The Crane Index™ AI Benchmark · the reading of 1 November 2026
From this edition, the Crane Index counts a profile a website declares, such as its LinkedIn page, unless its link is dead, and each monthly reading since July 2026 has been scored again on that rule. The live check it replaces moved with how the platforms answered our scanner rather than with the sites: Instagram, for one, answered normally in September, turned the scanner away with a rate limit, a temporary block on repeat visits, in October, and answered normally again in November.
On the revised measure, Dynatrace and the University of Kent read most clearly to a machine on 1 November 2026, both scoring 88, and five tables have a different leader from the board first published that day.
An AI-readability score, how clearly a machine can read your website, is only worth acting on when you can see which check moved it, because the check tells you what to fix.
Where every sector stands, 1 November 2026
On 1 November the Index read the websites of 2,162 organisations across twenty-one tables and scored each one from 0 to 100, the average of three measures: whether AI search tools can work out who the business is and what it sells, whether automated software can get in and find anything it can act on, and whether a machine can confirm from the site which real business it is. Every site in a table was read on the same day under the same scoring rules, so the order within a table compares like with like. Each line names the table's leader and its middle score, the score half the table sits above.
- Automotive: Perodua, 79. Middle of the table 41.
- Consumer Goods: Skechers and Tapestry, joint on 75. Middle 47.
- Education: Fettes College, 78. Middle 49.
- Energy and Utilities: OVO Energy, 78. Middle 42.
- Financial Services: Fidelity Investments, 76. Middle 46.
- FTSE 100: Mondi, 83. Middle 44.
- Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals: Hologic, 76. Middle 44.
- Hospitality and Leisure: Five Guys, 80. Middle 44.
- Insurance: Direct Line, 78. Middle 44.
- Legal Services: Weightmans, 80. Middle 50.
- Manufacturing and Industrial: Mondi, 83. Middle 46.
- Media and Entertainment: Faber & Faber, 80. Middle 45.
- Professional Services: Kelly Services, 78. Middle 54.
- Real Estate and Property: AppFolio, 80. Middle 47.
- Technology and Software: Dynatrace, 88. Middle 57.
- Telecommunications: Wessex Internet, 78. Middle 49.
- Transport and Logistics: c2c, 75. Middle 45.
- Travel and Tourism: Ponant, 74. Middle 51.
- UK Airports: Cornwall Airport Newquay, 68. Middle 47.
- UK Ecommerce 100: Interflora, 76. Middle 54.
- Universities: University of Kent, 88. Middle 44.
Each table's name links to its full ranking, which shows how many sites were read. The full method is at thecraneconsultancy.com/research/methodology.
Download the AI Readability Board Addendum, November 2026: all twenty-one tables on four pages, ready for your board.
A revised measure, and earlier readings restated
A declared profile can be a company's LinkedIn page, its Wikidata entry or any of the other profiles the check reads, and under the old check a site's score could change without the site changing. The restatement covers each monthly reading from 19 July 2026 and works from the results stored at each, with no new scan, so a comparison between months stays like for like. The one extra reading, on 6 August, read several pages a site, cannot be scored again this way and stays as read. One limitation remains, stated plainly: a declared profile is counted without our verifying that it belongs to the named organisation.
We changed it because of what the readings showed. Between the October and November readings, the measure this check sits in, whether a machine can confirm which real business a site belongs to, accounted for 53% of all the month-on-month movement in scores.
The five tables with a different leader are Automotive, Hospitality and Leisure, Insurance, Media and Entertainment, and Real Estate and Property. In Consumer Goods, Skechers now shares the lead with Tapestry. The Board Addendum above carries the restated figures, and the method note records every headline figure before and after.
What moved since October
On the revised measure, of the 2,099 websites read at the same address on 1 October and 1 November 2026, 1,579 held their score exactly, 303 rose and 217 fell. As first published on 1 November, before the revision, the same comparison counted 271 rises and 493 falls.
Our reading: the scoring rules did not change between readings, but one comparison cannot yet separate a site changing from a change in how the Index reads it, so we treat this month's moves as provisional.
What to do with your own score
On the revised measure, a profile you declare counts unless its link is dead. So the useful check is this: list your organisation's official profiles, such as its LinkedIn page and its Companies House or Wikidata entry, in your website's structured data, the labels machines read, and confirm each link still opens.
Your own website takes about two minutes to check, free and with no sign-up, on the same three measures: thecraneconsultancy.com/ai-readiness. Up to three sites a day.
The next reading is 1 December 2026.
