Stories
Customer-side decisions September 2026 · 43 research runs and an exploratory memory study
239 of 277 elimination events · five sectors239 brand eliminations. No readable page from the brand.Across 43 research runs in five consumer sectors, most recorded eliminations happened without a readable page from the company being loaded.200 of 307 recorded claims not verified on a brand-owned pageWho informs the agent before you do?Comparison sites, regulators and remembered information all entered the research. A company’s own website was only one possible source.Four persistent-notes decisions · twelve comparison decisions · exploratoryFour agents kept notes. All four chose a local bank.A small study followed context across earlier consumer decisions. The final banking choices differed between the persistent-notes group and the comparison runs.
The original six-brand study 27 journeys · a separate study
In six shopping journeys, the agent never opened Amazon.No paid membership, delivered total under $450, thirty-day returns, three-day delivery. Five journeys reached a decision and one ran out of page reads; none of the six read an Amazon page. Walmart and Dyson refused the agent.
The agent never even considered Temu.Four journeys for five kitchen containers, delivered within ten days with a clear return window. The agent went to Amazon, Walmart and Target. Temu was never named as an option and temu.com was never requested.
The agent chose Tesla without reading a single Tesla page.tesla.com refused the agent with a 403 in every journey. The Model Y was recommended anyway, on figures copied from Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, search snippets and the Internet Archive.
I told the agent I need a real refund. It wouldn’t book anything, Airbnb included.Five journeys for a week in the sun in November. The agent read Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com and the hotel chains, and could not establish a seven-night total or a free-cancellation deadline on any provider’s own page. It recommended nothing.
I told the agent I hate hidden fees. Ryanair’s help pages wouldn’t let it check.Four journeys for a Dublin–Barcelona weekend with checked bags, seats together and airport check-in. help.ryanair.com refused every request. The all-in fare could not be established on any airline’s own pages, and the agent recommended nothing.
Costco passed the agent’s check: 4 out of 4, every fact from costco.com.Every fact the agent needed was on Costco's own pages, in plain words. Fresh customer or sceptical one, the answer was the same.