In 2026, a perfectly written Amazon review is a red flag, not a good sign.

Pangram Labs ran AI detection on 30,000 front page Amazon reviews. About 3% were AI generated with high confidence, climbing to 5% in categories like beauty and baby products. Nearly three quarters of the AI generated ones were five star. 93% had the "verified purchase" label, so even that badge doesn't mean what people think it means anymore.

The part that got me: real reviews mention weird, specific, slightly annoying details. "The manual was useless but I figured it out." AI written ones glide right past that. They praise smoothly and specifically avoid describing anything a person would actually notice. Once you know to look for it, you start seeing it everywhere.

Feels like the entire signal system flipped. We used to tell people to be suspicious of typos and broken English. Now the polished, confident, well written review is the one worth a second look.

Anyone else noticing this in categories outside beauty and baby products? Curious where else this shows up.