The Judgment Premium: How AI Is Repricing American Work
By Don Kellogg,
President & Principal Analyst
Co-authored by Don Kellogg and Tanya Masiello, this report argues that AI is repricing American work along a line between execution and judgment. Drawing on Recon Analytics' AI Pulse Study, federal occupation data, and external payroll research, it shows execution-heavy work losing value while judgment-rich work commands a growing premium, with the sharpest disruption concentrated among younger, entry-level workers.
Claude Goes To Work
By Daryl Schoolar,
Analyst & Director
Enterprise AI is entering a new competitive phase, and Claude is beginning to establish itself as a credible alternative to the market's largest AI platforms. While ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot continue to dominate overall workplace usage, Claude is quietly building momentum where long-term enterprise success is measured: sustained adoption, employer investment, and professional workflows.
Using data from more than 320,000 U.S. survey responses, this report examines how Claude's position has evolved over the past year, where professionals are using it at work, and which industries are driving its commercial growth. It analyzes awareness trends, workplace adoption, employer-funded subscriptions, and the concentration of Claude's customer base to better understand the factors shaping its competitive trajectory.
Rather than focusing on model capabilities alone, this research explores the business dynamics behind enterprise AI adoption. The findings provide executives, investors, and technology leaders with a data-driven perspective on where Claude is succeeding today, where its competitive advantages are emerging, and the strategic opportunities that could determine its next stage of growth.
Demanded and Hated: The Inherent Contradictions of Handset Financing and BYOD
By Roger Entner,
Analyst & Founder
Americans love their smartphones but resent the financing arrangements that increasingly deliver them. Drawing on approximately 337,000 U.S. wireless interviews conducted over twelve months, Demanded and Hated examines the central contradiction of handset subsidies: the device deal is the lowest-rated dimension of the wireless experience, yet it remains one of the most powerful reasons customers switch carriers.
The report compares subsidized, financed, paid-off, outright-purchase, and bring-your-own-device customers across satisfaction, churn, demographics, upgrade behavior, and lifetime value. It finds that customers still paying for a device are the least satisfied and most likely to say they intend to leave, while the financing balance often delays their actual departure. Despite that resentment, subsidized customers remain more profitable on average because they maintain richer plans, attach more device protection, carry more lines, and remain with their carrier longer.
Designed for wireless executives, investors, device manufacturers, and industry strategists, this report explains why handset subsidies still work, why their economics are deteriorating, and how emerging no-subsidy, BYOD, and converged-service strategies could reshape U.S. wireless competition.
Half-Connected America
By Roger Entner,
Analyst & Founder
America spent more than a decade and tens of billions of dollars attempting to close the digital divide. Yet beneath the headline statistics lies a far more complex communications landscape. Millions of Americans remain connected in different ways, challenging long-held assumptions about broadband adoption, consumer behavior, and digital inclusion.
Drawing on more than 1.8 million interviews from the Recon Analytics Pulse, combined with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, NTIA, and CDC, Half-Connected America examines the distinct connectivity segments shaping today's communications market. It explores how these households differ, how they should be measured, and why understanding those differences matters for operators, investors, equipment vendors, and policymakers.
Designed for executives responsible for broadband strategy, wireless competition, public policy, and infrastructure investment, this report provides a comprehensive data-driven framework for evaluating one of the most important and least understood shifts in the U.S. communications market.
America's AI Hope Deficit: Fear Is Universal. Hope Has to Be Seen.
By Garrett Touchet,
Analyst and Director
This research report explores how Americans perceive artificial intelligence through the lenses of fear, optimism, and real-world experience, arguing that the future of AI adoption may depend less on reducing concerns and more on demonstrating meaningful value. By examining attitudes across different segments of the population, the report offers strategic insights into the factors shaping public acceptance and what organizations can do to encourage broader engagement with AI technologies.
Connectivity at Cruising Altitude: What the SpaceX IPO Means for In-Flight Connectivity
By Brett Clark,
Analyst and COO
This research note examines how Starlink and other low Earth orbit satellite providers are reshaping in-flight connectivity, airline loyalty economics, and competitive positioning following the SpaceX IPO, with implications for both airline executives and investors.
How Much Grok Is in the Price? Disaggregating SpaceX's AI Revenue
By Michael Gooch-Breault,
Analyst and Director
SpaceX's valuation includes a large AI premium, but only part of that premium depends on Grok. This report breaks Goldman's 2030 AI revenue projection into its underlying pieces and sizes the Grok-dependent portion at roughly 14%. Drawing on Recon Analytics AI Pulse data, the analysis benchmarks Grok users against more than 44,000 US AI users to evaluate whether Grok's adoption, satisfaction, willingness to pay, and trust profile can support the revenue implied by the projection.
The Wrong Half: Why Ads Will Not Fix Consumer AI's Money Problem
By Don Kellogg,
President & Principal Analyst
Consumer AI is rapidly adopting the monetization playbook that transformed search, social media, and streaming. This report examines whether advertising can become the primary engine of long-term growth for AI platforms and explores the relationship between user behavior, subscription economics, and platform strategy across the consumer AI market. Drawing on Recon Analytics consumer research, the analysis evaluates how monetization decisions may shape competition among leading AI providers and influence the future economics of consumer artificial intelligence.
Starlink's Opportunities and Challenges Selling Business Internet and Mobile Services
By Daryl Schoolar,
Analyst & Director
Starlink is emerging as a meaningful coverage-layer solution for underserved business markets, but its strongest opportunities may come through carrier partnerships rather than direct competition with incumbent operators. Drawing on nearly 10,000 business respondents and multiple 2026 survey waves, this report examines where satellite connectivity fits within business broadband strategy, rural coverage expansion, FWA backup architectures, and carrier-managed service models.
Musk's Starlink: The S-1 Says Wholesale, The Pattern Says MNO
By Roger Entner,
Analyst and Founder
SpaceX's S-1 frames the wireless story as wholesale supply, but the broader operating pattern points to a more complex strategic picture. This report examines the public-record pieces surrounding Starlink, spectrum, regulatory approvals, network identity, deployment capability, carrier positioning, funding architecture, and the implications these developments may carry for incumbents, investors, policymakers, and capital allocators.