Press and media centre
We publish The Crane Index™, a public benchmark of how readable the leading organisations in eighteen industries are to an AI system. Every score is measured, every company is named, and the whole thing is free to quote and republish with attribution. This page carries the findings, the assets and the contact, and the list below keeps you on it each month.
The press briefing
What the benchmark measured, once a month.
The Crane Index re-runs on the first of every month. Shortly after, I send the press list what it found, written for someone who has to file rather than for someone who has to buy.
- What moved, by how much, and in which industry
- The figures cleared for publication, with the basis and the date attached to each
- Anything worth a story before it is public, and the offer of a cut of the data for your own patch
Double opt-in: confirm once by email, and one click unsubscribes you at any time. Your address is used to send the briefing and nothing else, and it is never shared. See our Privacy Policy.
The story, in figures
All of these are measured, and all of them re-measure on the first of each month. Every one can be checked against the live site in about a minute using the free scanner, so nothing here has to be taken on trust.
- 2,291leading organisations read across 20 benchmarks, of 3,336 we set out to read. The rest could not be read at all, and each is named with the reason.
- 93of those score 70 or better out of 100. That is the Strong band, and it is what an unclaimed field looks like.
- 62 to 69median Agent Readiness by industry: whether an automated agent can get in and act. The technical plumbing is broadly sound.
- 13 to 33median Brand Representation over the same 20 benchmarks: whether a machine can confirm who you are. Not one industry has it the other way round. That gap is the story.
The one-line version is the same in every field: the machine-readable web is early, structure decides rank rather than size or spend, and the top of every table is unclaimed territory. Measured 1 September 2026.
The full press pack carries all 20 benchmarks one row each, with every median, the leader in each field, and the board report and raw data for each. If a figure for one industry was sent to you, that is where to check it.
A quote you may use
“The web spent thirty years being optimised for people. We have now read 2,291 of the leading organisations in their fields for how well a machine can understand them, and 93 of them score 70 or better. The Crane Index™ measures that gap in public, one industry at a time, and the striking part is that budget does not close it. Structure does.”
Nic Crane, founder, The Crane ConsultancyFigures measured 1 September 2026 across 20 benchmarks, and re-measured on the first of each month.
For a quote on a specific story, an industry cut, or a figure checked before you publish, write to [email protected]. Same-day where we can.
What Nic can speak to
Areas where there is measured, first-party evidence behind the answer rather than an opinion.
- Whether AI systems can actually read British business websitesThe Crane Index is the measurement, re-run monthly across 20 fields, with every organisation named and every score reproducible.
- Why the gap is identity rather than technologyThe read that tells a machine who you are scores far below the read that lets a machine act, in every industry measured so far.
- What this changes for an ordinary businessSearch that answers rather than lists, and what an owner or marketing director should do about it in practical terms.
- Paid media and measurement in the same shiftFifteen years in performance marketing, including paid media for the LUSH Cosmetics global digital transformation across sixteen markets.
Downloads and assets
Everything below is cleared for publication under the licence at the foot of this page. Reports refresh on the first of each month.
Boilerplate
Ready to paste at the foot of a piece. Please use it as written.
The Crane Consultancy is a senior-led digital consultancy working with UK businesses on paid media, technical SEO, AI search and analytics. It publishes The Crane Index™, a public benchmark measuring how readable the leading organisations in eighteen industries are to AI systems, re-run monthly with every score and every company named. Founded in 2024 by Nic Crane, it works from Keynsham, between Bath and Bristol.
Founder
Nic Crane is the founder of The Crane Consultancy. He spent fifteen years in performance marketing before founding the practice, including leading paid media for the LUSH Cosmetics global digital transformation across sixteen markets, and was part of the team awarded Best Global Client Team at Welocalize.
He is a Google Partner and a Meta Certified Media Buying Professional, and he designs and writes the Crane Index himself.
Fact sheet
- Registered nameCrane Consultancy Limited
- Trading asThe Crane Consultancy
- Founded2024
- Company number15526285, England and Wales
- VAT numberGB466677439
- Operating baseKeynsham, between Bath and Bristol
- FounderNic Crane
- Research programmeThe Crane Index™, 20 benchmarks, re-run monthly, published open under CC BY 4.0
- Press contact[email protected]
Licence and how to cite
The Crane Index is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: free to quote, chart and republish with attribution. Please cite as:
The Crane Index™, the AI readability benchmark. The Crane Consultancy. thecraneconsultancy.com/research/
Every organisation in these tables is named, so every one of them has a right of reply. Any company can re-measure its own score live, ask for a re-scan if its site has changed, or have a domain corrected for the next monthly run. The methodology sets that out in full, alongside every exclusion.