New AI shopping agents promise better bargains. But who pays the price?

Cheng Xin/Getty Images Meta’s recently launched AI agent Muse promises to be many things: it can fire off emails, book holidays and fill out cumbersome online forms.

But it’s attracting particular attention for its potential as a personal shopper that can search for bargains and make purchases without a user’s approval.

Just think of someone hunting for a new pair of running shoes.

Within minutes, an AI assistant could scan dozens of retailers and compare different brands to find the cheapest suitable pair.

And Muse is far from alone.

Google and OpenAI are also developing AI-powered shopping tools , as tech giants compete to make these agents part of everyday purchasing.

The appeal of these new AI agents to consumers is obvious: less time spent shopping, and potentially better deals.

For retailers, they could change how products are marketed and recommended online.

Yet, there’s another important implication getting less attention: what happens to the workers who make those products? And will they be left even worse off? The workers we can’t see Major global brands negotiate prices with suppliers, which also must manage their own production costs.

Materials might be sourced in one country, components manufactured in another and finished products assembled elsewhere.

These layers can make workers – and the conditions they operate in – invisible.

The consequences of buyers’ demands for workers are well documented.

Research by the International Labour Organisation involving 31 suppliers across five countries found that buyers’ demands put pressure on wages, increased overtime and sometimes led factories to cut corners on workplace safety.

Indeed, UK researchers have demonstrated how consumer relationships and global supply chains influence the governance of labour standards.