Counter-intuitive
Findings that contradict vendor narrative or operator intuition.
What this lens looks for
Vendors and analysts converge on a story. The numbers, the named buyers, or the operating reality often tell a different one. This lens flags the gap.
When we apply it
- An announcement frames a metric as a win; the underlying data measures something else
- A “consensus” pattern across vendor decks does not survive a check of named buyers
- A widely-cited finding is downstream of selection bias, survivorship effects, or definition drift
What the verdict looks like
Articles through this lens name the prevailing story, name the contradicting evidence, and name the source we trust more (and why).
Articles through this lens
-
I Shipped Production AI at Scale. Here Is What the Research Says Actually Drives Adoption.
A researcher who shipped 3 production AI platforms to 30,000 sellers in 2026 then quantified what drives adoption in 523 U.S. adults. Performance expectancy did not make the list. Three other factors did.
-
Performance Expectancy Does Not Predict AI Adoption
A structural model of 523 U.S. adults found that performance expectancy had no statistically significant effect on AI adoption intent. The vendors pitching better capability specs are pulling the wrong lever. Here is what your deployment should be designed to pull instead.