Product Information is Not Just for Humans Anymore

Your product page is a lossy compression of your product knowledge. Humans needed that compression because they have the attention span of a text notification. AI does not. AI has unlimited attention and processes everything you give it.

This is not a checklist. It's a 12,400-word research paper about the transformation of product information — from compressed marketing copy designed for human scanners to comprehensive product knowledge bases designed for AI processors.

The core thesis: The Product Page Is a JPEG of Your Product. For 25 years, retailers squeezed everything they knew into three bullet points and a hero image. AI reads EVERYTHING. Product information is splitting into two artifacts: the product page (for humans) and the product knowledge base (for AI). Stores that build both will dominate.

What's inside (6 parts, 17 chapters):

Part I — The Product Page Is Dead

• Eight Seconds and a Buy Button — how the industry optimized for human attention limits
• The Lossy Compression Problem — what gets lost in compression
• The New Reader — AI doesn't scan; it processes everything
• The Product Page Is Dead. Long Live Product Knowledge.

Part II — Building the Product Knowledge Base

• What a Knowledge Base Is (and Is Not) — the six sections of a complete endpoint
• Deep Dive: Selling a Bicycle Through AI — ~200 lines of production-ready JSON (geometry tables for all 5 sizes, component specs, maintenance, competitive context, FAQ)

Part III — The Dual-Audience Content Strategy

• Two Artifacts from One Source of Truth
• Pricing: Why "$2,499" Is Not a Price — total cost of ownership, financing, context
• Availability as a Real-Time Problem — regional stock, lead times, pre-order signals
• Images, Alt Text, and the Vision Model Frontier

Part IV — The Product Graph

• Products Live in Networks — accessories, upgrades, alternatives, consumables
• Competitive Positioning Without Naming Competitors

Part V — The Business Case

• First Mover Advantage in Product Knowledge Depth
• The Cost of Invisibility
• The 15-Point Product Knowledge Audit — strategic assessment

Part VI — Exploring With Your AI

• 8 suggested prompts for interactive product knowledge building

This is not a PDF. The format IS the message. Delivered as .md with YAML front matter, real JSON code examples, and AI callouts in every chapter.