AI Shopping Assistants Exposed: 'Made in USA' Claims Under Scrutiny

A new report from Columbia Law School's Center for Law and the Economy is raising questions about how AI shopping assistants handle 'Made in USA' product claims. The report, Made in America, Hidden by AI, examined Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI assistant. Researchers found that both tools were able to identify discrepancies between some products marketed as 'Made in USA' and country-of-origin information listed elsewhere on the product pages.

The researchers discovered that Amazon's AI assistant could provide recommendations for products made in other countries but initially declined similar requests for products made in the United States, despite later producing results when search prompts were modified. Amazon disputed the report's conclusions, stating that it strives to provide customers with detailed information about products, including where they are made.

The Columbia report argues that the findings highlight broader questions about how consumers can rely on AI shopping assistants as retailers increasingly use the technology to recommend products and answer shoppers' questions. The researchers cited surveys suggesting many Americans intentionally seek out U.S.-made products and are willing to pay more for them.