Amazon and Walmart's AI shopping assistants can detect discrepancies between 'Made in USA' claims and actual product origins, but do not proactively warn customers, according to a study by researchers from Columbia Law School's Center for Law and Economics. The finding points to a potential conflict of interest: platforms earn revenue from each sale, which may discourage interference with potentially misleading listings, the researchers argued.
The researchers tested Amazon's Alexa for Shopping and Walmart's Sparky AI assistants. The tools compared product titles, origin information, manufacturer identity, seller history, and price. Dozens of suspicious products with a total value of thousands of dollars were identified across both platforms. Notably, Amazon's own product comparison content also presented imported items as US-made; Alexa detected the error and noted the content came from Amazon, not a third-party seller.
Neither platform offers a filter for country of origin or 'Made in USA.' In a search for dolls, Amazon provided about 269 filter options across 29 categories, Walmart about 299 across 23 categories — none included origin. An online petition started in 2018 asking Amazon to add an origin filter and make country of origin mandatory for products had gathered 25,460 signatures as of July 2026, according to the study.
When directly asked for 'Made in USA' products, Alexa for Shopping responded it could not access that information, but gave comprehensive suggestions for Chinese-made versions of the same products. After a slight wording change, it could find US-made products. Walmart Sparky users have an average order value approximately 35% higher than other Walmart customers, and Amazon management estimates its AI assistant could add up to $10 billion to annual sales.
According to the researchers, the AI tools technically detect discrepancies, but proactive oversight mechanisms are not implemented. When asked why stronger measures were not taken, the shopping assistants cited low legal and commercial pressure. Amazon stated that product origin information is shown on detail pages when available, and it is working on making this information more easily accessible via Alexa for Shopping. Walmart did not provide a detailed public assessment of the study.
US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules require that for a product to be advertised unconditionally as 'Made in USA,' final assembly and virtually all significant manufacturing processes and components must be US-sourced. The FTC last year asked Amazon and Walmart to more closely monitor third-party sellers' origin claims. The study calls for regulators to investigate origin misrepresentations, access internal fraud detection data, and oversee correction processes.
The study recommends that third-party seller auditing be made independent of sales units, and that platforms regularly disclose the fraud detection rate per million listings. It also recommends publishing the average time to correct false listings and the number of complaints filed with regulators. It remains to be seen whether Amazon and Walmart will change their product origin filters or AI warnings after the study; US regulators may initiate a new review based on the report.