YourSource News: When AI Picks the Wrong Product
When an AI assistant recommends the wrong product, the shopper gets a refund and the retailer gets the bill. In a new byline for YourSource News, Ship.com founder and CEO Joe DiSorbo looks at how that cost is landing on independent appliance and furniture dealers. Shoppers are using AI tools to choose purchases they don’t fully trust, and the dealer often inherits the return for a recommendation it never made. For big-ticket items like refrigerators, ranges, and sectionals, a wrong fit can mean a second delivery, a haul-back, and a product that can only be resold as open-box.
DiSorbo argues that conversion is the wrong way to judge AI in retail, because it stops counting at checkout, right where the cost of a bad recommendation begins. He recommends tracking margin per order after delivery, including return rates, re-delivery and restocking costs, and customer service time. He also suggests using return reasons to improve product listings, publishing complete, structured specs so AI tools work from the dealer’s own facts, and confirming fit before the truck leaves. His closing point is that independent dealers’ expertise is more valuable in an AI shopping world, as long as it’s built into their product data and delivery process.
