Competition & Markets

• Article

The Psychology of Gen AI: How AI Decides What's Best: The Psychology Behind LLM Product Recommendations

As generative AI tools increasingly shape how consumers search, shop, compare and evaluate products, understanding how they make recommendations has become critical for marketers. This eighth abridged report in our ongoing Psych of Gen AI series examines how large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT and Claude, determine what qualifies as the “best” product—and reveals that their recommendations are far from neutral. Instead, they tend to rely on narrow, repetitive sets of familiar brands and structured response patterns that may reinforce existing market leaders. The findings highlight important implications for brand visibility, competitive dynamics and how marketers should position their products in AI-driven environments.

• Article

The Psychology of Gen AI: How AI Decides What's Best: The Psychology Behind LLM Product Recommendations: Deep Dive

As generative AI tools increasingly shape how consumers search, shop, compare and evaluate products, understanding how they make recommendations has become critical for marketers. This eighth deep dive report in our ongoing Psych of Gen AI series examines how large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT and Claude, determine what qualifies as the “best” product—and reveals that their recommendations are far from neutral. Instead, they tend to rely on narrow, repetitive sets of familiar brands and structured response patterns that may reinforce existing market leaders. The findings highlight important implications for brand visibility, competitive dynamics and how marketers should position their products in AI-driven environments.

• Targets & Segments
• Article

What AI Recommends—and Why: Inside the Logic of “Best” Product Choices

• Psychology of Gen AI
• ARF; MSI

As generative AI tools increasingly shape how consumers search, shop, compare and evaluate products, understanding how they make recommendations has become critical for marketers. This seventh experiment in our ongoing Psychology of Gen AI series, is the first phase in a study that examines how large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT and Claude, determine what qualifies as the “best” product—and reveals that their recommendations are far from neutral. Instead, they tend to rely on narrow, repetitive sets of familiar brands and structured response patterns that may reinforce existing market leaders. The findings highlight important implications for brand visibility, competitive dynamics and how marketers should position their products in AI-driven environments.

• Article

How Information Bundling in Auctions Benefits Both Publishers and Advertisers

Advertisers bid for online ads based on demographics and other data provided by publishers. Granular data can improve ad matching but also reduce publishers’ revenues by reducing bids for specific inventory. Both parties can benefit from auctions with mixed bundles of inventory types that broaden competition but also improve targeting.

• Article

Targeting Information in Ad Auction Mechanisms

Proposes a mechanism for online ad auctions that bundles inventory types to broaden competitive bidding and increase publisher revenues while also improving targeting and advertiser welfare.

• Article

ARF KC Key Takeaways: TV Commerce & Shoppable Ads

The shoppable TV advertising market is experiencing rapid growth, driven by consumer demand for seamless shopping experiences while watching content. Consumer behavior is shifting, with U.S. shoppers spending $144.9 billion annually on products discovered through TV, and nearly half of all digital buyers expected to engage with shoppable media by 2027. Adoption of connected TV (CTV) commerce is slowly rising, with over half of TV streamers participating in commerce-related activities.

• Article

The Multiple Ways to Sell to Singles

• Array

As more individuals choose to remain single, marketers must rethink products, pricing, policies, and brand messaging based on two-adult households with pooled income, shared responsibilities, and synchronized consumption. Firms designing for families of one, rather than retrofitting couple-centric offerings, can gain revenue and long-term loyalty from a rapidly expanding market.

• Article

The Business Case for Selling and Marketing to Singles

• Array

Synthesizes insights from interviews and surveys to identify four types of singles, each with different goals, behaviors, spending patterns, and expectations around connection and autonomy that affect their decision making as consumers.