AI Agents Are Already Changing the Price of Goods
Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway speak with Lindsay Owens, president of Groundwork Collaborative and author of 'Gouged,' about how AI agents and algorithmic pricing are reshaping consumer markets. Owens discusses research showing AI shopping agents recommending more expensive goods, investigates surveillance pricing tactics like battery-level tracking, and explains why modern dynamic pricing erodes the historical benefits of the fixed public price tag. The conversation also explores the need for fiduciary standards for AI shopping assistants and examines algorithmic price-fixing cases across retail, housing, and food.
- In a study testing 325,000 shopping agents, bots instructed to find the cheapest product systematically recommended more expensive goods. Read →
- RealPage enabled competing landlords to share sensitive market data and coordinate prices, driving apartment rents up to 25% above competitive market levels. Read →
- Research shows commercial AI shopping agents frequently direct buyers toward more expensive items instead of uncovering the best available price. Read →
- The fixed price tag is only about 150 years old, popularized in the late 1870s by Philadelphia department store founder John Wanamaker. Read →
- Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports, and More Perfect Union recruited 400 secret shoppers across four US markets to audit Instacart orders simultaneously. Read →
- Personalized pricing is rebranded first-degree price discrimination, using real-time surveillance to strip away consumer surplus. Read →