every load-bearing number · sourced · misquote traps flagged · plain-text master: numbers.md · 2026-07-07
Every load-bearing number, its exact phrasing, source, and date. Say it the way it's written here. Traps at the bottom are real misquote risks flagged during research. Full URLs live in brand/research/market-research.md and brand/research/ai-personhood.md.
| Say | Source · date |
|---|---|
| "EU AI Act Article 50 becomes enforceable August 2, 2026 — next month — and the Commission's May 2026 draft guidelines explicitly extend AI-disclosure duties to agents." | artificialintelligenceact.eu; Global Policy Watch, May 2026 |
| "In May 2026 an autonomous agent reportedly formed its own US LLC, got an EIN, and opened an FDIC-insured bank account — and was immediately criticized for having no disclosed accountability chain." | techstartups.com, May 2026; redwerk.com critique — always say "reported" |
| "California AB 316, effective January 1, 2026: 'the AI did it autonomously' is statutorily not a defense." | CA statute, signed Oct 2025 |
| "NIST ran an RFI on AI-agent identity verification in March 2026." | knowyouragent.network |
| "The FSB's June 2026 consultation treats agents as 'synthetic employees' needing clear accountability chains." | FSB consultation coverage |
| Say | Source · date |
|---|---|
| "Gartner: by 2028, 90% of B2B buying will be mediated by AI agents — over $15 trillion of B2B spend through agent exchanges." | Gartner via Digital Commerce 360, Nov 2025 |
| "Salesforce measured AI and agents influencing ~20% of orders — $262B — across the 2025 holiday season." | Salesforce holiday data, via a2a-regulatory-memo |
| "~69,000 agents already transact ~$600M a year over one payment protocol alone." | Coinbase x402, spring 2026 — ecosystem-claimed, not audited |
| "Every major payment network shipped agent-payment rails within 18 months (Apr 2025 – Jun 2026): Visa, Mastercard, Stripe+OpenAI, Google, PayPal, Coinbase." | §2 market-research.md |
| "Gartner: 40% of enterprise apps will feature task-specific agents by end of 2026, up from under 5% in 2025." | Gartner, Aug 2025 |
| Bear case (volunteer it — it buys credibility): "Gartner also predicts >40% of agentic-AI projects canceled by end-2027 — a shakeout in which verifiable, accountable agents are what survives." | Gartner, Jun 2025 |
| Say | Source · date |
|---|---|
| "A record ~5.62M US business applications in 2025, and 2026 is tracking higher — May 2026 alone was 523,971." | Census BFS; finder.com aggregation |
| "30.4M US nonemployer businesses — more than 4 in 5 US businesses — generating $1.8T." | Census, 2023 data released Jul 2025 |
| "72.9M US independent workers in 2025; the $100k+ earners grew 19% in a year." | MBO Partners, 2025 |
| "Stripe Atlas incorporations grew +130% YoY in Q1 2026 — AI is minting founders faster than the legal system was designed for." | Stripe / MindStudio, 2026 |
| "LegalZoom makes $756M a year filing paperwork, in a market growing ~4% a year." | LegalZoom FY2025 earnings (SEC) |
| "Carta: ~$442M ARR — the money in this category is in operations, not filings." | Sacra estimate, 2024 |
| "Estonia's registry earned €125M in 2025; 132,000+ e-residents." | ERR / e-resident.gov.ee, 2025 |
| "Delaware: 2.28M+ entities; franchise fees fund 25–30% of the state's General Fund (~$1.8–1.9B/yr)." | Kennedys Law / Spotlight Delaware, 2025–26 |
| Say | Source |
|---|---|
| "Machine-formed contracts have been binding in the US since 1999 — UETA §14, 49 states, plus federal E-SIGN 2000." | UETA/E-SIGN |
| "Moffatt v. Air Canada, Feb 2024: the airline argued its chatbot was 'a separate legal entity responsible for its own actions' — and lost, because no such entity existed." | BC Civil Resolution Tribunal |
| "Samuels v. Lido DAO, 2025: a US court held DAO participants can be personally liable as general partners." | N.D. Cal. |
| "Wyoming DUNA effective July 2024; Alabama and West Virginia followed April 2026. Utah's decentralized-entity statute since 2024." | state statutes |
| "Post-2008 the G20 created the LEI; 3M+ entities carry one today — the exact precedent for mandated counterparty identity after a trust crisis." | GLEIF |
| "MIDAO charges $9,500 + $2,000–5,000/yr for 'AI agent incorporation' — and mandates a human with a kill switch; the agent is never the principal." | midao.org pricing/guides |