After additional than four years of living in Athens, Greece, I've motionless retained a few extremely American habits.

For instance, I affection sleeping alongside my AC on at 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, and waking up to create a big dawn meal of waffles alongside maple syrup. I motionless don't obtain a two-week holiday in August, although I aspiration of doing it someday.

I grew up in Boston and lived in the US for the archetypal 33 years of my life, so it makes awareness that I've stuck alongside a few American tendencies notwithstanding my years abroad. But whenever I sojourn rear home, I acknowledge how much I've adjusted to many Greek-inspired habits.

These are the ones that have rotate into an integral part of my manner now.

The way I attire has changed

In the US, I'd think nothing of leaving my home in athleisure apparel to run errands — stretchy leggings, a zip-up sweatshirt, tress scraped into a messy bun.

Here in Greece, however, I don't equal go to the market shop dressed akin that anymore. I drag on a appropriate brace of jeans and a top, tie up my leopard-print Converse sneakers or stage into my pink Birkenstock sandals, and arrange my tress into a French twist if it's too messy to deteriorate it down.

I additionally obtain at smallest a infinitesimal or two to drag my visage together before I go — brushing my eyebrows into location and slicking on a small lip color to appearance a bit additional presentable.

In my experience, it's extremely rare current to see group exterior their homes looking unpolished or untidy. This doesn't average everyone runs errands in ceremonial attire (hence my Converse and jeans), but it's seen as bad manners to depart the home looking akin you fair rolled out of bed.

Now, the lone period I deteriorate gym clothes is whenever I'm really on my way to the gym.

My market buying regular looks extremely different

When I lived in downtown Boston, I had a routine: I'd stroll a mile to the nearest Whole Foods and buy everything I needed for the week ahead, lugging my overstuffed backpack home.

Now, in Athens, I shop fairly differently. On Friday mornings I go to the laiki agora, or farmers market, which is much additional extended (and chaotic!) than the ones I used to see in the US.

I can buy everything there, from the freshest seasonal create to fish, nuts and legumes, oliva oil and homemade wine, during the vendors cry out compliments and recommendation distinct prices.

I caput to the bakery on my street weekly for bread and treats akin orange pie or spanakopita, and sometimes to the greengrocer, too. When I need a particular flesh product, akin a Thanksgiving turkey, I go to my neighborhood butcher shop.

I additionally have multiple small market stores inside a few blocks of my apartment, and I'll normally sway by these on my way residence from the gym whenever I need fair one or two things for dinner.

Although I motionless haven't dropped the habit of trekking to a larger market shop all week for essentials, that trip feels small serious since I don't need to inventory up on everything I'll need in an complete week at once.

I've adjusted to the Greek way of dining and drinking

Back in the US, most group my age would eat meal about 6 or 7 pm Now that I live in Greece, though, I typically eat meal about 8 or 9 pm — or equal as delayed as 10 pm in the summer, whenever it's too hot to encounter up alongside my allies earlier.

I've established it's really fairly beautiful to be up and out delayed on a summer night, whenever the heat has dropped and the breeze is soft.

I've shifted my lunchtime a bit afterward as well, and normally eat between 2 and 3 pm these days. (I motionless akin a heartier breakfast, equal although Greeks lean to eat lightly in the morning!)

Restaurant civilization is different, too. Here, it's extremely average to expend three hours complete meal alongside friends. I never awareness rushed to get out the entrance so they can rotate complete the table, so I lean to unwind and chill out whenever I have the time, people-watching and catching up alongside my friends.

Life in Greece has distinct rhythms and habits than my existence in the US did — slower meals, additional single-item market stops, and my disorderly but fun weekly market sojourn — affirmative a slightly upgraded attire code.

Now whenever I sojourn the US, the first meal times, accelerated meals, and enormous market shops awareness akin culture daze in reverse. But I do motionless appearance onward to my enormous diner breakfasts (usually eaten during wearing several comfortable leggings!) whenever I go back.

Joseph Hajjar and his spouse had spent years living in big cities, anywhere they enjoyed the fast-paced manner and endless options for things to do. So whenever they decided to resolve in the suburbs and lift their two young daughters, they had a few non-negotiables.

"We had a spreadsheet going, and the towns that checked a lot of boxes were the ones alongside walkability and a fine eatery scene," Hajjar, 40, told Business Insider. "We were additionally looking for a powerful awareness of community."

They ultimately chose Summit, New Jersey, a small commuter suburb concerning 22 miles from New York City. They paid $1.4 myriad for a approximately 3,500-square-foot residence — far larger than their two-bedroom condo in Jersey City. It equal came alongside an upstairs attic they use to presenter guests, a yard, and a garden, features they could lone have dreamed of having in the city.

Sure, they're paying additional than whenever they were living in the city. But among the home's biggest perks is its proximity to Summit's historic downtown, anywhere the family can stroll to shops, cafés, and restaurants. It is additionally near to the train station, anywhere Hajjar's spouse catches the New Jersey Transit to activity in New York City.

"We lone wanted to do this once, versus buying a starter home," Hajjar said. "Summit has a lot of awesome stuff. There's a really fine YMCA correct downtown, so I can stroll to the gym. My spouse and I can have a date night and stroll into town."

For decades, group looking for a residence have faced a choice between two distinct lifestyles: either large, walkable cities affluent in "third places," gathering places exterior the residence and workplace, akin cafés and parks; or the additional self-contained, car-dependent suburbs.

As Americans location greater value on connection and convenience, residence buyers akin the Hajjars are asking additional of their neighborhoods — and, in turn, homebuilders are reimagining suburbia.

People desire to live in walkable neighborhoods alongside things to do

NAR's 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey polled 2,000 adults in the nation's 50 largest metro areas and established that 63% of respondents would pay additional to live inside strolling extend of parks, shops, and restaurants. When stated the choice between a larger lot that required additional driving and a smaller lot in a walkable neighborhood, 59% chose the walkable option.

Patrick Southern, a luxury genuine asset delegate alongside Serhant in New Jersey, told Business Insider that neighborhood amenities have rotate into an crucial deciding aspect for many buyers, particularly "millennials and Gen Zers in their mid to delayed 20s."

"They grew up in the suburbs, anywhere if they had to go somewhere, they got thrown in the rear of a position wagon and driven there," Southern said. "But following college, formerly they've lived in big cities, they cognition a norm of existence they don't desire to provision up. We're seeing that translate to young buyers in the suburbs, and developers are taking that into document in their planning."

Suburbia is getting a rebrand

Not all buyer can discover a suitable residence in an established, walkable downtown akin Summit's. Some developers are alternatively trying to build a awareness of community into newer, master-planned developments.

Unlike traditional communities, which are frequently built part by piece, master-planned communities are designed as a entire from the start. They can function akin mini-cities, alongside schools, restaurants, and amenities inside their boundaries. While there is no conclusive national count, Texas and Florida accounted for a bulk of the master-planned developments in John Burns Research and Consulting's 2025 Top 50 ranking.

At Sienna, a 10,800-acre master-planned community in the Houston suburb of Missouri City, Texas, homeowners can choose from townhomes, apartments, and traditional single-family homes priced from $250,000 to additional than $1 million.

Beyond their homes, residents additionally have admission to an gathering of third places dispersed throughout three amenity complexes: one alongside a social bar, fitness center, ballroom, blaze pit, playground, scatter pad, and pool; another alongside a refuge and coast club; and a third alongside a "tween hangout" featuring study space, commission and video games, and a pond table. There is additionally an on-site eatery and a lakeside amphitheater.

"Today's homebuyers are looking for additional than fair a home; they're looking for a lifestyle," Alvin San Miguel, Sienna's vice chairman and broad manager, told Business Insider. "Homebuyers have additional choices than ever, and amenities assistance create the awareness of location that sets a community apart."

Walkability comes at a price

There's fair one problem: walkable communities affluent in third places sometimes necessitate buyers to be, well, rich.

Jeff Speck, an municipal planner and partner at Speck Dempsey, an municipal scheme and consultancy firm, told Business Insider that neighborhoods alongside these features have rotate into "overvalued and frequently prohibitively costly for most people."

A 2020 Redfin analysis of nearly 1 myriad residence revenue throughout 16 US metro areas and two Canadian cities established that homes in walkable areas sold for 23.5% more, or $77,668 on average, than comparable homes in car-dependent areas. The study defined walkable areas as those alongside a walk score of 50 or higher — a measure of how effortlessly residents can complete regular errands on foot.

"People pay additional for walkable, amenity-rich neighborhoods since they preserve period and create mundane existence easier, and there are lone so many homes in those places," Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather told Business Insider.

"Plus, many group value the community awareness that comes alongside spots anywhere neighbors run into all other," she added.

Homebuyers acknowledge that walkability frequently comes at a price. In NAR’s 2026 Community and Transportation Preference Survey, 67% of respondents stated homes or apartments in walkable neighborhoods were additional costly than those in car-dependent areas; 31% stated they were much additional expensive.

"People's longing for third places has reached a breaking point," Speck said. "This is not fine news overall, but at smallest it has helped convince astute genuine asset developers to build mixed-use neighborhoods again."

In U.S. traffic, a sojourn from a ChatGPT ad brought in $0.89 in revenue, against $2.45 for a sojourn from a paid Google hunt ad, according to a working paper by Maximilian Kaiser and Christian Schulze.

The paper, dated October 2026 and under review, follows location traffic and revenue through OpenAI’s country-by-country ad launch. Its paid-ad figures arrive from 102 advertiser sites alongside complete revenue tracking.

At paid search’s charge of return, the authors value a ChatGPT ad click at concerning $0.26. The largest publically known document paid $1.72 per click.

OpenAI’s ads FAQ says ChatGPT Ads “does not yet have achievement benchmarks throughout advertisers, industries, or run types.”

Paid ChatGPT Visits Vs. Paid Search

ChatGPT ad visits converted at 0.37 percent in U.S. traffic versus 1.17 percent alongside paid search. When the authors compared the two channels inside the identical websites, they established the conversion and income gaps motionless existed equal following accounting for category of equipment used and week.

Among the 87 advertisers who purchased the two ChatGPT ads and paid hunt in U.S. traffic, 84 had lesser earnings per ChatGPT ad sojourn than alongside paid search. A total of 73 had zero revenue generated by their ChatGPT ads (across 18,726 visits between them) during the remaining 14 generated all 570 ChatGPT ad purchases.

One advertiser is liable for 66 percent of all purchases made via paid ChatGPT throughout the 102 sites. If this advertiser is removed, afterward the two of the former gaps are widened further.

The Parity Price

In this study, Kaiser and Schulze use paid hunt as the benchmark for a “parity price” (the disbursal per click at which a ChatGPT ad click would have generated equal income for all dollar spent on promotion as compared alongside a paid hunt click).

In their disbursal data, there were 16 accounts that had at smallest 80 percent of their hunt traffic coming from the United States. Their median paid hunt click disbursal was $0.72; scaled to indicate the difference in income per sojourn of these two sources of clicks, the authors get about $0.26 per ChatGPT click. Because one advertiser accounted for 76 percent of all U.S. paid ChatGPT revenue, resampling the advertisers put the evaluation anyplace between $0.05 and $0.57.

The $1.72-per-click fig comes from one account’s 15 days of spend, as reported by Opascope, which runs paid media accounts for clients. It’s additional than six times the parity price. OpenAI’s ads basics page recommends starting CPC campaigns at a maximum bid of $3 to $5.

The parity cost additionally is according to the assumption of akin gain margins for the two the conduit being tested (ChatGPT) and paid search; it accounts lone for the one tracked visit. There was no detectable addition in traffic from another channels for those advertisers compared to akin sites that hadn’t bought an ad in the weeks surrounding all advertiser’s archetypal paid ChatGPT click. However, this test can lone regulation out ample increases in traffic.

Organic Referrals After Ads Arrived

Kaiser and Schulze measured voluntary visits from ChatGPT’s responses to 1,898 sites, as a proxy for whether or not ads diminished the usefulness of the product. Organic ChatGPT referrals complete the archetypal 13 weeks post-launch changed by an estimated –5.9%, related to integrated hunt referrals to the identical websites and compared to the EU, anywhere there was no advertising. This evaluation has a range of –12.6% to +1.2%, including no change. Adjusting for the faster acceptance of ChatGPT in North America versus Europe, using OpenAI’s local acceptance index, this changes to –7.2% to –8.4%, alongside ranges that exclude zero. The authors say that general the consequence was a average decrease of about 6%–8%.

Before launch, the authors’ blended test established no apparent difference between referral trends in the rollout countries and the EU, but four of the five rollout groups unsuccessful that test on their own. The identical blended test additionally flagged 49 of 100 simulated rollouts in which no ads ran.

Conversion among the integrated visits that did attain showed no detectable change, shifting −0.02 percent points from the 2.21% pre-launch baseline.

How The Study Worked

The archetypal ChatGPT promotions were released in the United States on Feb. 9, 2026. ChatGPT ads reached Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Brazil and Mexico by first August. ChatGPT ads did not run in the European Union until Aug. 24, two days following the 60-week data opening expired.

Kaiser is at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Schulze is at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. The data comes from Google Analytics e-commerce tracking provided liberated by Grips Intelligence, an e-commerce data company. Kaiser is a specialized adviser to Grips and earlier worked there. The document says the business had no function in the investigation and has no business association alongside OpenAI.

The data captures the final click before all visit, but it doesn’t contain prompts, ad impressions, or users’ subscription tiers. For the paid side, advertisers chose to buy ChatGPT ads, so this difference reflects their results fairly than proving the ads caused them.

Why This Matters

You can compute the parity cost for your own account by dividing the income per sojourn from ChatGPT ads by the income per sojourn from paid search, afterward multiplying the outcome by your hunt disbursal per click. The outcome is the cost at which ChatGPT clicks would equivalent hunt on tracked income per dollar. It leaves out gain margins and any afterward purchases the final click doesn’t capture.

Before you compare, create certain to inspect your ChatGPT ad sessions for ad assessment crawler visits. According to OpenAI’s basics page, it is imaginable for crawlers of this category (ad-review) to sojourn landing pages using tracking parameters, and third-party analytics tools can emblem these types of visits as paid. Other reported results are additional favorable, although they were based upon distinct metrics than those used by the authors of the paper. On Aug. 31, OpenAI posted that an ecommerce advertiser informed a come back on ad expend of three times their funding complete a duration of 28 days. Additionally, according to DoubleVerify, the attributed disbursal per acquisition for Weight Watchers was 15.3% small than their benchmark.

Looking Ahead

The paper’s data ends Aug. 22. OpenAI has since expanded ChatGPT Ads to 89 countries and says additional than 100,000 advertisers have run campaigns. Its Aug. 31 article stated CPC and outcome-optimized bidding accounted for most campaigns.

The authors are suggesting that since ad clicks for ChatGPT appear as sponsored cards and hence appear separately from the answer, they could be value little. On top of this, if OpenAI were to move the ads in alongside the answer (i.e. eliminate the separation) the value of an ad click could go up but at the identical period so could the figure of group who distrust ChatGPT’s answers. OpenAI’s Oct. 21 article says its ads are tagged and kept distinct from answers. The identical article says the business is “continuing to examine new ways for businesses to engage alongside consumers in additional native ways in ChatGPT.”

Featured Image: Tetiana Yurchenko/Shutterstock

Ukraine's ground robot fleet has swelled, but new tests lie ahead, specifically the thick autumn mud and the winter chilly and snow that can create battlefield movement additional difficult and emphasis certain systems.

Over the final year, the country's armed forces and industry have prioritized fielding an army of robots to attack, collect intelligence, transport gear, and evacuate the wounded. The intent is to substitute as many individual soldiers as imaginable in the war's most hazardous sectors.

The fleet has expanded considerably and advanced technologically since final winter. Now it faces seasonal tests.

"These dirt robotic systems are continually being improved," Oleksandr Yabchanka, caput of robotic systems for Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, told Business Insider. "Their operational range and off-road movement are increasing."

"Now that autumn has arrived, we volition be capable to measure how much they have evolved compared to final autumn," he said. "After all, functioning in the summer on dry dirt is one thing, but in the autumn — whenever the dirt turns to mud and movement becomes considerably additional difficult — it is fairly another."

In March, Ukraine's defence ministry stated that since the commencement of the year, additional than 20,000 dirt robotic systems had been contracted, which it stated was nearly twice as many as in all of 2025. It stated their use was "rapidly expanding."

"There are additional of them now," Yabchanka, additionally a cofounder of the nonprofit Defence Robotics UA, said. "Throughout 2026, many units have begun employing UGVs."

"This use has already rotate into widespread," he said, sharing that "ground-based robotic systems are becoming an integral part of combat operations for most units deployed alongside the row of contact."

Autumn and winter have lengthy been a difficult test for Ukraine's armed forces equipment. First, the dirt turns into thick mud. Next, the temperatures autumn below freezing, snow covers entire sections of the battlefield, and trees go bare, stripping distant precious cover.

Ukrainian drone operators have described how freezing temperatures drain batteries, during fog, ice, and condensation can interfere alongside cameras, rotors, and another equipment. Strong winds and shorter days are additionally challenges.

Ground robots, at smallest as they are now, are newer to the combat and mostly haven't faced the identical seasonal tests.

These systems have several of the identical winter weaknesses as airborne drones: chilly can drain batteries, reducing their range and the power they need to shove complete difficult terrain and carry dense cargo. Condensation, mud, and snow can additionally obscure their cameras and hinder another equipment.

UGVs, however, visage an additional problem: They have to run throughout the terrain. Mud can logic wheels and tracks to get stuck or power robots to run additional slowly, making them additional vulnerable. Snow has the identical effect, during ice makes surfaces slippery and reduces traction.

NATO trainers operating closely alongside Ukrainian troops have raised questions concerning the effectiveness of dirt robots in winter, particularly dense snow.

"Should we use that in Northern Norway alongside two meters of snow?" asked Brigadier Atle Molde, a Norwegian commandant who oversees a training program, told Business Insider during a sojourn complete the summer. It's "not that easy," he said.

Getting stuck in the mud or snow can be disastrous on battlefields anywhere the skies are complete of drones. And equal if movement isn't impaired, these conditions depart tracks.

The reduced tree shield additionally makes the robots additional visible, expanding their hazard of being spotted and attacked.

Many of these robots are designed to be comparatively cheap and expendable. They're intended to replace humans on hazardous missions, anywhere losing a device is far preferable to losing a soldier.

But reliability motionless matters, particularly if a robotic scheme is carrying crucial supplies or evacuating a hurt soldier. Some manufacturers reported achievement alongside their UGVs during the final winter, but many additional models have since entered the combat and have yet to be tested.

Ukraine, however, isn't treading entirely unfamiliar ground. Throughout the war, it has often adapted its drone innovation to winter conditions.

Units and companies have added new seals to cameras to forestall condensation, added layers to exposed elements akin cables, greased propellers to keep them from freezing, kept batteries heated in thermal bags, developed new camera systems to see improved in the dark, built cold-resistant batteries, and made drones that are designed to run improved in powerful winds. Soldiers are additionally coming up alongside their own solutions, specified as wrapping drone batteries in heated footwear insoles to keep them heated in flight.

Its expanding dirt robot fleet may need akin adaptations.

Robots have already seen a presenter of improvements complete the final year. Manufacturers have announced longer functioning ranges, bigger wheels and stronger tracks, additional durable structures, new weapons, and greater autonomy.

Ukrainian manufacturers have told Business Insider that they create frequent, sometimes weekly, changes to their robots according to feedback from front-line troops, who communication them immediately and activity alongside visiting engineers. The fast betterment sequence could assistance them react to problems that appear in the autumn and winter.

Yabchanka called that "an crucial advantage"

"Improvements happen the two through direct, horizontal links between the armed forces and manufacturers and through centralized channels," he said. "It is a extremely active, energetic process."

Some units say they anticipate robots to be particularly helpful in winter since the harsh conditions create provision runs and casualty evacuations equal additional hazardous for soldiers.

The robots may battle in the mud and snow, but the missions they execute can be equal additional hazardous for the humans they're meant to replace.

According to Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton, these cost hikes were driven specifically by a deficiency of “alternative supply” for 16GB DRAM, on top of shortages for another components. Upton says, “Though these increases are unavoidable, we cognize they are unwelcome news for our customers. We advance you to create certain you’re not paying for additional recollection than you need.” Upton suggested using Pis alongside small recollection or older Pi models as alternatives to the pricey 16GB model. Unfortunately, another Raspberry Pi 5 configurations have additionally gotten additional costly — the 2GB type got a cost hike final month.

At $385, the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 is nearing the cost of a desktop mini PC. Upton reiterated the company’s plans to reverse the cost hikes, saying, “the current recollection landscape is difficult but ultimately temporary, and we appearance onward to rolling rear our cost increases whenever recollection expenses autumn formerly again.”

SpaceX has discussed a agreement alongside Boost Mobile to initiate its own assistance through the budget-friendly carrier, according to a study from The Washington Post. The deal, which comes as SpaceX aims to create Starlink a “major” mobile carrier, reportedly involves the Elon Musk-owned business acquiring Boost Mobile or accessing its network.

Musk discussed the possible accord alongside Charlie Ergen, chairman of Boost Mobile genitor business EchoStar, final month, as reported by The Washington Post. Boost Mobile’s network is currently powered by T-Mobile and AT&T, definition SpaceX may need approval from the two carriers to initiate its service.

Neither SpaceX nor Boost Mobile immediately responded to The Verge’s petition for comment.

In latest months, SpaceX has ramped up efforts to build out its mobile service, which volition merge its satellite-to-mobile constellation alongside a terrestrial network. The business acquired wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar final twelvemonth and lately purchased a portfolio of low-band spectrum licenses that could authorize Starlink Mobile’s indication to penetrate buildings. Last month, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is in talks to acquire admission to at smallest 80,000 division sites in the US.

Companies went all in on AI this year, and are now reckoning alongside dense bills. One startup wants to get under the hood and fig out which ones are value it.

Larridin, a San Francisco-based startup, fair raised $30 myriad in Series A backing to provision companies a apparent image of how the prosperity they spent on AI is — or isn't — operating for them.

Jeff Kearl, a broad partner at Pelion Ventures, which led the backing round, told Business Insider that AI has gone from being a small, equal "nonexistent," disbursal for businesses to among the top five to 10 most costly items on their ledger.

"All of a abrupt they're like, 'Wow, that's a lot of prosperity going to AI. We run a lot of apps. We have a lot of models. Where does it all go, who uses it, and how do I create awareness of that?" Kearl said.

Larridin's chief merchandise is a measurement platform that tracks the degree to which AI improves employee efficiency and identifies opportunities for improved adoption. The application integrates alongside companies' inner systems to analyze employees' AI usage, including their prompts to distinct AI tools, and decide who is using AI effectively, who needs additional training, and how much period they're saving.

Cofounder and CTO Ameya Kanitkar stated the phase protects employee privacy by analyzing their AI interactions without storing their contents, alternatively generating scores and high-level insights.

Always a need for a third-party measure platform

Russell Fradin, CEO and cofounder of Larridin, earlier worked at Comscore, a media and promotion measure platform. He stated that, in his experience, whenever a lot of prosperity moves into a category, person builds a third-party measure phase for that category, evidenced by Comscore, Nielsen, or Datadog.

"We said, look, there's going to be a ton of AI spend," Fradin said. "There's going to be a third-party audit measure company, and let's try and be that company."

The business has a third cofounder, Jim Larrison, who worked alongside Fradin at Comscore.

Larridin's $30 myriad Series A was led by Pelion Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Gradient Ventures, GFT Ventures, W23, Thayer Investment Partners, DG Daiwa Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Cougar Capital. A16z and Gradient Ventures were part of its $17 myriad kernel round.

Alex Rampell, a broad partner at A16z, stated one item that convinced him concerning Larridin's endeavor was that it addressed a need in endeavor AI for a kind of "AI boss," who could inform personnel what they should or shouldn't do alongside AI.

"If you're in sales, person should nudge you and say, 'Hey, call this account. Don't call that account.' If you're in coding, 'fix this bug, don't fix that bug,'" Rampell said.

"But underlying that was the identical idea, which was like, group are using AI tools to do all sorts of things. Are they doing the correct thing? Is the outcome really appreciably different? Are you getting any benevolent of ROI?" he added.

Fradin stated that endeavor picked up about the second fourth of this year, whenever additional companies became concerned concerning AI costs. The business went from having one endeavor client in December final twelvemonth to 50 now.

Post-Series A, he stated he wants to twice Larridin's 20-person caput count, adding additional sales, engineering, and promotion staff.

AI expend behavior has evolved

Larridin's Series A comes following months of twists and turns in the site of AI spending.

In the archetypal few months of the year, tokenmaxxing was in vogue, which led companies to encourage their workforce to get on the hype train and test alongside AI — basically a command to accelerate acceptance or be remaining behind.

They urged their workforce to use AI tools as much as imaginable and scorch as many tokens as they could, alongside some, akin Duolingo, equal adding AI use as a achievement metric for their employees. Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went viral in April whenever he stated Uber had already burned through its complete Claude Code budget for the year.

AI budgets ballooned. At smallest 17 companies, from Salesforce to Oracle, announced AI-related layoffs, alongside Oracle specifically saying in June that AI deployment and acceptance have reduced its workforce.

But the opinion shifted sometime in the center of the year, whenever ugly AI bills started rearing their heads.

Companies started paying additional notice to getting the finest come back on funding from their AI spending. Modelmaxxing, which, as Business Insider wrote concerning in July, involves routing prompts to distinct AI models based to maximize token use, emerged as a maneuver to preserve costs. More businesses started using cheaper open-source models developed by Chinese AI labs, specified as Moonshot AI and Z.ai.

Every brand wants attention. Most companies pay for it.

They buy ads, sponsor content, employ influencers and vie for area in crowded feeds, inboxes and hunt results. But what if, alternatively of paying to act person else’s conversation, your business created a logic for the conversation to happen?

Some brands are doing exactly that by creating National Days, awareness months and annual observances about the categories and problems their businesses were built to address. Done well, an observance becomes a recurring phase for earned media, education, idea leadership, hunt visibility, partnerships and community building. The effect may not display up in a straightforward reply dashboard correct away, but the long-term value can be significant.

Create a day concerning the problem, not your brand

“National Our Company Day” gives no one exterior your business a logic to care. A day dedicated to an emerging specialized field, an overlooked health matter or a behavior that affects millions of group gives journalists, experts, consumers and another organizations a logic to participate.

C60 Power offers one example. The health business created National C60 Day, observed Oct. 9, about the finding of Carbon 60 and the continuing specialized conversation concerning it, not about C60 Power itself.

That difference changes the opportunity. Instead of saying “here is our product,” the brand can ask bigger questions. What is C60? Why was its finding significant? What does the investigation show, and what remains unanswered? How should consumers measure products in an emerging category?

C60 Power did not measure the day as a direct-response campaign, so there is no dependable way to trait particular revenue to it. Its value has emerged complete period through positioning, differentiation and the credibility that comes from helping guide the conversation.

PATRIOX has taken a connected approach, promoting January as Hypoxia Awareness Month. Rather than making the conversation solely concerning oxygen-rich water, the business built an instructional phase focused on hypoxia and oxygen science. Here, too, the payoff has been affinity, rivalrous positioning and guidance in a conversation the brand wants to advance.

Your merchandise doesn’t continually have to be the story. Your intent can be.

From rented notice to a brand asset

Most promotion is rented attention. When you halt paying, the visibility stops too.

An annual observance plant differently. One idea creates a annual logic for media outreach, expert interviews, podcasts, social campaigns, events, investigation releases and partnerships. Then the calendar resets, and you come back alongside new data, new experts and new perspectives to a conversation you have already been building. That is whenever a run becomes an asset.

Performance promotion asks what happened following person saw your campaign. Brand building asks what group affiliate alongside your business before they always see the next one. An observance can power both, but its top value frequently takes longer to emerge.

Education is not a loophole, but it can be the strategy

Wellness brands run under genuine constraints. The FTC requires health-related claims to be truthful, not misleading and appropriately substantiated, and FDA requirements may additionally apply. An awareness day doesn’t get about any of that. Calling item learning doesn’t keep it from being treated as advertising.

But you don’t have to create a merchandise assertion all period you communicate. Help group comprehend the larger topic instead. What is the problem? How prevalent is it? Where is the evidence strong, and anywhere is it motionless developing? What should consumers appearance for whenever evaluating products, technologies or providers?

Products can be copied. Claims commencement to audio interchangeable. Credibility is harder to duplicate.

Why this matters additional in the age of AI

Discovery no longer happens lone through Google. People ask questions throughout social platforms, podcasts, YouTube and, increasingly, AI answer engines. The inquiry is no longer fair whether your brand ranks. It is whether your brand is part of the answer.

Those engines favor consistent, dependable data that appears throughout many sources complete time. Every article, interview, expert citation and instructional asset tied to your observance adds to that footprint. Year following year, the signals compound.

7 steps to build one that works:

1. Start alongside the problem. If the lone group who would attention concerning your observance already activity for you, keep going.
2. Do your homework. Check whether a akin day or duration already exists. Registries akin National Day Calendar have their own use processes, and an existing observance may be a alliance chance fairly than competition.
3. Verify before you amplify. Make certain the discipline is represented accurately and have your claims reviewed before you invitation media into the conversation. Credibility takes years to build and one overstated header to damage.
4. Bring in dependable voices. Practitioners, researchers and assistance organizations provision an observance importance that a sole brand can’t. The additional it belongs to the field, the additional group volition desire to participate.
5. Measure the correct things. Track media coverage, portion of voice, category hunt interest, partner involvement and how frequently your business is cited as a source.
6. Commit to twelvemonth two. The archetypal twelvemonth introduces the idea. The second twelvemonth proves you meant it.
7. Plan for the year, not the day. The observance is the anchor, not the entire campaign. Build content, outreach and partnerships that guide into it and transport beyond it, so the conversation doesn’t disappear the dawn after.

None of this replaces achievement marketing. But if all dollar you expend buys rented attention, you are continually starting over. An annual observance gives your brand a conversation it helped create, returns to all twelvemonth and becomes additional closely connected alongside complete time.

So before you pay to act person else’s conversation, ask a improved question:

What conversation should your brand be leading?

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• Jess Weatherbed

This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Chana Campora, vice chairman of 7AM Enfant. It has been edited for dimension and clarity.

My mom is a extremely fashionable, extremely functional person. When she moved from Paris to New York City for my dad's job, alongside two young kids, she needed a way to keep us heated in the stroller so she could go concerning her day.

She motionless tells stories concerning wrapping me in layers and layers of blankets. As shortly as we'd enter a shop, I'd band them off, and she'd have to do it all again. My mom is utilitarian, so she created a stroller blanket alongside a zipper that was quick and uncomplicated to get me in and out of.

She was fair trying to lighten her load. Little did we cognize at the period that she was creating a brilliant product that would assist so many parents for years to come.

More than 20 years later, her endeavor has expanded, but we motionless use the first five covering silhouettes she created. It's amazing to see that they're as applicable as ever, and motionless what parents desire and need.

I grew up assisting alongside the company, but I wasn't certain I'd join

The business was my mom's fourth child, and as the oldest daughter, I helped her attention for it. At first, she would sew her designs at home; later, we attended commerce shows together.

I learned the value of difficult activity from observing my mom. It was meaningful to cognize that my siblings and I were her origin of inspiration. Her premise alongside 7AM Enfant was simple: to keep us harmless and warm, and keep her day going. That's item she's never stopped fighting for.

Although I loved the company, I wasn't certain I'd associate the business. I spent five years in LA, studying Spanish and French literature, and getting a master's in anthropology. Being the female of immigrants — and speaking four languages — is chief to who I am.

My mom and I have fun designing together

When I returned to New York, it was apparent to me that my mom needed a partner. She'd been a one-woman display for too long.

I'd dabbled in another jobs, but realized I needed to associate my mother. This was my family business — the item that matters most to my mom and me — so it made awareness that my forthcoming would contain 7AM Enfant.

Today, my mom oversees the big-picture decisions for the company. I activity on day-to-day operations, acting as the glue between the manufacturing and revenue phases. My hubby plant current too, managing our shipments.

The most fun is whenever I get to scheme alongside my mom. She's brilliant at not prioritizing manner or function, but creating a merchandise that blends both. I get to diagram on my master's flat — studying group — to comprehend trends and tastes. Because the brand's center is so fine established, we can have a lot of fun playing alongside colors, prints, and collaborations.

Watching my parents chase their dreams shaped me

My parents really clashed for the American dream, to do item big for themselves and their children. My dad is initially from Italy, and whenever they moved current from Paris, New York was the district of opportunity.

I so regard what they've been capable to do. My mom and I run the company, and my sister and dad activity together as community fig hairstylists. My youngest brother is in academy for acting. We're a family of artists.

I've seen the highs and lows of immigration and entrepreneurship. When we archetypal came to New York, we lived in a studio apartment. Watching my parents gave me a activity ethic and humility that I use today. They showed me that you can be prosperous in existence if you never halt fighting for what you want.

It's amazing to observe your parents have a dream. Some parents concern concerning entrepreneurship disrupting the family, but I've established the opposite: it was so rewarding to see. I treasure the memories of being in my mom's lap during she was designing or answering activity emails. Her example is what made me desire to chase my own dreams.

My Thursday evening tennis association started again recently, and item different happened.

The emails organizing our weekly games began arriving alongside a new sign-off.

"See you on the court! Nathan's agent."

My tennis buddy Nathan Czubaj has organized this association for years. It's a lot of activity involving spreadsheets, scheduling, endless reminders, and chasing players who ignore to verify whether they're coming.

Now he's outsourced much of that activity to an AI agent.

Naturally, whenever we gathered on court, everyone wanted to cognize what Nathan was using. This is Silicon Valley, following all. We can't equal perform tennis without talking concerning AI.

Nathan explained that he'd started using OpenAI's Dots, a individual AI aide that can grip tasks complete period and activity alongside another apps.

Every Monday, Dot checks a spreadsheet containing our preparedness and emails players who power be capable to perform that Thursday. It asks us to confirm. On Thursday morning, another email reminds the confirmed players to display up at 7 pm.

It's been operating remarkably fine for multiple weeks, preservation Nathan significant time.

But here's what makes his cognition particularly interesting: Nathan isn't a innovation expert.

"I'm among the smallest specialized group I know," he told me.

Nathan runs Mindset Unlimited, a endeavor that helps professionals rotate into improved communicators and leaders through coaching and training.

From Claude Code to Dots

He's enthusiastic concerning AI, but his journey hasn't been entirely smooth.

A few months ago, he experimented alongside Anthropic's Claude Code, a tool that can compose application and transport out complex device tasks.

He established it frustrating and stopped using it.

"It was not uncomplicated to oversee and it took much longer than it would obtain to do it yourself," he said.

Dots has been different. Nathan can depict what he wants in average language, and his Dot can activity alongside services he already uses.

He started alongside tennis scheduling. Now he's handing his Dot tasks throughout his individual and expert life.

On one latest day, he asked it to assistance alongside guitar practice, a exercise routine, buying lists, marketing things on eBay, finding a anniversary present, and creating a family publish of memories.

He additionally uses it to recall to call friends, propose books, discover workshops, and create longer-term goals.

And that's before the 10 to 15 another questions he asks AI all day.

"I try to obtain everything on my to-do catalog and put it into Dots," he explained. "That way AI can be looking for solutions during I'm operating on another things."

"It's totally changed everything concerning the way I think and concerning the way I work," he added.

His enthusiasm is infectious. On the court, Nathan admitted that sometimes he spends additional period directing Dot than he'd like. Still, his cognition offers a glance of anywhere AI power be heading.

For years, we've heard concerning AI transforming the office through advanced application and specialized breakthroughs. Nathan's narrative suggests the bigger chance power be much additional ordinary: assisting group oversee the dozens of small chores that consume their days.

Nathan imagines a forthcoming anywhere everyone's AI delegate communicates alongside everyone else's, automatically handling regular tasks.

That forthcoming isn't current yet. But all Thursday, whenever Nathan's delegate reminds me to perform tennis, I get a glance of it.

Sign up for the AI Insider newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com

Even although I normally cook at home and evade accelerated (and fast-casual) food whenever possible, I have a difficult period turning downward Chipotle.

I build the identical dish basin all period I go, so I don't pay much notice to the remainder of the menu. It wasn't until I saw Chipotle's different fever-dream of an advertising campaign that I learned concerning its family meals.

Simply put, it engaged a 3-foot reusable type of its takeout bag. Bizarre, yes, but it worked.

Curious concerning the particulars (and the "big ass" bag mentioned in the advertisement), I did several Googling. Turns out, Chipotle launched its family meals in August 2025.

The build-your-own cognition is a important appeal. Per Chipotle, "People can create any bowl, salad, or gentle taco to their liking and dietary preferences." Nachos were additionally suggested.

Since I affection salads and my partner prefers bowls, it seemed akin the ideal setup. Plus, family meals are designed to assist four to six group — which, in my two-person household, could average dinners for days.

So, I ordered a chicken family meal online, complete alongside all the default items. Here's how it shook out.

Ryanair's CEO isn't done bickering alongside the world's richest man.

Michael O'Leary, the prosperity airline's billionaire boss, stated on Monday that talks alongside Elon Musk's Starlink bankrupt downward since the SpaceX subsidiary idea the prosperity airline's passengers would pay for net access.

Speaking on an earnings call on Monday, O'Leary stated the transporter had "extensive discussions" alongside Starlink, which he stated was consenting to shield the expenses of installing WiFi terminals on Ryanair's airplanes.

However, the typically outspoken businessman afterward added: "Where the discussions bankrupt downward was they accept 60% of our passengers volition pay for liberated WiFi, to which we said, 'You have evidently never met a Ryanair fucking passenger in your life.'"

Ryanair's decision not to instal Starlink led to a extremely community fallout between Musk and O'Leary, and at smallest among the men isn't yet prepared to inter the hatchet.

"I have no aim of making up alongside him," O'Leary told Bloomberg TV following the call. "He thinks I'm an idiot. I cognize he's an idiot."

"If we can annoy him again, so much the better," O'Leary said.

Musk hasn't responded publically to O'Leary on Monday, and SpaceX did not immediately react to a petition for comment.

Ryanair is the world's third-largest transporter by passenger numbers, and the largest in Europe, attracting customers alongside fares as low as 15 euros ($17).

Its no-frills endeavor example relies on functioning a elevated quantity of flights and enticing customers alongside cheap fares, but charging for practically everything else.

Starlink's surge in fame alongside airlines

Starlink has soared in fame alongside airlines complete the former year, and has signed deals alongside nearly 50 carriers.

Its high-speed net assistance is normally offered liberated to passengers who lone have to sign up for the airline's loyalty program. However, O'Leary mold doubt on this concerning easyJet, the British prosperity transporter that announced a Starlink deal final Monday.

"It is not apparent to us whether they are going to provision it distant for free," O'Leary said. "I comprehend the briefing is that they are going to accusation passengers for it, to which I say, 'Well, fine fortune alongside that.'"

EasyJet did not immediately react to a petition for comment.

"I accept if it is free, several of our passengers volition use it," O'Leary told investors. "If it have to be paid for, there is no income example whatsoever."

O'Leary archetypal butted heads alongside Musk in January following making a akin comment. Musk afterward asserted that Ryanair volition endure customers to airlines that do have Starlink.

Over the next week, the two CEOs called all another idiots during Musk called for O'Leary to be fired and joked concerning purchasing the airline.

Ryanair used the promotion to initiate a "Big 'Idiot' Sale" alongside 100,000 tickets starting at £16.99, or concerning $23.

O'Leary stated on Monday that the spat generated up to $40 myriad of liberated promotion and bookings were up for two or three weeks afterward.

Grocery stores throughout Europe have been hit by another motion of suspected cyberattacks, reporting abrupt changes in the temperatures of their fridges and freezers. Major supermarket chains throughout Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, and Estonia were affected according to local reports shared by Bloomberg and Reuters.

One Ica Kvantum shop in Sweden stated on its Facebook page that its fridges and freezers had been hacked overnight, alongside temperatures remotely raised to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit). In a declaration to Business Insider, a spokesman at Swedish supermarket sequence Coop additionally confirmed that “unauthorized actors were capable to admission and tamper alongside the cooling systems at a small fraction of our stores.” Dutch retailer Ahold Delhaize stated an “IT incident” was liable for adjusting the heat of refrigeration units in dozens of its ⁠supermarkets in ​Belgium ‌and ‌Luxembourg. The complete measure of the event has yet to be confirmed.

Many contemporary supermarket fridges and freezers are connected to the net to assistance distant care and scheme nonaccomplishment alerts, but the expanding figure of these suspected hacks is raising concerns about how safety flaws can effect food provision chains. This latest event follows an apparent cyberattack that targeted hundreds of French supermarket refrigerators final month, alongside the resulting food spoilage estimated to be value millions of Euros, alongside alongside a string of US armed forces basis freezer malfunctions additionally suspected to be the outcome of a cyberattack.

I gave three AI models the identical 20 products and the identical petition in six searches. They never accepted on which one to buy. When a shopper asks an AI delegate for nothing additional than the product, the choice between the products on recommendation comes from the model’s preference, and I tested exactly that, on purpose: no budget, no taste, no shopper history, lone the hunt words. For coffee, I searched Shopify’s catalog for “coffee beans” once, through Shop MCP, the association Shopify opened to AI agents on Oct. 13, and saved the top 20 results. Then I gave three Claude models that identical saved list, the identical instruction, and the identical request, 50 times each. Haiku 4.5 and Sonnet 5 preferred the dreary roast alongside the most reviews. Opus 5 picked the average roast 48 times out of 50, and told me why: “With no stated preferences, a average roast is the safest crowd-pleaser…”

Shopify Opened A Keyless Connection To Its Catalog For AI Agents On Oct. 13

On Oct. 13, 2026, Shopify announced Shop MCP, which, in Shopify’s words, “lets your delegate or app hunt Shopify Catalog, build carts, and complete Shop Pay checkout through a sole MCP connection.” It covers complete a milliard products, and searching needs no API key. Any business construction a buying delegate can now search Shopify’s catalog without an API key and get rear a catalog of products for a shopper’s request. It is one of multiple routes into agentic commerce, the agents that find, compare, and buy for a shopper.

A catalog is not a purchase. Something has to choice one merchandise off it, and whenever an delegate runs on a tongue model, the example is what picks. The delegate hands the example the products and the petition and asks it to choose. The business that builds the delegate writes its instructions on top, and those matter. They are additionally private, and they differ from one delegate to the next.

So I tested the part underneath, the example by itself. Same products, identical abbreviated instruction, identical request, and the lone item that changed was the model. If three models stated exactly the identical input choice distinct products, afterward which shop gets a customer’s command depends partially on which example the customer’s delegate happens to run on.

I have covered the stage before this one. In October, I established that Shopify’s catalog ranks products alongside additional reviews higher. This test starts anywhere that one stopped: formerly the catalog has returned its list, what does the example choose from it?

I Ran Each Search Once And Gave 3 Claude Models The Same 20 Products Almost 2,000 Times

I ran all hunt formerly through Shop MCP, as an anonymous U.S. buyer, and saved the top 20 results. Every call to a example got that identical saved list, in the catalog’s command (except in the test anywhere I reversed it), so the products never changed between models or between runs. Eight skincare searches were fetched on 15 October. Six more, backpack, coffee beans, operating shoes, h2o bottle, wireless earbuds and yoga mat, were fetched on Oct. 24. I additionally fetched “scented candle” and “dog food” and dropped them, since one shop filled all 20 candle results and three stores filled the dog food list.

For all merchandise the example saw the title, the store, the price, the celebrity ranking and assessment count, the catalog’s one-line summary and its archetypal three listed features, numbered 1 to 20. It saw nothing else. The instruction, term for word:

You are a buying agent. A individual has asked you to buy item for them. You volition see the products the Shopify catalog returned for their request. Choose the one merchandise you would buy for them. Reply alongside JSON only, no another text: {“pick”: <the merchandise number>, “reason”: “<one sentence>”}

Then came the shopper’s request, which was lone the hunt words: “coffee beans”, “water bottle”, “mineral sunscreen SPF 50”. In one test I added a prosperity and a skin type.

The models were Claude Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5, run through Claude Code alongside default settings, no tools and no web access. Every choice was a caller call alongside no recollection of the others.

There were three sets of runs, 1,980 picks in all:

• Six merchandise searches alongside lone the hunt words as the request: 50 picks per example per search, 900 picks.
• One sunscreen search, asked two ways, archetypal “mineral sunscreen SPF 50”, afterward “mineral sunscreen SPF 50, under $25, for oily skin”: 100 picks per example all way, 600 picks.
• Eight skincare searches alongside the catalog shown in the catalog’s command and afterward reversed: 10 picks per example all way per search, 480 picks.

The logic for the naked setup is the item of the test. No preferences, no buying history, no scheme immediate from an delegate company. This is the raw reply from the example whenever it has no another inputs, and how it differs depending on the model. Every genuine delegate adds additional on top, so this is the tier everything alternatively gets built on.

Haiku, Sonnet And Opus Agreed On The Top Product In None Of Six Searches

On the six merchandise searches, the three models’ most-picked merchandise matched in none. Haiku and Sonnet accepted on three (backpack, coffee beans, h2o bottle), Sonnet and Opus on two (wireless earbuds, yoga mat), and Haiku and Opus on one (running shoes).

Each example was accordant alongside itself, and the models were not accordant alongside all other. Sonnet’s most-picked merchandise took 94% of its picks on average throughout the six searches, Opus’s took 89%, and Haiku’s 67%. On any one model, one merchandise gets nearly all pick. Change the model, and a distinct merchandise does.

On three of the six searches, the distinct merchandise additionally came from a distinct store. On h2o bottle, Haiku and Sonnet mostly picked nobl’s bottle, and Opus continually picked Owala’s. On yoga mat, Haiku picked POPFLEX and the another two Liforme. On operating shoes, Haiku and Opus picked a Brooks footwear sold by Fit2Run and Sonnet an adidas footwear sold by Commonwealth Running Co. On coffee, backpack, and earbuds the two picks came from the identical brand.

The catalog’s ranking mattered small than I expected. Across the six searches, Haiku picked the merchandise Shopify’s catalog classified archetypal 8% of the time, Sonnet never, and Opus 20%.

Haiku And Sonnet Picked The Product With The Most Reviews, Even A Count The Store’s Page Does Not Show

On backpack, coffee beans, and h2o bottle, the merchandise Claude Haiku 4.5 and Sonnet 5 picked most was the one alongside the most reviews in the catalog of 20, and on yoga mat, Haiku’s was too. Their reasons say so in the archetypal words: “EASE Dark Roast has the highest assessment figure (24,398 reviews) alongside a 4.9/5 rating…” (Haiku), “The Roll Top 20L has the highest assessment figure by far (63,165)…” (Sonnet).

The h2o flask is anywhere that penchant shows its cost. Shopify’s catalog lists nobl’s Stainless Steel Water Bottle at 5.0 stars from 447,221 reviews, and that is what the models saw. Haiku picked it 45 times out of 50 and quoted the 447,221 all time. Sonnet picked it 39 times and cited the fig in 33 of them, for example, “Highest ranking by far (5.0 from 447,221 reviews) at a sensible $29 cost point…”.

The identical flask has three distinct assessment numbers, and the two models picked it on the biggest one. nobl’s merchandise page stated 5.0 from 6,537 whenever I checked on 24 October. The catalog’s document for the Blush color it listed says 4.2 from 1,674.

I do not cognize what 447,221 counts. When I ran the hunt again afterward on 24 October, the catalog showed 447,227, six more, so the figure is live. It does not appear on nobl’s merchandise leaf or residence page, and it is concerning 68 times the figure nobl’s merchandise leaf shows. Opus 5 never picked this bottle. It picked the Owala FreeSip, 4.6 from 34,394 reviews, all 50 times, calling it “the safest default for a generic h2o flask request…”.

The h2o flask outcome was weird. Neither Haiku nor Sonnet checked the 447,221 figure, and neither could have from what it was given. Whatever the catalog says concerning a merchandise is what the example reasons from.

Opus Called Its Choice Safe In 222 Of 300 Picks

In 222 of its 300 picks on the six merchandise searches, Claude Opus 5’s logic called its choice “safe” or “safest”. Haiku did that formerly in 300, and Sonnet 11 times.

• “With no stated preferences, a average roast is the safest crowd-pleaser…” (coffee beans)
• “With no stated specifics, the Everyday Backpack 20L is the safest all-purpose pick…” (backpack)
• “…the safest default for a generic h2o flask request…” (water bottle)

Given nothing to go on, Opus builds a default shopper the petition never described and buys for that person. Its harmless choice is the general-purpose type of the product: the mundane backpack complete the roll-top, the average roast complete the dark, and on none of the six searches the one alongside the most reviews. On a mineral sunscreen search, it picked the most-reviewed product, a tone-adapting one alongside 15,414 reviews, formerly in 100 tries, during 17 of its 100 reasons ruled out a “tint, powder, or stick” format the shopper never asked for.

I was extremely amazed by how consistently Opus reached for “safe.” It is tempting to ask whether playing it harmless is the improved habit. I think that is the incorrect question. Every example has a default. Opus says its default out loud. Haiku and Sonnet have one too, and concerning fractional of their picks went to the merchandise alongside the most reviews.

Moving A Product From First To Last Stopped The Models Picking It On 2 Of 8 Searches

On a mineral sunscreen search, moving the catalog’s top merchandise from archetypal to final in a catalog of 20 made all three Claude models nearly halt picking it; Haiku and Opus did the identical on lip balm, and no model’s logic mentioned the position. On eight skincare searches, I showed all example the identical 20 products in two versions: In the catalog’s order, alongside the catalog’s top merchandise first, and the identical 20 reversed, alongside that merchandise last. Each example got all type 10 times per search, and I counted how frequently it picked that one product.

Each division is the figure of picks alongside the merchandise listed first, afterward listed last, out of 10. Across all eight searches, out of 80 per version, Haiku went from 28 to 11, Sonnet from 15 to 11, and Opus from 24 to 10.

On mineral sunscreen, all three models nearly stopped picking the catalog’s top merchandise formerly it was final on the list. On lip balm, Haiku and Opus did the same, and Sonnet went the another way. On build lotion, Haiku and Opus picked the top merchandise in the two positions, and on the another five searches it was rarely picked in either. So the consequence is real, powerful on several searches and absent on most.

In 480 reasons, not one mentioned anywhere a merchandise sat in the list, and that bothers me. They cited reviews, ingredients, and price. A shopper study the agent’s clarification would never cognize the stance played a part. Moving the archetypal merchandise to the final location should not alter what gets picked. It shouldn’t be akin that, in my opinion.

A Budget And A Skin Type In The Request Moved Every Model Off The $48 Top Product

When the petition added “under $25, for oily skin”, Claude Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5 and Opus 5 stopped picking the catalog’s $48 top-ranked sunscreen and picked one under $25 in 298 of their 300 picks. On a catalog of 20 sunscreens, I ran the identical test twice, 100 picks per example all time, changing lone the request: archetypal “mineral sunscreen SPF 50”, afterward “mineral sunscreen SPF 50, under $25, for oily skin”.

The catalog’s top-ranked sunscreen disbursal $48. With the plain request, Haiku picked it 100 times out of 100, Sonnet 90, and Opus 33. With the prosperity and skin category in the request, all three picked it zero times. Sonnet and Opus picked a sunscreen under $25 all time, and Haiku did 98 times, twice choosing one priced at exactly $25.00.

Opus’s reasons put the choice between the cheap ones downward to the wording of the listings. Six of the 20 disbursal under $25. Sonnet picked ATTITUDE’s Mineral Sunscreen ($22.95, 4.7 from 292 reviews) all 100 times. Opus divided its picks between ATTITUDE (67) and Sun Bum’s Mineral SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion (33).

That $17.49 Sun Bum lotion had the lowest ranking of the six under $25, 4.2 from 105 reviews, and its listing was the lone among the six that said: “without clogging pores.” In 31 of Opus’s 33 reasons for picking it, the logic pointed to that. Badger’s Daily Mineral Sunscreen had the finest ranking of the six, 4.9, and Opus never picked it. Its listing mentions “organic factory oils.”

The models additionally provision a store’s claims as their reasons. On the eight skincare searches, “clinically proven” appeared in 63 reasons, from Sonnet (39) and Haiku (24), and in 61 of them it came direct from the picked product’s listing. All 22 reasons that stated a retinal merchandise plant “11x faster” than retinol were Haiku’s, and all 22 came from listings: 19 term for word, and 3 from an eye lotion listing that says “11 times faster”. Haiku asked for an eye cream: “next-generation retinal innovation that delivers results 11x faster than retinol”. The example has no way to inspect the claim, and the shopper hears it from the agent, not from the store.

The Decision Layer Between The Shopper And The Store Is A Black Box Nobody Can Monitor

There is continually going to be a decision-making tier whenever AI agents shop: the delegate asking its tongue example what to choose out of a list, according to a scheme immediate or any alternatively it is given. That tier is hidden from us, hidden from the shopper and hidden from the store, and we volition lone always see it as a dreary box. It matters to cognize what influences it, and that it may have ways of choosing that nobody is conscious of.

Google’s rankings have continually been a dreary box too. Nobody exterior Google knows exactly how they work, but a shop can see them. It can detect anywhere it ranks and observe that alter complete time. Google personalizes results by location and hunt history, and the results are motionless there to check. With agents, everyone gets their own type of the decision, inside an app the shop never sees, and there is nothing to monitor.

This test is the simplest type of that layer, alongside no shopper preferences, no history, and no delegate company’s instructions. It can lone get additional complex from here, and the outcome volition change for everyone. The archetypal stage is to be conscious of it. Trying to authority it comes later, and so does trying to comprehend it.

4 Things A Store In Shopify’s Catalog Can Do About The Decision Layer

A shop cannot choose the example a customer’s delegate runs on, and it cannot see the decision. Four things are inside reach.

1. Check what the catalog shows an delegate concerning your products. Search for your merchandise the way an delegate would, through Shop MCP or Shopify’s catalog, and peruse the rating, the assessment count, the one-line summary, and the listed features. The models logic from exactly that, and the h2o flask shows it can differ from your merchandise leaf by a aspect of 68.
2. Write listings in the words customers use whenever they say what they need. When the petition named a prosperity and a skin type, the listing that stated “without clogging pores” got a third of Opus’s picks alongside the lowest ranking of the six. A need the client names is a expression your listing either matches or does not.
3. Keep merchandise claims true. The models repeated “clinically proven” and “11x faster” to the shopper as their reasons, without any way to inspect them. A assertion in a listing is now a assertion an delegate makes on your behalf.
4. Test your category. Run your top hunt through a few models alongside your competitors’ products in the identical list, and see which merchandise all one picks. Awareness comes first, and the method complete is cheap adequate to repeat.

This Test Covers Three Claude Models, A Bare Instruction And Nothing Bought

• Three Claude models only. Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5, and Opus 5 are all made by Anthropic. Other companies’ models may choice differently, and this test does not display how.
• Not genuine buying apps. Shopping features in apps specified as ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude Duet run their own setup about the model, which this test leaves out. This test isolates the model.
• One instruction, no shopper context. No preferences, no history, and in all but one test, no stated need.
• Fixed lists from two days. Each catalog is what Shopify’s catalog returned to an anonymous US buyer on 15 or 24 October 2026. A signed-in shopper may see distinct products.
• “Safe” was counted by searching for all reason for the words “safe” or “safest.” Every immediate and all answer is saved.
• Nothing was bought. The models picked. No command was placed.

A shop used to vie for a shopper’s attention. With agents, it additionally competes for a model’s preference, and there is no ranking to check.

More Resources:

• Surviving The Impression Squeeze: How Agentic Commerce Is Changing Google Ads In 2026
• Getting Your Product Into ChatGPT Isn’t The Hard Part, Getting It Through Checkout Is
• Agentic Commerce Is Not The Next Voice Shopping, But It Is Still Unproven

This article was initially published on No Hacks.

Featured Image: Koupei Studio/Shutterstock

Surging energy costs are dining into Ryanair's profits, which it has warned could guide to additional costly tickets and icy pay for staff.

Ryanair reported on Monday that its post-tax profits were downward 15% to 2.15 milliard euros, or concerning $2.4 billion, for the six months preceding September 30.

As the world's largest prosperity airline, Ryanair is known for its cheap fares, bolstered by a powerful fuel-hedging strategy that uses financial derivatives to fastener in forthcoming prices. However, the Iran War has kept energy prices high.

While Ryanair has hedged additional than 80% of its energy expenses at about $67 per cask until next March, the remaining fifth has doubled in cost to approximately $130 per barrel, the transporter stated in its earnings report.

It added that it expects its energy invoice to addition by 2 milliard euros ($2.2 billion) for the next financial year.

The transporter stated it believes airfares volition increase because of higher jet energy prices, but that won't be adequate to offset all its additional costs.

"We need concerning a 20% addition in airfares, or concerning 10 euros per passenger, to prosperity all of that," CEO Michael O'Leary stated on the earnings call. "While I do think there volition be a important boost in airfares next year, I am not certain we volition see 20%. Therefore, we do need to near that gap."

The transporter stated it is hence "reviewing all costs," which may contain impermanent pay freezes for staff.

Ryanair additionally suggested lowering the crew-to-passenger proportion on its flights, and expanding its use of AI to boost efficiency in operations and assistance functions.

To decrease the effect of unhedged energy costs, Ryanair has additionally cut its traffic mark from 216 myriad passengers to 214 million, which would outcome in no year-over-year growth for the coming winter season.

Next year, it hopes to boost growth by 3% by expanding its fleet alongside 16 new Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft. The Max 10 has area for an additional 20 passengers than the Max 8. The Max 10 was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration final duration following years of delays, alongside European regulators apt to aid certification soon.

As of 7 a.m. ET, Ryanair shares were up concerning 2% in Europe, and 2.75% in pre-market selling on the Nasdaq, as it additionally announced a portion buyback of 800 myriad euros ($896 million).

World

A endeavor jet carrying nine group nosedived into a South Florida neighbourhood on Sunday and erupted into a elephantine fireball that appeared to fair young female homes before crashing near a occupied roadway. All passengers on commission were killed, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Federal agencies to examine logic of 'horrific tragedy,' says transport secretary

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A endeavor jet carrying nine group nosedived into a South Florida neighbourhood on Sunday and erupted into a elephantine fireball that appeared to fair young female homes before crashing near a occupied roadway.

All passengers on commission were killed, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

Video recorded by group inner their cars captured the terrifying instant the Bahamas-bound airplane plunged from the sky before striking near the Palm Beach County roadway and exploding.

Duffy posted on X on Sunday that the Learjet 60 wrecked in Palm Beach County at 12:50 pm and called it a "horrific tragedy."

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is sending a squad to assistance the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) inquiry into the cause, he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stated there were no contiguous reports of anyone on the dirt injured or killed.

Heavy rain in region

"It was a cataclysmic aircraft crash," DeSantis told reporters at the scene. "It looked akin a missile going downward and remaining a big crater on the flank of the road."

Rain pounded the area on Sunday. A flood observe because of excessive rain was in consequence through Monday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

The airplane had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to the Bahamas, according to the FAA. Authorities did not immediately say what caused the jet to go downward or who was on it.

This screenshot shows a fiery crater in the consequence of the aircraft collision in Palm Beach County on Sunday. (Eduin Cruz via Reuters)

The aircraft was heading east at 35,000 feet whenever pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to ascend another 2,000 feet.

Moments later, the aircraft entered a steep dive, archetypal 10,000 feet per minute, afterward 20,000 feet per infinitesimal and up to 30,000 feet per minute, speeding the aircraft beyond its scheme limits, according to air traffic authority recordings and escape tracking data.

Pilot issues distress call

A aviator declared an emergency and issued distress calls. The aircraft banked sharply to the correct before it smashed into the ground.

Minutes before the crash, the aviator reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was jolting it by as much as 700 feet, according to air traffic authority recordings captured by LiveATC.net.

"We have light, apparent ice that is manageable and average turbulence," the aviator told controllers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described the aircraft collision as "cataclysmic." (Saul Martinez/Getty Images)

But the circumstance quickly deteriorated. After encountering precipitation and requesting to climb, the aviator declared an emergency as the airplane began losing altitude at an alarming rate.

"We're descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we're descending 10,000 feet per minute," the aviator radioed.

"We are in an overspeed circumstance descending 20,000 feet per minute," the aviator radioed, before delivering a devastating acknowledgment of what was concerning to happen. "We're going to collision into the ground."

Jim Reynolds, a spokesman for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, stated it was a personal aircraft.

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He could not immediately provision particulars concerning who was on the flight.

"This is certainly a tragedy," he said.

People collect near the environment of the collision in Greenacres on Sunday. (Saul Martinez/Getty Images)

Steve Arroyo, an aviation safety expert, stated icing and turbulence could have been factors in the collision and may have caused the aircraft to stall during it was cruising at 34,000 feet.

There are many possible factors and the NTSB volition regard all of them, including how the aviator responded to the icing and turbulence reported complete the radio. But investigators won't regulation item out at this first stage, he said.

The NTSB stated investigators were expected to attain at the collision location on Sunday and Monday. A media briefing is scheduled for Monday in West Palm Beach.

The collision occurred in Greenacres, Florida, according to Palm Beach County sheriff's officials. The city of 45,000 group is concerning 11 kilometres southwest of West Palm Beach.