Columbia Law School researchers found that Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI assistant can identify when products marketed as "Made in USA" have conflicting country-of-origin information elsewhere, yet continue recommending those products anyway.
The study also found Amazon's tool sometimes declined requests for U.S.-made products while fulfilling similar requests for foreign-made ones.
As AI shopping assistants grow in importance, the report highlights concerns about whether consumers can trust these tools, particularly given that surveys show many Americans actively seek U.S.-made products and pay premiums for them.
What happened
Columbia Law School researchers examined Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI assistant and found both tools could identify discrepancies between products marketed as "Made in USA" and their actual country-of-origin information, yet continued to recommend or display those products. Researchers also found Amazon's assistant declined requests for U.S.-made products in some cases but provided results for foreign-made products, though modified search prompts later yielded U.S. results.
Why it matters
Surveys cited in the report suggest many Americans intentionally seek out U.S.-made products and are willing to pay more for them. As AI shopping assistants become a bigger part of online shopping, the report raises questions about whether consumers can rely on these tools to accurately surface country-of-origin information and honor stated preferences.
What to watch
Amazon disputed the report's conclusions, stating that country-of-origin information is displayed on product detail pages when provided by manufacturers or sellers, and that it is "continually working to improve Alexa for Shopping's ability to accurately provide this information." Walmart and Columbia's Center for Law and the Economy did not respond to requests for comment.
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The Columbia Law School report targets a specific tension in the rise of AI-powered shopping: as retailers increasingly deploy AI assistants to recommend products and answer customer questions, the tools' accuracy in surfacing basic product information—such as where something is made—is far from guaranteed. The researchers found that Amazon's Alexa and Walmart's Sparky could detect mismatches between marketing claims and actual origin data, yet proceeded with recommendations anyway. This is not merely a data quality problem; it strikes at consumer intent. The report's researchers cited survey evidence that many Americans deliberately seek out U.S.-made goods and will pay more for them, suggesting that country-of-origin is a material purchasing criterion for a significant share of shoppers. Amazon's response emphasizes that sellers and manufacturers are responsible for providing accurate information and that the company displays it when available—a defense that sidesteps whether the AI layer itself is surfacing or obscuring that information at the moment a customer asks for a recommendation.
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