Consumer AI

Groceries are where economic theory goes to become annoying. A household may have a budget, a doctor’s warning about sodium, a child who refuses vegetables with the confidence of a trade negotiator, a cultural preference, a supermarket promotion, and a sudden chicken price increase. Most apps touch only one piece of this mess. Budgeting apps tell you where the money went. Nutrition apps tell you what you should have eaten. Shopping apps tell you what is on sale. Very helpful, provided your life is already organized into clean software categories. ...

Shopping is where AI confidence goes to embarrass itself. Ask a frontier model for a gift, a replacement part, a budget-friendly product, or a game recommendation, and the answer often looks excellent. It is neatly formatted. It gives reasons. It may even include links and prices, because apparently nothing says “trust me” like a fabricated discount on a product page that no longer exists. ...