AskCR

When you go searching for information about what to buy, you need to trawl through spam, pay to play, linkbait, fake reviews—and now a deluge of AI generated content. Meanwhile, generative AI is changing the nature of search. Over the coming years, it may well change the way consumers find and make sense of information—for instance, through new products like “shopping agents” that actively scour the web and help people with personalized recommendations. 

CR is well-positioned to help consumers navigate this new landscape and ensure they have access to reliable, unbiased information. So in our product R&D, we’re exploring how AI-powered tools can help people doing product research get to the right answers faster.

We’ve been exploring generative AI’s effect on consumers, and imagining a world in which AI tools can fight for consumers. We’ve been writing about why CR is experimenting with generative AI, as well as how we’re developing and what we’re learning along the way. And in June 2024, we announced the launch of the AskCR: an AI-powered advisor that answers your questions based on CR’s trusted research and product data – all in a matter of seconds!

One year later in June 2025, we officially took AskCR out of beta and released it to all CR Digital members on both the CR mobile app and consumerreports.org. To maximize our impact, we’re offering a few free messages to anyone who wants to give it a try too.

True to its name, you can ask AskCR any question you have about a product category or a specific model. AskCR will get back to you with a plain language answer and links to relevant CR articles. For now, AskCR’s knowledge is limited to the categories and products that CR experts have examined—however, we’re interested in experimenting with approaches to advise and recommend on a wider range of consumer topics and issues in the future.

In the year ahead, we’ll continue to ship regular improvements to AskCR and sharpen the differences between us and corporate-driven AI products. We’ll continue to explore how AI-powered tools can help people doing product research get to the right answers faster and how CR can meet consumers where they are, delivering trusted advice along the way. 

We invite your participation in responsibly building and improving AskCR and other AI-driven solutions that help consumers navigate the market. If you’d like to chat more about responsible AI development or pro-consumer applications of AI, drop us a line at innovationlab@cr.consumer.org.