It's not if you use it correctly. If you say "Find me good brands for X", then yes you'll get bad stuff.

I said something like:

"Identify [category]-making cluster regions in Europe (where I am), research the manufacturers/companies you find and see if they have online stores."

Once I had that list and found stuff I liked, I sent what I liked back to the AI and asked it to find me items of comparable build quality from better-known brands."

I did this latest step so that I could have a benchmark and to see if I was actually getting a better deal or if I could just buy from the big brand.

The trick was to specify the exact process I'd like to have run, but wouldn't take the time to do.

I ended up buying stuff directly from an obscure manufacturer's Shopify store for 1/3 the price I would've paid at a big brand. I think this could work in any product category where quality markers are somewhat objective and standardized.