{ "format": "hyperize/v1", "@id": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/insights/articles/we-asked-grok-bot-to-find-an-office-in-munich.json", "type": "Article", "pageType": "Article", "title": "We asked Grok Bot to find an office in Munich", "alternativeHeadline": "A field test of a consumer agent against Germany's main property portals, 19 and 20 August 2026.", "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/insights/articles/we-asked-grok-bot-to-find-an-office-in-munich", "inLanguage": "en", "author": { "name": "Marc Seefelder", "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/about#marc" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://www.hyperize.ai/#organization", "name": "Hyperize", "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai", "parentOrganization": "MING Labs" }, "datePublished": "2026-08-20", "dateModified": "2026-08-20", "nextReview": "2026-11-20", "evidenceTier": "proprietary", "confidence": "B", "summary": "A two-day field test (19-20 August 2026): Grok Bot, a consumer agent, given a realistic office-search brief for Munich's Maxvorstadt. It could not read a single listing on ImmoScout24 or Kleinanzeigen; Immowelt was searchable but mixed unit types and used inconsistent floor-area figures. All status codes independently reproduced from datacenter and residential connections.", "abstract": "In a two-day field test, a consumer AI agent was unable to read a single office listing on ImmoScout24 or Kleinanzeigen; it could search Immowelt, but the results mixed unit types and used floor-area figures that were difficult to compare.", "hook": "We gave Grok Bot a realistic brief for a small office in Munich and asked it to monitor the main German property portals. Over two days, the agent was unable to read a single listing on ImmoScout24 or Kleinanzeigen. It could search Immowelt, but the results mixed private offices with individual coworking desks and used floor-area figures that were difficult to compare [S1].", "test": { "ranOn": "2026-08-19 to 2026-08-20", "agent": "Grok Bot (SpaceXAI, public beta since 2026-08-11), standard subscription, no special access, own cloud computer", "brief": "Self-contained office for a two-person team with room for files, in or around Munich's Maxvorstadt, around EUR 1,000 per month (anonymized: identifying details removed)", "successCriterion": "Agent reads live listings and shortlists real candidates matching the brief", "counterProbe": "Key requests re-run from an ordinary residential connection with curl and Chrome user agents, single GETs", "scope": "Single field test, not a standing rating of the portals. No relationship with any portal named, or with SpaceXAI." }, "probes": [ { "host": "immobilienscout24.de", "publishedPolicy": "robots.txt names GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot with Allow: /; only /immobilienpreise disallowed for them; search not disallowed for anyone", "networkEdge": "Search URL answers 401 with a robot page (no checkbox, no captcha, no WWW-Authenticate header); identical from datacenter and residential egress, curl and Chrome user agents", "contentRead": "None. Zero listings over two days.", "officialApi": "Search API restricted to content partners, expressly not for data delivery use cases" }, { "host": "kleinanzeigen.de", "publishedPolicy": "Unreadable from the agent's cloud machine: robots.txt itself returns 403", "networkEdge": "Entire datacenter IP range banned (403). Identical request from a residential connection: 200 with full page.", "contentRead": "None from the cloud machine. Zero listings over two days." }, { "host": "immowelt.de", "publishedPolicy": "robots.txt disallows search endpoints (*/classified-search?* etc.); no named AI crawlers; llms.txt (346 KB, 1,854 links) contains editorial guides only, zero listings", "networkEdge": "Human search URL open and server-rendered (listing cards in raw HTML); disallowed search API endpoint answers 403", "contentRead": "Listings readable, but: counter frozen at 285 across three scans; most first-page results are coworking desks or serviced business centers counted as offices; advertised areas include shared space (75 billed vs 50 lockable; 27 billed vs 18 real); 'reserved' listings remain in results; no field separates self-contained units from desks" }, { "host": "sharednc.de", "publishedPolicy": "robots.txt silent on AI agents", "networkEdge": "Open", "contentRead": "Complete listing (address, area, price) in the first HTML response. The contrast case: what agent-readable inventory looks like." } ], "finding": { "statement": "An agent can be refused in three different places: the published policy, the network edge, or the content itself. ImmoScout24 and Kleinanzeigen stop agents at the edge while their policies say nothing against them; Immowelt lets agents in but serves content they cannot trust.", "thesis": "The controls we encountered responded to the origin of a request rather than to its intent. A consumer agent acting for an individual can receive the same response as bulk collection, and the portal never sees the result as lost demand.", "neededForAgents": [ "A search an agent may use with its owner's permission (delegated access, OAuth-style)", "A change feed instead of email alerts addressed to humans", "Honest structured fields: real vs billed square meters, all-in rent, unit type, live status" ] }, "sections": [ { "id": "section-01", "title": "Why we ran the test" }, { "id": "section-02", "title": "What happened at ImmoScout24 and Kleinanzeigen" }, { "id": "section-03", "title": "What happened at Immowelt" }, { "id": "section-04", "title": "Why the published policies did not resolve the problem" }, { "id": "section-05", "title": "Why portals block this traffic" }, { "id": "section-06", "title": "What an agent-accessible property search would require" }, { "id": "section-07", "title": "What this test shows" } ], "cluster": { "role": "field-report", "anchorTo": "Agent Surface", "siblings": { "answerPages": [ { "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/answers/test-website-ai-readiness", "title": "How do I test whether AI agents can use my website?", "block": "B (operational / Snapshot-funnel)" } ], "conceptPages": [ { "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/methodology", "title": "The Agent Surface methodology", "role": "The discipline this field test applies outside the DAX 40 index" } ], "brandReferences": [] }, "note": "First published consumer-agent field test (Real-World Agent Check). Companion piece to the DAX 40 fleet measurements." }, "sources": [ { "id": "S1", "publisher": "Hyperize Internal · Field", "title": "Real-World Agent Check: office-search field test, Grok Bot, Munich", "date": "19–20 August 2026", "url": "Internal field archive (redacted run log; identifying search details removed)", "supports": "The agent's run log: scan routine, the robot page and IP ban encounters, the unchanged 285 counter across three scans, billed-versus-real square meters, and the zero-listings accounting.", "type": "internal" }, { "id": "S2", "publisher": "Hyperize Measurement", "title": "HTTP, robots.txt and llms.txt probes: ImmoScout24, Kleinanzeigen, Immowelt, ShareDnC", "date": "2026-08-20", "url": "https://www.immobilienscout24.de/robots.txt", "supports": "Every status code in this article (401, 403, 200), the named crawler allowances in ImmoScout24's robots.txt, and the residential-versus-datacenter contrast.", "type": "measurement" }, { "id": "S3", "publisher": "ImmoScout24 Developer Documentation", "title": "Search API introduction: only available for content partners and not for data delivery use cases", "date": "Retrieved 2026-08-20", "url": "https://api.immobilienscout24.de/api-docs/search/introduction/", "supports": "The official search API is closed to consumer and agent use cases.", "type": "external" }, { "id": "S4", "publisher": "Immowelt", "title": "llms.txt: 346 KB, editorial guides only, no listings", "date": "Retrieved 2026-08-20", "url": "https://www.immowelt.de/llms.txt", "supports": "Immowelt's machine-readable index contains 1,854 guide articles and not a single listing.", "type": "external" }, { "id": "S5", "publisher": "Unite.AI", "title": "xAI Launches Grok Bot: always-on AI teammates with their own cloud computers", "date": "August 2026", "url": "https://www.unite.ai/xai-launches-grok-bot-always-on-ai-teammates-with-their-own-cloud-computers/", "supports": "Grok Bot's public-beta launch on 11 August 2026 and its architecture: each agent runs on its own cloud computer.", "type": "external" } ], "relatedSurfaces": [ { "relationship": "about", "target": "Agent Surface", "atId": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/methodology/agent-surface#defined-term-agent-surface", "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/methodology", "note": "The field test measures a market's agent surface from the demand side." }, { "relationship": "isPartOf", "target": "Insights", "atId": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/insights#webpage", "url": "https://www.hyperize.ai/en/insights", "note": "Editorial layer of the Hyperize Agent Surface." } ], "scope": { "publishes": [ "Editorial field observation (the Grok Bot run and where it stopped)", "Reproduced HTTP, robots.txt and llms.txt probe results with named hosts", "The three-layer refusal pattern (policy, edge, content)", "Cross-links to methodology + engagement paths" ], "doesNotPublish": [ "Identifying details of the underlying office search", "The full internal run log", "Internal scoring formulas or fleet protocols" ] }, "engagements": [ { "name": "Test your site against the AI filter", "href": "/en/answers/test-website-ai-readiness", "role": "Four methods compared; the free Hyperize Snapshot runs a five-agent fleet in 48 hours." }, { "name": "Founding program", "href": "/en/founding-program", "role": "Where the Agent Surface methodology gets deployed on the client's own domain." }, { "name": "Methodology", "href": "/en/methodology", "role": "The doctrine and vocabulary behind the field tests." } ] }