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Claim LD03-SL-C15 (v1.0)

In randomized experiments run by a large cross-border online retail platform in 2023–2024, building generative AI into seven business workflows changed sales by between nothing detectable and 16.3%, depending on how much the AI added to the firm's existing practice; the four workflows with gains imply about $5 a year per consumer.

Provenance and status

Claim type
ESTIMATE (as printed: “ESTIMATE”)
Publication status
ELIGIBLE (PREPRINT) (as printed: “ELIGIBLE WITH PREPRINT QUALIFIER”)
Verification state
CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY (PREPRINT) (as printed: “CONTENT VERIFIED PREPRINT”; verified by: UNKNOWN)
Does not license
Effects on profits or productivity (labour and capital inputs are not counted); effects in other firms
Source (field 6, as printed)
Fang, Yuan, Zhang, Donati & Sarvary, “Generative AI and Sales Productivity: Field Experiments in Online Retail,” arXiv:2510.12049, v6, June 2026
Source type (field 7)
PREPRINT (as printed: “Preprint”)
Institutional position
Mixed
Maturity (claim evidence / publication maturity)
EMERGING (as printed: “EMERGING”)
Recorded date
2026-10-15
Currentness / correction
This is the current version. No correction or concern relation is recorded on its Sources.

Version

Pinned version v1.0 (entry LD03-SL-C15--v1.0) — this page never floats to newer evidence.

This pinned version is also the current version.

Versions:v1.0 · current

Pinned Sources (field 6, version-specific)

All 25 canonical Claim fields (raw values and normalized values)
#Canonical fieldCanonical value (verbatim)Normalized (Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2)
1CLAIM IDLD03-SL-C15—
2PUBLIC-FACING CLAIMIn randomized experiments run by a large cross-border online retail platform in 2023–2024, building generative AI into seven business workflows changed sales by between nothing detectable and 16.3%, depending on how much the AI added to the firm's existing practice; the four workflows with gains imply about $5 a year per consumer.—
3CLAIM TYPEESTIMATEbase_types: ESTIMATE
4RESEARCH STRANDB — Firm and executive outcomes—
5MATURITYEMERGINGstates: EMERGING
6SOURCEFang, Yuan, Zhang, Donati & Sarvary, “Generative AI and Sales Productivity: Field Experiments in Online Retail,” arXiv:2510.12049, v6, June 2026source_ids: SRC-SL-FANG-YUAN-ZHANG-DONATI-SARVARY-ARXIV-2510-12049-V6
7SOURCE TYPEPreprintclasses: PREPRINT
8INSTITUTIONAL POSITIONMixed—
9SCOPEOne unnamed cross-border online retail platform; September 2023 to June 2024—
10DESIGNRandomized field experiments (A/B tests) run by the firm—
11SAMPLE / DATASETMillions of users and products across seven workflows—
12MODEL / TOOL / VERSIONGenerative AI built into firm workflows (chatbot, search, product descriptions, messages, ad titles, chargeback defence, translation)—
13COMPARATORUsers and products under the firm's existing practice—
14MAIN RESULTSales effects from no detectable impact (advertising) to +16.3% (pre-sale chatbot); about $4.6–5.2 per consumer a year across the four positive workflows, assuming the gains add up; no worse return rates or ratings—
15INFERENTIAL TARGETFirm-level sales effects of generative AI embedded in workflows—
16DOES NOT LICENSEEffects on profits or productivity (labour and capital inputs are not counted); effects in other firms—
17VERIFICATION STATECONTENT VERIFIED PREPRINTstate: CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY · qualifiers: PREPRINT · verified_by: UNKNOWN
18LIMITATIONSWorkflows chosen by managerial judgement, not systematically; two authors were paid consultants to the platform and one was its employee; not peer reviewed—
19CONTRADICTORY / SUPPORTING SOURCESContrasts with the absence of task-composition change when tools are given to individuals—
20GEOGRAPHY / LANGUAGEGlobal platform / English—
21DISTRIBUTIONAL LEDGERLarger gains for less experienced consumers—
22R01 / FIELD-MAP LINKSLD-03, D2—
23WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS CLAIM?Replication at other firms, or estimates net of the inputs used—
24PUBLICATION STATUSELIGIBLE WITH PREPRINT QUALIFIERstate: ELIGIBLE · qualifiers: PREPRINT
25RECORDED DATE2026-10-15—

Field 22 references resolved against Field Map v0.2: LD-03 (LIVING_DEBATE); D2 (DOMAIN)

Cited by Living Debate versions

Research-of-record provenance

Materialized by sociolens-materializer 0.6.0 at 2026-09-28T20:00:00.000Z; normalization contract SocioLens — Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2 — Pre-Spike Materialization Contract (v1.0.2). Content seal SHA-256 2decdb49d7612f1719f0260beb7ef9ea46173f97052fa13663ebaf0ace1834d6.

Repository-authored inputs (not Drive exports)

  • SocioLens claim — LD03-SL-C15 v1.0 (v1.0) — written in the SocioLens repository by Project Lead (Claude, AI) on 2026-10-15; no Drive identity exists. Authority: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-03 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-03 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts. Block “ENTRY 15 — LD03-SL-C15” SHA-256 79c2d7ba0809bb1ac041f1801a9fe63ac8747fcb60352ca78add1401b9743930; fixture fixtures/authored/claims/LD03-SL-C15--v1.0.

Builder decisions (not Drive data)

  • VERSION = v1.0 — basis: Claim version taken from the repository-authored claim fixture version (SocioLens claim — LD03-SL-C15 v1.0); the first version of a new Claim of the LD-03 debate
  • CURRENT_POINTER = true — basis: repository-authored claim "SocioLens claim — LD03-SL-C15 v1.0" (Project Lead (Claude, AI), 2026-10-15); basis: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-03 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-03 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts
  • FIELD_6_SOURCE_REFERENCE = SRC-SL-FANG-YUAN-ZHANG-DONATI-SARVARY-ARXIV-2510-12049-V6--v1.0 — basis: field 6 of ENTRY 15 — LD03-SL-C15 cites "Fang, Yuan, Zhang, Donati & Sarvary, “Generative AI and Sales Productivity: Field Experiments in Online Retail,” arXiv:2510.12049, v6, June 2026"; the only field-6 segment of this ClaimVersion's repository-authored ledger block.
  • SOURCE_PROVENANCE_PIN = SRC-SL-FANG-YUAN-ZHANG-DONATI-SARVARY-ARXIV-2510-12049-V6--v1.0 — basis: explicit version-pinned public provenance of this ClaimVersion (Amendment v1.2 §6): the pinned field-6 Source record "Fang, Yuan, Zhang, Donati & Sarvary, “Generative AI and Sales Productivity: Field Experiments in Online Retail,” arXiv:2510.12049, v6, June 2026".