BERLIN: On the surface, product reviews are a great source of information when shopping online – and yet these reviews have the notorious tendency to be fake, either glowing reviews written on behalf of the seller or hatchet jobs by competitors.

At the advent of the AI era, this problem for consumers appears to only be getting worse. Germany's IT industry association Bitkom believes that artificial intelligence will play an increasingly significant role in customer reviews in the future.

"On the one hand, AI offers the possibility of producing very diverse and seemingly genuine reviews even more easily," says Susanne Dehmel, a member of Bitkom's management board. Many retailers therefore fear that a flood of AI-generated fake reviews could impact their business.

On the other hand, AI can not only create fakes but also help detect them. According to Dehmel, AI will increasingly be used by platform operators and online shops to identify and remove fake reviews. This will involve not only analysing the texts themselves but also identifying certain review patterns or other irregularities.

For consumers wondering if they can ever rely on online reviews on the likes of Amazon, AliExpress and Temu, experts advise caution and say watch out for a striking similarity between multiple reviews. Negative reviews can, of course, also be fake, for example, when competitors' products are deliberately criticised.

Review texts that are extremely detailed and come with an amateur photo can be a sign of authenticity, while ones that evoke marketing language tend to be fake. – dpa