Why AI could end the price tag as we know it

Key points

• AI could let retailers charge different prices based on personal data, threatening fixed price tags.
• A 2025 Instacart trial showed identical grocery baskets cost up to 23% more for some shoppers.
• Walmart denies using personal data for individualized pricing, but Groundwork says it has patented related tech.

Artificial intelligence could end the era of fixed price tags by letting retailers charge different prices based on personal data, experts warn. Lindsay Owens, CEO of the nonprofit Groundwork Collaborative, said AI threatens universal pricing that has been standard since the 1860s, when retailer John Wanamaker introduced fixed prices in his Philadelphia department store.

Owens, author of "Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — and What That Means for Your Wallet," told CBS News that predictability is essential for consumers on a budget. She said AI allows companies to set prices based on the maximum amount an individual shopper is willing to pay, rather than a product's value.

How AI pricing works

AI-enabled pricing builds on dynamic pricing, which companies have used for decades to adjust prices based on supply, demand, weather and time of day. Now retailers are testing personalized or "surveillance" pricing based on who you are and where you live, Owens said. AI can analyze vast amounts of consumer data to set more granular, individualized prices, according to a 2025 report by economic consulting firm Cornerstone Research.

Owens said this could lead to AI-enabled haggling, with prices constantly shifting based on factors invisible to consumers. "Technology is allowing companies to stop setting prices for products and start setting prices for you," she said.

The posted price has been paramount for consumers, and I do think the price tag is at risk of extinction

— Lindsay Owens

Instacart trial and Walmart patents

In December, Groundwork Collaborative and Consumer Reports reported on an Instacart trial that used AI to show customers different prices for the same goods from the same store. The investigation found grocery baskets with identical items cost up to 23% more for some shoppers, or about $1,200 per year for a family of four. Instacart disputed the findings, saying the $1,200 gap reflected an "atypical" basket and that it doesn't use personal data like race or gender to set prices. The company later said it would stop using AI to let retailers charge different prices for identical items.

Groundwork research released this month said Walmart had applied for patents on technology to compile shopper profiles and set individualized prices, including electronic shelf labels and adjusting prices based on cart items. Walmart denies developing such tools. "Walmart does not and will not use an individual customer's personal information, income, shopping history, urgency or willingness to pay to set an individualized price," Dan Bartlett, Walmart's executive vice president of corporate affairs, said in a public letter to Owens.