Named. Measured. Re-run.
The AI readability benchmark. Twenty-one league tables given the same three reads, can AI find you, can an agent act on you, does AI know who you are, every company named, every score verifiable live on our scanners, and every cohort re-scanned on the first of each month so the movement becomes public record.
Twenty-one benchmarks. One index.
Every one is measured and public, re-run monthly, named, ranked and archived alike. Each carries its whole cohort, the sites that could not be read included. Follow any one to be first to its numbers.
Automotive
Led by Vertu Motors, at 77.
Consumer Goods
Led by Tapestry, at 75.
Education
Led by Fettes College, at 78.
Energy and Utilities
Led by OVO Energy, at 78.
Financial Services
Led by Fidelity Investments, at 76.
The FTSE 100
Led by GSK, at 65.
Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Led by Hologic, at 76.
Hospitality and Leisure
Led by Orangetheory Fitness, at 79.
Insurance
Led by Everest, at 77.
Legal Services
Led by LegalZoom, at 78.
Manufacturing and Industrial
Led jointly by Konecranes and Trimble, at 72.
Media and Entertainment
Led jointly by Faber & Faber and Nintendo, at 76.
Professional Services
Led by Cherry Bekaert, at 75.
Real Estate and Property
Led jointly by AppFolio and MRI Software, at 76.
Technology and Software
Led by Dynatrace, at 88.
Telecommunications
Led by Wessex Internet, at 78.
Transport and Logistics
Led by Agility, at 73.
Travel and Tourism
Led by Princess Cruises, at 73.
UK Airports
Led by Cornwall Airport Newquay, at 65.
UK Ecommerce
Led by Interflora, at 76.
Universities
Led by University of Kent, at 88.
Request a benchmark
If your sector is not here yet, tell us which one and who belongs in it. We build the cohort list in the open and publish the first run like every other.
Deterministic, archived, and built to be checked.
Each cohort is run through the three Crane Index™ scanners, AI Search Readiness (can the engines that read live sites resolve you and extract what you sell), Agent Readiness (can an automated agent get in and act) and Brand Representation (can a machine confirm who you are), against each organisation's primary public site. Every check is deterministic, sites that refuse or cannot serve an automated reader are reported as unmeasured rather than scored, the constituent lists are pinned beside the results, and the full dated result sets are archived so each re-run publishes the movement, not just a snapshot. Any score in any table can be re-measured in about a minute on the free scanners. Read the full methodology, including every exclusion and the right of reply, or the press pack for headline findings and downloadable assets.
The instrument behind the benchmark is the Crane Index™ itself, the practice's own three-scanner suite, so every published score can be re-run against your own site.
One thing is worth knowing about a reading taken on a single day. Between one run and the next a site can be rebuilt, moved to a new platform, or have a template edited, and the machine-readable markup underneath can go with it without one visible change to the page, because that markup was never visible in the first place. So a monthly benchmark records where a field stood on the first of the month; it cannot show the day something moved.
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Cite as: The Crane Index™, the AI readability benchmark. The Crane Consultancy. thecraneconsultancy.com/research/
The whole leaderboard, ready to share.
The top of every published benchmark in a single, board-ready document, hosted here and re-run on the first of each month. View it in the browser or download it to share. Each benchmark page carries its own full report the same way.
The Industry Authorities: the site leading each industry for AI readability, named and re-measured monthly.
21 benchmarks, ranked against each other.
Every benchmark reads to the same three-part method, so the medians are comparable across industries. This is the whole programme on one page, re-run on the first of each month. Sort by any column.
| Automotive | 102 | 179 | 40 | 46 | 4 | Vertu Motors (77) |
| Consumer Goods | 119 | 188 | 46 | 49 | 3 | Tapestry (75) |
| Education | 91 | 123 | 48 | 53 | 5 | Fettes College (78) |
| Energy and Utilities | 120 | 175 | 42 | 47 | 5 | OVO Energy (78) |
| Financial Services | 122 | 175 | 45 | 53 | 5 | Fidelity Investments (76) |
| Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals | 132 | 177 | 43 | 49 | 4 | Hologic (76) |
| Hospitality and Leisure | 121 | 182 | 43 | 50 | 7 | Orangetheory Fitness (79) |
| Insurance | 124 | 181 | 44 | 53 | 4 | Everest (77) |
| Legal Services | 135 | 171 | 46 | 52 | 3 | LegalZoom (78) |
| Manufacturing and Industrial | 131 | 176 | 44 | 51 | 6 | Konecranes and Trimble (72) |
| Media and Entertainment | 125 | 172 | 42 | 47 | 3 | Faber & Faber and Nintendo (76) |
| Professional Services | 144 | 172 | 51 | 60 | 7 | Cherry Bekaert (75) |
| Real Estate and Property | 126 | 186 | 46 | 52 | 6 | AppFolio and MRI Software (76) |
| Technology and Software | 123 | 169 | 57 | 64 | 16 | Dynatrace (88) |
| Telecommunications | 133 | 184 | 48 | 52 | 5 | Wessex Internet (78) |
| Transport and Logistics | 107 | 176 | 44 | 52 | 3 | Agility (73) |
| Travel and Tourism | 86 | 171 | 47 | 55 | 4 | Princess Cruises (73) |
| UK Airports | 22 | 32 | 47 | 54 | 0 | Cornwall Airport Newquay (65) |
| Universities | 116 | 158 | 43 | 52 | 5 | University of Kent (88) |
| FTSE 100 | 41 | 79 | 43 | 49 | 0 | GSK (65) |
| UK Ecommerce | 75 | 142 | 52 | 53 | 1 | Interflora (76) |
Median Crane Index is the midpoint of the readable sites in each cohort; a blocked or unreadable site is left out of its cohort's medians, never scored as zero. Leader shows the top-scoring public site for AI readability, joint where the top composite is shared. Measured 1 October 2026.
The month is public. The days are not. These tables re-run on the first of each month, and that record stays free for everyone. Watching your own domain and the competitors you choose read daily, your field scored every morning with movement flagged the day it moves and the full dated archive kept, is Crane Index™ Monitor, from £1,600 a year ex VAT.
Read once, watched daily, or measured as a field of your own.
Every score in this research comes from the same three deterministic reads: can AI search find you, can an agent act on you, can a machine confirm who you are. The instrument behind it is available at three depths.
Free
all three scanners, on demand- All three scanners on every scan: can AI search find you, can an agent act on you, can a machine confirm who you are. The same three reads as this research.
- Up to three different sites a day; re-scan any one of them as often as you like while you make changes.
- A dated score for the day you ran it.
£1,600
per domain, per year, ex VAT- Your competitive field, watched every morning: the competitors you choose read daily on the AI-search read from their public pages, with their agent and brand reads swept across the cycle, and we flag a movement only once it holds beyond a set band, so you hear about the shifts that matter and not the day-to-day noise
- Your domain read daily on all three scanners, for twelve months
- The full dated archive kept, so every rise and fall is a matter of record
- Your own dashboard login, your score beside your rivals on one screen, every read
Every watched domain, yours and the competitors you name, is approached daily. A reading depends on the site admitting our scanner: a day a domain blocks or fails to serve it is recorded as missing, never estimated. If your own domain is the one refusing, we tell you exactly what to unblock.
A field of your own
custom cohort, by arrangement- A private benchmark of the brands you name: your portfolio, your market, your dealer or franchise network
- Multi-brand: every domain in the group measured and archived on the same three reads
- The same deterministic methodology as the public programme, reported to your board on your cadence
Search the Crane Index™
Is your domain measured?
Type a domain to see whether it is in the Index and where it ranks. If it is not in yet, ask us to measure it on the next monthly scan.
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The Crane Index™ is re-run, and new cohorts are added. Join The Crane Standard™ and you will be first to each one, with the senior read on what moved and why. One considered email, never noise.
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Questions about the Crane Index
What does the Crane Index measure?
How readable and well-optimised a site is for AI, drawn live from its real pages across three deterministic reads: whether an AI engine can retrieve and cite it, whether an agent can act on it, and whether it is described accurately. Each is scored out of 100, and the composite is the Crane Index.
Why does AI readability matter now?
Because discovery is moving. In 2026, Google reported that its AI Mode in Search had passed a billion monthly users. What an assistant can read of an organisation comes down to the machine-readable layer of its site, the structured data Google Search Central documents.
How often is it re-run?
Every month, on the first, so the movement is a matter of public record rather than a single snapshot. Every constituent is named, ranked and archived, and each score can be re-run live against the site as it stands today.
The senior read,
once a week.
Most marketing newsletters are noise on a schedule. This is not that. Once a week I send a short, considered read on the shifts that actually change what you should do, across the AI shift, PPC, technical SEO and analytics. Filtered, weighted and signed off by me before it goes out. The judgement is mine, and now you can hear every edition in my own voice.
Nic CraneFounder, The Crane Consultancy
Join readers of The Crane Standard.