measures the share of qualified observations where New American Funding is the first or primary recommendation.
12. Average recommended rank covers rank-eligible recommendations only and excludes observations where the brand received no rank credit.
13. The qualified denominator of 676 observations differs from the raw collection universe of 800. Brand-level percentages are calculated within the qualified set.
14. Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating but does not establish causation. The September 2026 decline in New American Funding's coverage exceeded normal variation thresholds but the benchmark cannot determine why the decline occurred.
15. Small counts apply at the lower end of this category. A brand with 85 valid recommendations can shift several points with a handful of changes.

See Where AI Is Recommending Your Brand

The public benchmark shows where New American Funding stands in AI-generated VA loans lender recommendations. A company-level AI visibility audit maps the specific prompts, platforms, competitors, and source patterns that determine whether your brand makes the recommendation shortlist. The audit identifies which high-intent prompts you are winning, which competitors capture positions when you lose, and what changes would improve recommendation placement.