Research edition · 14 September 2026
The report’s observations, prices and forecasts are a dated snapshot. Examples of savings are estimates unless explicitly identified as study results. This is not a fresh verification of every claim.
Common pitfalls
- Buying several overlapping assistants, note apps, meeting bots, and writing tools.
- Confusing a broad feature list with a complete workflow.
- Treating downloads, user enthusiasm, or a vendor ROI calculator as productivity evidence.
- Building a critical process on a beta feature or an unstable product name.
- Ignoring usage allowances, credits, per-resolution fees, token pricing, or auto-purchase settings.
- Allowing agents to write directly to systems of record before measuring false positives and duplicates.
- Putting confidential information into a consumer account because the interface is convenient.
- Assuming a citation means the answer is supported; citations can be irrelevant, stale, or fabricated.
- Letting AI-generated notes become an unowned archive rather than accountable tasks.
- Automating email, calendar changes, payments, permissions, hiring, or customer commitments without approval.
- Measuring time saved while ignoring review time, rework, context switching, surveillance, and workload pressure.
- Failing to export data and document a replacement before a price or feature change.
Test / adopt / restrict / avoid rubric
| Decision | Use when | Minimum evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Test | Potentially useful but uncertain | Defined task, safe sample data, baseline, owner, budget cap, and stop criteria |
| Adopt | Benefit is repeatable and reviewable | Measured quality/time improvement, acceptable error rate, trained users, documented policy, export path |
| Restrict | Useful only with narrower permissions or review | High value but material privacy, action, or regulatory risk; use sandbox, approval, and limited scope |
| Avoid | No clear job, no evidence, unacceptable data handling, or unbounded cost | Written rationale and a revisit trigger if the product changes materially |