By Elias Visontay
Publication Date: 2026-01-13 00:53:00
AI’s ability to learn from a customer’s personal data means it can manipulate their preferences and the purchasing decisions of any AI agent they employ more effectively than traditional nudges, the ACCC has found.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the ACCC, said the rise of AI-powered bots increased the risk of cartel behavior.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Even without an AI agent acting on behalf of a consumer, AI agents deployed by companies can use personal data to tailor marketing to an individual’s real-time consumer behavior, such as their emotional vulnerabilities. This would amount to “exaggeration” to pressure them into selling.
As for antitrust behavior, while some companies could instruct algorithms to intentionally engage in price-fixing, the ACCC warned that the widespread use of AI agents by companies could pose the risk that AI agents “learn to cooperate with each other, even when the collusion is not intended by their developers or operators.”
It referred to research results that…
