SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 30, 2026 – Onton has released Ontology 1, a model designed for the agentic web, where AI systems research, compare, and execute consumer purchases. Benchmarked against Google Shopping and Amazon, Ontology 1 outperformed both platforms on product discovery accuracy. The widest margin came in determining whether product information is genuine, a challenge for search engines.
When a consumer asks an AI agent to find the best sofa under $2,000, the agent checks thousands of results, review aggregations, influencer recommendations, and sponsored comparisons. Much of that data is synthetic, incentivized, or manipulated. The agent cannot separate signal from noise but recommends a product. The consumer buys based on information that was never trustworthy to begin with.
Reviews, recommendations, forums, and social proof were built for humans, who bring intuition, context, and skepticism. As AI agents take over the discovery and purchasing pipeline, those filters vanish.
“Everyone is focused on building smarter agents,” explained Alex Gunnarson, co-founder of Onton. “We’re focused on a different question: what should those agents trust? As commerce moves from clicks to conversations and eventually autonomous actions, the quality of information underneath those decisions becomes critical infrastructure.”
Ontology 1 steps in by evaluating not just what a product is, but whether the information around it holds up. It interprets the attributes and intent behind a user’s preferences, including visual inputs, and treats those signals as meaningful data. The result is a purchasing recommendation anchored to information the model has already verified.
Alongside the launch, Onton published research on how existing AI systems evaluate product-related information and where they break down when synthetic content and incentivized recommendations enter the process.
“We believe the next major internet platform will not be defined solely by who has the best model,” said Zach Hudson, co-founder of Onton. “It will be defined by who can provide the most trustworthy foundation for those models to operate on.”
Source: Onton
About Onton
Onton develops an AI-based search and discovery service for online shopping and interior design. Founded in 2023, the company is headquartered in San Francisco. Its software supports natural-language and image-based product searches across multiple online retailers. Users can compare products, create shortlists, monitor prices and organize shopping or design ideas. Onton also provides a Canvas workspace for arranging products and planning furniture layouts. Its image tools support room visualization and comparisons of furnishings and layouts. The service primarily serves consumers, home shoppers, interior designers and online product researchers. Onton initially focused on furniture and home decor before expanding into other shopping categories. The company reported more than 2 million monthly active users in November 2025.