NEW YORK — Major retail chains and tech companies are introducing new or updated artificial intelligence (AI) tools ahead of the holiday shopping season, aiming to enhance the gift-buying experience for consumers and capture a larger share of online spending.
While AI-powered shopping tools are still in their early stages, companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Google are offering advanced shopping assistants that go beyond traditional chatbots. These new tools are designed to provide personalized product recommendations, track prices, and facilitate orders through natural conversations with customers.
In a notable launch, Google introduced an AI agent capable of calling local stores to check product availability. Salesforce, a software company based in San Francisco, estimates that AI will influence $73 billion, or 22 percent, of global sales from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through the Monday after the holiday. This figure has increased from $60 billion last year and includes everything from AI-generated gift suggestions to queries made through platforms like ChatGPT.
Despite these advancements, experts suggest that AI’s impact on holiday shopping will be “relatively limited” this year. Not all shopping sites offer effective tools, and not all consumers are willing to use them. Brad Jashinsky, a senior retail analyst at Gartner, noted that while the introduction of these tools may improve over time, changing customer behavior takes time.
AI’s potential to simplify the search for gifts is evident in tools that promise quicker and more detailed results than traditional web browsing. OpenAI has enhanced ChatGPT with a shopping research feature that provides personalized buying guides, particularly useful for complex products like electronics and appliances.
Amazon’s shopping assistant, Rufus, has been updated to remember user preferences, such as family size and interests. Google has also improved its AI Mode search tool, allowing users to ask detailed questions in natural language about products they wish to purchase.
Responses from these tools are drawn from Google’s extensive product listings, enabling users to access side-by-side comparisons of prices, features, and reviews, streamlining the shopping process.
—
