Shortly after Google introduced its new Common Commerce Protocol for AI-powered purchasing brokers, a client economics watchdog sounded the alarm.
In a now viral post on X seen practically 400,000 occasions, Lindsay Owens on Sunday wrote, “Huge/dangerous information for shoppers. Google is out right now with an announcement of how they plan to combine purchasing into their AI choices together with search and Gemini. The plan contains ‘personalised upselling.’ I.e. Analyzing your chat knowledge and utilizing it to overcharge you.”
Owens is govt director of the patron economics assume tank Groundwork Collaborative. Her concern stems from Google’s roadmap, as well as delving into some of its detailed specification docs. The roadmap features a characteristic that can assist “upselling,” which might assist retailers promote costlier gadgets to AI purchasing brokers.
She additionally referred to as out Google’s plans to regulate costs for applications like new-member reductions or loyalty-based pricing, which Google CEO Sundar Pichai described when he introduced the brand new protocol on the Nationwide Retail Federation convention.
After TechCrunch inquired about Owens’ allegations, Google each publicly responded on X and spoke with TechCrunch on to reject the validity of her issues.
In a publish on X, Google responded that, “These claims round pricing are inaccurate. We strictly prohibit retailers from displaying costs on Google which might be greater than what’s mirrored on their website, interval. 1/ The time period “upselling” shouldn’t be about overcharging. It’s a normal means for retailers to point out extra premium product choices that individuals may be occupied with. The selection is all the time with the person on what to purchase. 2/ “Direct Affords” is a pilot that allows retailers to supply a *decrease* priced deal or add further providers like free delivery — it can’t be used to lift costs.”
In a separate dialog with TechCrunch, a Google spokesperson stated that Google’s Enterprise Agent doesn’t have performance that may enable it to vary a retailer’s pricing based mostly on particular person knowledge.
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Owens additionally identified that Google’s technical paperwork on handling a shopper’s identity say that: “The scope complexity needs to be hidden within the consent display screen proven to the person.”
The Google spokesperson informed TechCrunch that this isn’t about hiding what the person is agreeing to, however consolidating actions (get, create, replace, delete, cancel, full) as an alternative making a person agree to every one individually.
Even when Owens’ issues about this specific protocol are a nothingburger as Google asserts, her basic premise continues to be value some thought.
She is warning that purchasing brokers constructed by Huge Tech might at some point enable retailers to customise pricing based mostly on what they assume you’re keen to pay after analyzing your AI chats and purchasing patterns. That is as an alternative of charging the identical worth to everybody. She calls it “surveillance pricing.”
Though Google says its brokers can’t do such a factor now, it’s additionally true that Google is, at its coronary heart, an promoting firm serving manufacturers and retailers. Final 12 months, a federal court docket ordered Google to vary numerous search enterprise practices after ruling the corporate was engaged in anticompetitive habits.
Whereas many people are excited to welcome a world the place we’d have a workforce of AI brokers dealing with pesky duties for us (rescheduling physician’s appointments, researching alternative mini-blinds), it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to see the sorts of abuse that might be attainable.
The issue is that the large tech firms which might be in the perfect place to construct agentic purchasing instruments even have essentially the most combined incentives. Their enterprise rests on serving the sellers and harvesting knowledge on shoppers.
Which means AI-powered purchasing could possibly be a giant alternative for startups constructing impartial tech. We’re seeing the primary few sprinkles of AI-powered prospects. Startups like Dupe, which makes use of pure language queries to assist individuals discover inexpensive furnishings, and Beni, which makes use of photographs and textual content for thrifting trend, are early entrants on this house.
Till then, the outdated adage in all probability holds true: purchaser beware.
