Why AI could end the price tag as we know it

October 13, 2026 / 3:05 PM EDT / CBS News

The humble price tag has long served as a common measure of value for consumers. Now, experts warn that artificial intelligence could allow retailers to charge people different prices based on their personal data.

Lindsay Owens, CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, a nonprofit think tank focused on economic policy, said AI threatens to upend universal prices for consumers. That could overturn norms that have been in place since the 1860s, when pioneering retailer John Wanamaker introduced fixed prices in his Philadelphia department store.

"The posted price has been paramount for consumers, and I do think the price tag is at risk of extinction," Owens, a consumer protection expert and author of "Gouged: The End of a Fair Price — and What That Means for Your Wallet," told CBS News. "Predictability is really essential if you're on a budget, and knowing how much something is going to cost from one week to the next is part of what the posted price offered."

AI-enabled pricing builds on so-called dynamic pricing, which companies have used for decades to adjust prices in response to shifting patterns of supply and demand, weather, time of day and…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/