Five Beauty Brands, One Shopper: Generative AI Assistants and Twelve Questions

This is an independent research project run by an individual, Sergei Ponomarev, under the AI Business name. It was not commissioned or funded by any brand, store or technology vendor. The study describes the observed behaviour of specific public versions of five beauty brands' AI assistants in saved conversations on 8 October 2026. It is not a ranking, not a comparison of products and not a recommendation to buy; it does not assess the brands, their products, staff, internal architecture or regulatory compliance. No orders were placed, no accounts created and no personal data entered. The reference answers were taken only from the pages of the same websites on which the assistants work; the main package was saved and frozen before the conversations, and pages saved afterwards are kept in a separate dated supplement and marked in the report. The report gives the twelve questions, two results tables, a chapter of best practices recommended to every team building AI assistants for online stores, points worth attention, the method and its limits, and for each assistant every question, the start of its answer, the website page, the verdict and suggestions. If a brand finds a factual inaccuracy, please send the supporting evidence to info@aibusiness.vc: confirmed corrections are published in a dated change log, an official comment can be added, and the original version stays preserved. Version 1.0, 8 October 2026; the PDF's SHA-256 is published next to it.