Walmart Pledges Not to Use AI or Personal Data to Set Individual Prices

Walmart CEO John Furner said the retailer will not use artificial intelligence, personal data or the time of day to charge shoppers different prices for the same products.

“We price the product, not the person,” Furner wrote in a letter to customers. He said income, shopping history, urgency and estimates of a customer’s willingness to pay would not affect prices. The commitment also applies to Sparky, Walmart’s AI shopping assistant, which the company said will not use information shared by customers to raise their prices or conceal cheaper products that meet their needs.

Furner also rejected concerns that Walmart’s expanding use of digital shelf labels would enable dynamic pricing. The electronic labels allow stores to update prices centrally and are intended to keep shelf prices consistent with checkout prices while reducing the work required to replace paper tags. Walmart said in March that 2,300 of its U.S. locations already used the labels and that it expected to introduce them across the chain within a year.

Prices may still rise or fall because of changes in product or transportation costs, Furner said, but not because of a shopper’s identity or shopping circumstances.

The pledge follows growing scrutiny of personalized pricing. The Federal Trade Commission said last month that using personal information to set prices could violate consumer-protection laws in some cases and warned companies that they must disclose how such data is used.