In 2022, author Cory Doctorow coined the term “Enshittification” to describe a pattern that has become all too familiar in the digital world: platforms that begin by delighting users gradually decay, exploiting both consumers and businesses to benefit shareholders.
It is a phenomenon we have seen play out repeatedly. Social media platforms, search engines, and online marketplaces initially create tremendous value and convenience, only to later prioritise monetisation strategies that erode trust and reduce the benefits for both consumers and business users.
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The launch of Instant Checkout
It’s within the context that OpenAI, one of the leading AI platforms, has recently launched its shopping feature, Instant Checkout. This allows consumers to easily make purchases within OpenAI itself, without needing to click through to the underlying website. Until now, AI assistants have mainly been used for search and recommendations, helping users find what they need. What’s new here is that the shopping itself is being brought into the AI experience, effectively closing the loop between discovery and purchase.
We have seen similar AI-focussed shopping announcements from major players like Google, Walmart, Etsy, and Visa, all promoting the virtues of shopping via your AI companion. The launch of this new way to shop is potentially transformational, removing the need to search through lots of sites to find what you need.
However, it also raises questions about whether AI shopping will follow the same trajectory as other digital platforms and take advantage of us all in the process.
The potential of AI shopping is enormous. Unlike traditional search engines, AI can learn users’ preferences, navigate complex decisions from booking travel, to purchasing electronics. As customers provide more personal data the experience can become ever more tailored. This could range from the prosaic, such as providing your shoe size, through to much more sensitive, such as your bank balance or allergies. It’s very easy to imagine a conversation with your AI shopping agent where it says “You can’t afford that right now, you can wait until you get paid at the end of the month, or you could use a BNPL option offered by the retailer”.
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By GlobalDataPlatforms must avoid eroding customer trust
Yet the very forces that previously eroded trust in digital platforms now loom over this emerging ecosystem. If platforms move too quickly to monetise, prioritising advertising revenue over genuine consumer value, trust will deteriorate.
Consumers may withhold the very data which would make their experiences better, reducing the opportunities presented by AI before they have even arrived.
The AI industry is aware of these risks. When OpenAI’s launched its shopping service it explicitly stated that its shopping search results are “organic and unsponsored, ranked purely on relevance to the user.”
But words alone won’t prevent ‘enshittification’. The industry needs to ensure that as AI shopping evolves, agents act in the best interests of consumers – not just sellers or shareholders. Everyone understands these platforms must generate returns on the billions being invested, but this must not come at the expense of long-term trust. Because if AI shopping becomes another ‘enshittfied’ ecosystem, their short-term gain will be our long-term loss.
Chris Jones is Managing Director at PSE Consulting
