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Consumer apprehension grows as US retailers adopt AI-assisted pricing tools

U.S. consumers aren't just frustrated with high prices. They're angry and confused about the increasingly high-tech ways that restaurant chains and major retailers are setting those prices.

Digital price tags are rapidly replacing paper ones in grocery aisles. Artificial intelligence tools help businesses decide what to charge by predicting how customers might respond. Terms like “dynamic pricing” and “surveillance pricing” are stirring anxiety on social media, where users wonder if different people are getting different prices for the same product.

Americans have grown accustomed to changing prices when booking flights, hotel rooms and rides, but the prospect of everyday spending shaped by algorithms they don’t understand and personal data they may not realize they’re sharing has touched a nerve.

“There are major tensions happening right now between who’s really going to have the power with some of these algorithms and usage of bots and AI: the companies or the shopper,” said Katie Thomas, who leads an internal consumer behavior think tank at the management consulting firm Kearney.

Today’s horoscope

MOON ALERT: There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The moon is in Aquarius.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

This can be a lovely, friendly and romantic day if you can avoid intense discussions about shared property, inheritances and anything jointly held. Focus on what works. Avoid people who are intent on getting their way – not yours.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

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