Google’s AI Mode shows the same products at higher prices than regular Search, study finds
A study tracking 2 million listings found Google's AI Mode shows identical products 21.6% pricier than traditional search, raising questions about whether AI shopping actually saves you money.
A study by Product Rise reveals that Google's AI Mode presents higher prices than standard Google Search when searching for the same product. Researchers compared AI Mode and traditional Search in the US and UK, discovering that AI Mode's prices were on average 21.6% higher. A closer examination shows AI Mode's typical price is about 49% greater when considering all products.
The AI-powered experience only matched prices 38% of the time, with AI Mode being more expensive in two-thirds of those instances. Only 1.28% of products appeared in both Search and AI Mode for the same query, indicating a different product lineup in most cases. Google maintains that all shopping results, whether from AI Mode, standard Search, or the regular results page, come from the same Shopping Graph data, but the onus remains on consumers to compare prices themselves.
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