Apple tops NP Digital's fintech AI visibility index at 65.6, SoFi ranks second

September 13, 2026 · mediapost.com

Apple ranked first in NP Digital's new FinTech AI Visibility Index, scoring 65.6 out of 100 after the agency analyzed 68,334 AI-generated answers to 250 fintech prompts across 10 subcategories on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. NP Digital linked Apple's lead to its presence across multiple categories, including financial payments through Apple Pay alongside its core technology products. SoFi finished second at 64.6, the highest score among pure-play fintech brands, driven by mentions in 4.2% of prompts, an average answer position of 3.75, and appearances across all 10 subcategories. PayPal drew the most mentions overall, 14,294, but competitors were typically cited ahead of it, which held PayPal to third place.

Comparison sites and financial media coverage now shape which fintech brands surface in AI-generated answers, turning earned media placement into a search visibility lever. Klarna's saturation strategy shows the alternative path: it appeared in 91.8% of buy now, pay later answers, while no lending or credit brand topped 43.7% in its category. Brands that fell outside the top three positions in a subcategory captured almost no visibility, according to the index, and only 2% of the answers analyzed carried a negative tone toward any brand. Campaign and content strategies built around AI search now need the same category breadth and position tracking that paid search once required.