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The in-house research team has hollowed out, and the LLMs picking up the slack are only delivering their best guesses. Merciv, the agentic brain behind Future Commerce’s Signal Reports, has set out to deliver auditable, defensible, and unified reporting solutions — and it’s redefining what brands are capable of achieving in-house in the process. 

Phillip and Alicia welcome Merciv co-founder and CEO Shaia Erlbaum to the show to talk about how brands can read signals in real time, and verify their relevancy. Shaia argues that data itself is commoditizing, but verification is not. The most honest consumer signal lives too deep for surveys to reach, which is why our Signal Reports are looking deeper than stated behaviors and are telling completely new kinds of retail and culture stories.

The Toothpaste Doesn't Lie

Key takeaways:

• Insights teams keep shrinking while the C-suite depends on them more than ever.
• Surveys capture posturing. Forums, reviews, and comment sections capture behavior.
• Data is commoditizing. Proprietary brand knowledge is the durable moat.
• The first Signal Report, a collaboration between Future Commerce and Merciv,  maps where GLP-1s removed cultural friction – and where friction migrated to.
• "Almost everyone answering a survey question about how many times they brush their teeth in a day will say twice. But if you actually look at those sales figures, they simply don't sell enough toothpaste." — Shaia Erlbaum
• "These models aren't built to tell you, 'Hey, I don't know.'" — Shaia Erlbaum
• "There's a world where data's already becoming a commodity… a lot of the real advantage is less rooted in which model's more intelligent, but more so in to what degree can we actually verify the information we're coming across." — Shaia Erlbaum
• "The office of the CMO is becoming more of an individual contributor role." — Phillip Jackson

In-Show Mentions:

• Merciv: merciv.com
• "Frictionless Wellness: GLP-1s and What Comes After the Age of Autonomy" – the first Future Commerce Signal Report, powered by Merciv.
• LORE, our newest book on who really writes your brand's story. Get it in the Future Commerce shop.

Associated Links:

• Read the first Signal Report, Frictionless Wellness: GLP-1s and What Comes After the Age of Autonomy
• Insiders 204: The Ozempic Effect: How GLP-1s Rewrote the Gospel of Self-Love
• Episode 435: Predictions 2026: Prepare for the Age of Autonomy
• Episode 367: AI Agents Are Here. "Brands" Might Be In Danger.
• Episode 447: The Agent Has Left the Building
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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