Exclusive: Small businesses jumping on a seemingly harmless celebrity AI trend could land in hot water with the likes of Prince Harry and Meghan.

Dozens of Australian brands posted AI-generated images of the royals 'visiting' their stores or sampling their products as a bit of fun during their Australia tour last week.

But a consumer law expert said the posts could be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.

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Luke, owner of Nina's Cucina in Melbourne, shared an AI image of the royals eating at the café as a joke after seeing other hospitality venues do it.

The Instagram post got more than 800,000 views.

Most people knew it was AI right away but a few were fooled, at least upon first glance.

"We had phone calls from Canada, from family over there, angry that we hadn't told them that the royals were visiting our shop," Luke told nine.com.au.

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