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Target puts customers on the hook for AI shopping assistant errors

One of the many concerns surrounding AI, especially agentic AI, is who is responsible when the system makes a mistake. If you use Target's upcoming AI shopping assistant and it orders items you didn't ask for, you might have to pay for them.

Target is one of many retailers jumping on the AI bandwagon by introducing an assistant that can suggest products and complete purchases for customers. The pitch is convenience: less browsing, fewer clicks, and an easier way to fill a cart. The risk is that shoppers may end up handing over more control than they realize.

It seems Target is already covering its back for when these instances occur. The retailer updated its terms and conditions on March 22, stating that if a customer authorizes the Gemini agent to act on their behalf, any transaction performed by the AI would be "considered transactions authorized by you."

Essentially, the T&Cs state that even if the bot orders the wrong items, you'll still have to pay for them. The terms add that users are responsible for reviewing activity performed by the Agentic Commerce Agent.

Target also does not guarantee that third-party AI tools "will act exactly as you intend in all circumstances."

 

[AJUMP23]

Don't trust AI. AI is liar.

 

[IntentionalPun]

I mean. Yeah? Use a dumb tool like this and you let it checkout : pay for the items you aren't going to get them free if it bought something you don't want.

As the article points out you then can return them.

 

[jason10mm]

"Honey, I don't know who ordered this case of lube and a fleshlight! Who knew you could even get a box of sex toys off the Target website!?! Clearly the AI has screwed up, but I guess we still gotta pay."

whisper "Thanks Target AI, you saved me yet again!"

 

[poppabk]

Is browsing a website for items you want that difficult and time consuming? It used to be the height of convenience ordering stuff on-line - now we consider it a massive chore?

 

[spookyfish]

Man. I just wanted something to save the time of BROWSING a website and PICKING my own items and then CHECKING OUT. Those are like, 5 or 6 mouse clicks that I just don't need to do! >sigh<

 

[rm082e]

 

[thefool]

Zara self checkout is lit

 

[jason10mm]

Zara self checkout is lit

I'm kinda curious if the "secret" selling point of these self checkout systems is that customers can NOT enter the store without being "logged in" and a payment system verified, so it is really a shoplifting deterrent as anything you grab will be charged to your account.

Otherwise a store where you can just walk in and out with stuff and there is minimal/no staff, that's a recipe for disaster unless there is a gate or the store is in a very exclusive and guarded location to begin with.

 

[Fbh]

Seems like a nothingburger.
The AI assistant is optional, you can still return the unwanted items and, more importantly, I assume you can probably review your cart/order before actually paying.

Any automated tool will have similar terms and conditions

 

[intbal]

It astonishes me how dumb AI designers are.
They make all these AI agents for doing the most pointless things, yet there's still no AI that can mimic my voice and talk on the phone with my mother-in-law for an hour.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Is browsing a website for items you want that difficult and time consuming? It used to be the height of convenience ordering stuff on-line - now we consider it a massive chore?

Yeah this feels like the "solution looking for a problem" that a lot of AI projects end up being.

To play AI-devil's advocate, actual grocery shopping online is a bit whack. If you are feeding a family you are buying a lot of stuff, and it's even easier to forget things than in-person. However you could have some sort of non-AI tool aid in that too since they know your past shopping habits.

 

[reinking]

I still shop in the store because I don't want a stranger picking out my avocados and bananas. I am behind the times.

 

[xrnzaaas]

People who can't be bothered to make a few clicks and then check their cart should end up with money taken from them.

 

[Revreign]

Definitely do not use this. I do Uber and DoorDash deliveries as a side hustle for some extra money. When a store doesn't have an item, the app recommends completely ridiculous stuff at least half the time. Recently they were out of the kind of ketchup the person wanted. It DID recommend another kind, but they were out of that too (they wanted no sugar added ketchup). Since the app is determined to find a replacement, the next suggestion was pizza sauce. Thankfully I'm a human and can logically determine they don't want that, but if it was left up to the app they would be getting all kinds of crazy stuff as substitutions.

 

[EntelechyFuff]

Is browsing a website for items you want that difficult and time consuming? It used to be the height of convenience ordering stuff on-line - now we consider it a massive chore?

As an aside, I loathe online grocery shopping. You'd think it would be simple, but all of these sites load so slowly and have insanely terrible UX. Search is miserable. They also seemingly never want you to actually pick your correct store???

I have no idea what the struggle is in designing these grocery store sites.

I find in person shopping to be way easier to this day.

 

[bender]

The good news is that the frontline customer service is probably powered by AI and is easy to game for refunds.

 

[readonly]

To me the idea of having an AI order me things online is similar to ordering food delivery through those apps. You're gonna pay a premium not shopping around for the best deal and soon enough just be charged some convenience fee for using AI.

 

[Mistake]

 

[deriks]

It's really pretty simple even for old people. The thing is that technology sometimes just doesn't work, and not everyone knows how to deal with this

...like once per month me and some friends from infancy gets together to have a nice breakfast in a delly here snd there. It's been a while that self checkouts are a thing, but I refuse to use because most of them just sucks. They're slow, it has bureaucracy, too many stupid options, some with the user interface that it's a shit ton of information... With a human it's like "I want this and that", "check, please", "credit", "thank you".

 

[GymWolf]

How fucking lazy do you need to be to use a shopper assistant...

 

[LordCBH]

Target just giving me another reason to validate my refusal to shop there.

 

[Trilobit]

I mostly only use AI when I want to remove a background and make it a PNG. It's really good at that.