I subscribe to a couple of RSS feeds from The Washington Times. On November 25, 2025, I opened an article from one of those feeds titled ‘AI elves’ dominating holiday shopping trends, marketing insiders say. Having previously criticized Amazon’s plans in this area and referred to its current AI assistant as a war crime, I just had to open this new report to learn about the horrors in the online store-fronts plan to unleash on the world. Instead, I found what comes off as a vague hype piece for “AI elves” (is “elf” supposed to be endearing?). The article begins: “Digital elves are fast replacing Santa’s helpers when people buy holiday gifts, according to marketing experts who say AI companions have become the preferred way to hunt for deals.” But the article never gets around to supporting this general assertion. To be sure, we learn that in one survey, “79% of marketers attending a recent Association of National Advertisers conference said chatbots have supplanted web browsers as ‘the new search’ for bargain hunters.” We find assertions from a report (which requires submitting information to download) that the so-called “elves” are “the preferred way to gather information that could lead to a gift purchase.” There are also marketers excitedly telling us how people will be able to create personalized AI search agents. Conspicuously missing from this article, however, are any statistics or accounts of human beings supporting these blanket assertions. Yet another good reminder to read beyond the headlines.