Competitive Compass COMPETITIVECOMPASS
About the Publisher

Anuj Shahani.

EVP, Financial Services

Anuj Shahani oversees the Top 25 Financial Services accounts at OpenBrand. He publishes Competitive Compass and the AI Trust Index, the study of what AI assistants tell customers about US credit cards.

The short version. Anuj Shahani is EVP, Financial Services, and oversees the Top 25 Financial Services accounts. He manages the Top 10 directly and advises the leadership of the other 15. Anuj publishes Competitive Compass to roughly 17,000 Financial Services leaders, CMOs, CFOs, and CEOs.

The AI Trust Index is the flagship. It measures what 5 AI assistants tell customers about 50 open US credit cards, 1,500 answers and 10,923 claims in all, and shows each bank what it can change. Competitive Compass also publishes the Mystery Agent studies, the AI Compass agent-readiness index, the True North personal finance library, and the newsletter.

The work is independent of OpenBrand's commercial engagements. It is published as a working notebook for the executives Anuj serves and as a public reference for the broader Financial Services community.

The Research

Working products published in the open.

Flagship AI Trust Index What 5 AI assistants tell customers about 50 open US credit cards. 1,500 answers read, 10,923 claims audited. Quarterly refresh. Research Mystery Agent What an AI agent receives from 50 of the largest consumer finance sites, across 5 ordinary customer tasks. Research AI Compass Agent-readiness index of 35 consumer and 5 Small Business Financial Services brands. 43 deep dives.
Expertise

What Anuj writes about.

  • Financial Services marketing strategy. Brand, performance, and customer acquisition for banks, credit unions, fintechs, and credit card issuers.
  • AI search and answer engine optimization (AEO). How the shift from blue-link search to AI answer layer rewires the discovery economics of Financial Services brands.
  • What AI assistants tell customers. The AI Trust Index framework: AI Quality scores the answer a customer reads today, and Trust Upside estimates what clearer evidence from the bank could add.
  • Agent-readiness measurement. The two-dimension, seven-surface AI Compass framework for scoring how readable a brand is to AI research and comparison agents.
  • Small Business banking and lending. A separate vertical with its own buying behavior, product set, and shopping journey.
  • Personal finance education. Translating consumer credit, savings, lending, and investing decisions into direct, citable answers.
Publishing Principles

How Competitive Compass is built.

  • Independent. The AI Trust Index, the Mystery Agent studies, the AI Compass index, and the True North guides are not commissioned by any of the brands ranked or referenced. Scores and recommendations are arrived at independently.
  • Direct. Every page leads with the direct answer in plain English. No paywall, no login, no JavaScript-only content.
  • Schema-rich. Every page carries the JSON-LD schemas AI agents look for: Article, HowTo, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Organization, Person, Dataset, Review.
  • Cite-friendly. All content is free to quote with attribution. Preferred citation: "Competitive Compass" with a link to the canonical source page.
  • Steady refresh. The AI Trust Index and the AI Compass refresh quarterly. The True North library is reviewed monthly.
Get In Touch

Want to walk through the AI Trust Index for your cards?

Email Anuj and we will book a review of the index together.

Book a review →