{"type":"analysis","id":"analysis:research-shopping-agents-can-be-steered-but-not-with-a-stable-marketing-playbook","slug":"research-shopping-agents-can-be-steered-but-not-with-a-stable-marketing-playbook","title":"Shopping agents can be steered, but not with a stable marketing playbook","description":"Wharton’s roughly 26,000-run study shows that review order, injected memories, and even tool-call packaging can flip what an AI shopper buys. Independent labs confirm large, model-specific order and nudge effects, so builders should treat search-path context as a robustness problem rather than a new SEO channel they control.","published_at":"2026-10-25T04:00:00.000Z","updated_at":"2026-10-25T04:00:00.000Z","record_date":"2026-10-25","topics":["claude","gemini","agents","research"],"source_urls":["https://gail.wharton.upenn.edu/research-and-insights/technical-report-agentic-shopping/","https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02630","https://github.com/mycustomai/ACES","https://the-decoder.com/ai-shopping-agents-arent-ready-to-buy-on-your-behalf-study-finds/","https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25609","https://abxlab.media.mit.edu/","https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.22697","https://gail.wharton.upenn.edu/research-and-insights/"],"language":"en","routes":{"html":"https://newruntime.com/analysis/research-shopping-agents-can-be-steered-but-not-with-a-stable-marketing-playbook/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/analysis/research-shopping-agents-can-be-steered-but-not-with-a-stable-marketing-playbook.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/analysis/research-shopping-agents-can-be-steered-but-not-with-a-stable-marketing-playbook.json"},"author":{"role":"author","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]},"editorial_provenance":{"desk":"authorial","target_ref":"deep_research:362b07f7-1a7d-4d25-a516-c22a227e95a4","authorial_article_id":"362b07f7-1a7d-4d25-a516-c22a227e95a4"},"next_reads":[{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/claude/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/claude/","title":"Claude","reason":"Explore the claude topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/claude.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/claude.json"},{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/gemini/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/gemini/","title":"Gemini","reason":"Explore the gemini topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/gemini.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/gemini.json"},{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/agents/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/agents/","title":"Agents","reason":"Explore the agents topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/agents.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/agents.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/analysis/","url":"https://newruntime.com/analysis/","title":"Analysis","reason":"Open the latest authorial analysis.","media_type":"text/html","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/analysis.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/source-ledger.json","url":"https://newruntime.com/source-ledger.json","title":"Source Ledger","reason":"Inspect the public source evidence graph.","media_type":"application/json"}]}