Artificial Intelligence Or Artificial Claims? AI Washing: The Risk Your Company May Be Overlooking

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is hailed and presented as a frontier and defining marker of innovation. Marketing is never far behind. Wanting to ride the tailwinds of this historical revolution, a new marketing trend commonly referred to as “AI washing” has emerged: promoting products and services as “AI-powered,” often with little substance behind the label. Misleading claims are nothing new; whenever a concept becomes commercially valuable, it tends to be overstated in competitive messaging. It is an old trick with a modern veneer.

In late January 2026, Competition Bureau Canada published a report addressing algorithmic pricing (the use of automated software and AI to set or adjust product prices in real time) and its implications for competition law. This publication forms part of the Bureau’s broader reflection on AI and market dynamics, a subject that was previously explored in the Bureau’s 2024 paper issued prior to its public consultation on AI and competition. In parallel, ac