Instacart ends AI test as prices swing

Instacart will stop using artificial intelligence to experiment with product pricing after a report showed that customers on the platform were paying different prices for the same items.

- BY CAROLINE PETROW-COHEN

THE PLATFORM offered different prices for a product at the same store and on the same day, a report found.

The report, published this month by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative, found that Instacart sometimes offered as many as five different prices for the same item at the same store and on the same day.

In a blog post Monday, Instacart said it was ending the practice effective immediately.

"We understand that the tests we ran with a small number of retail partners that resulted in different prices for the same item at the same store missed the mark for some customers," the company said. "At a time when families are working exceptionally hard to stretch every grocery dollar, those tests raised concerns."

Shoppers purchasing the same items from the same store on the same day will now see identical prices, the blog post said.