Before an AI shops for you, decide what it can spend and see

A discussion on the show Social Intelligence with Dr Karen Sutherland of UniSC raises a simple warning. AI shopping agents, which are tools that research products, compare prices and complete purchases for you, may get access to your payment details, emails and personal data. Without clear limits, they could make purchases you did not intend.

What the risks are

Professor Karen Freberg of the University of Louisville in Kentucky joined the discussion. The concern is that these tools are moving from giving information to taking action. That makes the stakes higher, because a mistake can cost real money.

Broad permissions are part of the problem. Information collected for one purpose could be used in ways you did not expect, especially when settings are hard to manage. An agent could also share personal information without proper approval.

What to do

The discussion points to a few safeguards that keep a person in charge of the decisions that matter:

• Set a spending limit before the agent can touch your cards.
• Require your approval before any purchase goes through.
• Block access to sensitive information, such as private emails.
• Read what you are authorizing before you connect any account.

Using an agent to compare products, spot deals and suggest purchases carries less risk than letting it pay on its own.

The material does not name specific shopping agents or say how any of them handle permissions today. What it does say is that companies building these tools will need to be open about what they access and offer clear controls. Until then, the final say on spending should stay with you.