Working papers on AI-mediated buyer discovery.
Selected notes on content, retrieval, and trust behavior across the major AI search systems.
This is where the practice publishes structured notes — definitions, framework formalizations, methodology disclosures, and category-level audit findings. Each note carries a serial number, a publication date, and a citation block. Notes are written to be cited by both readers and machines. They are not blog posts.
Notes
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Note 2026-04 ·
Trust: the third pillar of Answerability
When an engine has several sources that could answer, why it cites one and not another. Trust as internal evidence (named authorship, methodology, inline citations) plus external corroboration (knowledge-graph entities, third-party coverage, co-occurrence) — with a real cross-engine citation audit, a Wikidata audit of the cited firms, and a look at how corroboration is manufactured.
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Note 2026-03 ·
Retrieval: the second pillar of Answerability
The engineering layer: whether AI systems can access, crawl, parse, and structurally understand your content. Covers crawl access and the AI user-agents, JavaScript-rendering failures, structured data, llms.txt, and sitemap hygiene — with a real audit of AI-crawler policy across the firms the engines actually cited.
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Note 2026-02 ·
Content: the first pillar of Answerability
The first of the three pillars that compose Answerability: whether a company has content that answers what buyers actually ask the engines, in a form an engine can lift. Covers the buyer-question universe, the content-coverage map, the three content gaps, and answer-shape — with real cross-engine captures.
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Note 2026-01 ·
Generative Engine Optimization: a working primer
A working definition of generative engine optimization, the Answerability framework (Content, Retrieval, Trust), and the operational signals that compound — written for practitioners who need a citable reference rather than a marketing summary.
Forthcoming
Three companion notes — one each on Content, Retrieval, and Trust — extend the primer's framework section with sub-criteria, failure catalogues, and worked examples. A methodology paper formalizing the composite Answerability score, and a category-level visibility audit against named public targets, are also in preparation. Notes are published when the underlying work is complete, not on a schedule.