Research Agents
AI
Missing data
Head of engineering signs; CFO above about $100K a year
Who asked
Product lead, AI sales-research agent
The moment
Thousands of account searches a day; the web can't say who controls model budgets
Who answered
Engineering leads and founders at Series A–C AI startups who manage model spend
Expert responses
All 9 answered · 6 head of engineering · 2 CTO · 1 founder
What came back
buyer_role: head_of_engineering: 6 of 9 · CTO: 2 of 9 · founder: 1 of 9
escalates_to: CFO / finance
approval_threshold: $50K / $100K / $200K a year (low / mid / high)
budget_owner: engineering: 7 of 9 · product: 2 of 9
As of: Oct 2026
How a platform would use it
Series B accounts where engineering owns token budget below $100K
Why it works
Answered once, reused across searches · Sold as a paid add-on field · Experience the web doesn't hold
Guardrails
Their own buying process; spend as bands only; no model vendors' contract terms
Customer segments
AI GTM tools; AI SDRs; search providers; data providers
Illustrative example. Figures show the shape of an answer, not a client’s results.