How AI Search Is Recommending Expense Management Software: Monthly Trends

Executive Summary

Ramp remains the category leader by valid recommendation coverage in August 2026, but its lead narrowed. Ramp's coverage fell from 68.9% in July 2026 to 59.5% in August 2026, a drop of 9.4 points that the benchmark classifies as a significant decline. The gap between first and second place narrowed as Expensify rose from 45.2% to 49.1% over the same period, closing the distance between the top two positions from 23.7 points to 10.4 points.

Expensify recorded the largest coverage increase of the month, adding 3.9 points (45.2% to 49.1%), a move the benchmark treats as within normal month-to-month variation. Its rank-one recommendation rate moved from 7.8% to 11.7% over the same period. Brex recorded the sharpest decline of the month, falling 10.9 points from 56.7% to 45.8%, a move the benchmark classifies as a significant decline. Expensify's gain combined with Brex's decline moved Expensify past Brex into second place, pushing Brex into a tighter middle cluster with SAP Concur.

The category recorded broad movement in August 2026: the benchmark classifies four brands as significant decliners — Ramp, Brex, Airbase, and Zoho Inventory, which fell to zero coverage — and no brand as a significant riser. The month's pattern is one of compression at the top of the category: the leader and the prior second-place brand both lost recommendation share while mid-tier brands such as Expensify and BILL Spend & Expense held steady or gained modestly, narrowing the distance between the top of the category and the rest.

This benchmark's public metrics are calculated from the qualified observations that survive the benchmark's eligibility checks: 473 qualified observations in July 2026 and 511 in August 2026, spanning all six tracked AI/search surface families (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode). Brand-level rates in this report are calculated within these qualified counts.

Key Findings

Benchmark Context

The report separates the raw benchmark run from the qualified analysis set. Brand-level recommendation percentages are calculated within the qualified benchmark set.

The qualified counts above define the denominator for every brand-level rate in this report. The following category-level metrics summarize how that qualified set behaved this month before the report turns to brand-by-brand standings.

Benchmark-Level Metrics

The addition of a "**Zoho Expense" label in August 2026 reflects a tracked-company list change; the label recorded zero presence and zero coverage in the current month.

AI Recommendation Trend

The Leader Retained Its Position, But the Category Rebalanced

Ramp stayed in first place in August 2026, but the margin over the rest of the field narrowed. The benchmark classifies four brands as significant decliners this month (Ramp, Brex, Airbase, and Zoho Inventory) and no brand as a significant riser; the net effect is a leader that kept its position while the gap to second place closed from 23.7 points to 10.4 points, and Expensify moved past Brex into second.

What Changed This Month

Ramp

Ramp's valid recommendation coverage fell from 68.9% in July 2026 to 59.5% in August 2026, a decline of 9.4 points that the benchmark classifies as significant. This is the full movement measured between the two tracked months.

Ramp's top-three recommendation rate dropped from 54.5% to 46.8% (down 7.7 points). Its rank-one rate fell from 30.4% to 27.4% (down 3.0 points). Raw mention presence declined from 87.5% to 83.2% (down 4.3 points).

The distinction that matters: Ramp remains the most visible brand in the category and still leads on every measured metric, but its recommendation advantage over the field narrowed this month. The coverage decline is larger than the presence decline, which indicates the change is concentrated in how often Ramp is recommended rather than in how often it appears.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which prompt types or surfaces accounted for the largest share of Ramp's coverage decline, and which brand picked up those recommendation slots?

Brex

Brex recorded the sharpest decline of any brand in August 2026: valid recommendation coverage fell 10.9 points, from 56.7% to 45.8%. The benchmark classifies this as a significant decline, and it moved Brex from a clear second-place position into a tighter cluster with Expensify and SAP Concur.

Brex's raw mention presence fell from 72.7% to 62.2% (down 10.5 points). Top-three recommendation rate dropped from 37.8% to 29.8% (down 8.0 points). Rank-one rate declined from 8.3% to 5.5% (down 2.8 points).

The distinction to notice: Brex's decline is broad-based across presence, top-three, and rank-one rates, unlike Ramp, whose presence held up better relative to its coverage decline. The presence drop suggests Brex is appearing in fewer AI answers overall this month, not merely being recommended less often within the same set of answers.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which surfaces or prompt categories account for Brex's reduced presence, and which competitor appears in its place?

Expensify

Expensify recorded the largest coverage increase of any brand in August 2026, up 3.9 points from 45.2% to 49.1%. The benchmark treats this move as within the normal range of month-to-month variation, but combined with the leader's and Brex's declines, it changed the competitive distance at the top of the category.

Expensify's rank-one recommendation rate moved from 7.8% to 11.7%. Top-three rate increased from 24.1% to 28.6%, and raw mention presence rose from 57.1% to 62.0%.

The distinction that matters: Expensify's rank-one gain means AI systems are not only mentioning it more often but are placing it first more often within recommendation answers. That is a different signal than presence growth alone.

Highest-priority diagnostic: Which high-intent prompts produced Expensify's new rank-one placements, and which evidence sources supported those recommendations?

Airbase and Zoho Inventory

Airbase's coverage fell from 7.6% to 4.3% (down 3.3 points), a move the benchmark classifies as significant for a brand at this observation count. Its valid recommendation count dropped from 36 to 22 observations, and it recorded zero rank-one placements in August 2026, down from three in July 2026.

Zoho Inventory dropped from 7.2% to 0.0% coverage (down 7.2 points), also classified as a significant decline. The brand's valid recommendation count went from 34 observations in July 2026 to none in August 2026, and Zoho Inventory does not appear in the current month's tracked-company list at all. That is a distinct event from the "**Zoho Expense" label, which was added to tracking in August 2026 and recorded zero presence and zero coverage.

Highest-priority diagnostic: For each brand, which prompt clusters or surfaces drove the loss, and is the change driven by query composition or by answer content?

Buyer-Intent Interpretation

The qualified observations in August 2026 all fell into the brand recommendation class; the pricing and multi-brand comparison clusters recorded zero observations in both months. The public benchmark therefore measures which brands AI systems recommend, and how prominently they recommend them, but it does not yet capture how AI systems answer pricing questions or structured head-to-head comparisons. Those commercial questions remain outside the current benchmark's reach.

Brand Opportunity Summary

The benchmark identifies where attention is warranted; a company-level analysis is needed to explain why.

Evidence Behind the Benchmark

The aggregate metrics are built from prompt-level observations (query, surface, recommendation outcome, rank, sentiment, and citations where exposed). Company-level analysis can go deeper into prompt, competitor, surface, and evidence patterns. Source presence is not automatically treated as proof of causation.

For methodology detail, metric definitions, and category standards, see:

• AI Industry Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Industry Market Discovery Metrics
• AI Industry Market Discovery Standards

Interpretation Notes

• Small-count movement: brands like Airbase, Rydoo, and Zoho Inventory have low observation counts; their percentage movements rest on small absolute numbers and should be read with that context in mind.
• Qualified denominator: brand-level rates are calculated within the qualified benchmark set (473 observations in July 2026, 511 in August 2026), not a larger raw collection universe.
• Month-over-month movement identifies changes worth investigating; it does not by itself establish the cause of those changes.

Next Step

The Public Benchmark Shows Where a Brand Is Winning or Losing. A Company-Level Audit Shows Why.

Beneath the aggregate percentages sit the questions that matter for strategy: which high-intent prompts a brand wins, which competitor takes the recommendation when a brand loses, what attributes AI systems associate with each option, and which external sources shape those answers. The benchmark surfaces the what. It does not yet reveal the why behind a 9.4-point coverage drop or a 3.9-point rank-one gain.

A company-specific AI visibility audit maps those prompt, surface, competitor, ranking, sentiment, and evidence-source patterns into a prioritized visibility strategy. For a category that just rebalanced, that level of detail is the difference between reacting to a number and understanding the shift.

Request an AI visibility audit