Holiday Shopping, Now With More Bots

When you're stumped by what to get Aunt Myrtle this holiday season, there's a bot for that. Although AI-powered purchases are in early stages, the shopping assistants and agents rolled out by the likes of Walmart, Amazon, and Google can do more than the chatbots of holidays past, reports the AP. The latest versions were designed to provide personalized product recommendations, track prices, and to place some orders through unscripted "conversations" with customers. Those features are on top of shopping updates from AI platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini. In one of the season's most talked-about launches, Google this month introduced an AI agent that can be instructed to call local stores to ask if a desired product is in stock. A look around:

• Bypassing the search bar: AI's potential to simplify the search for the perfect present is most apparent in tools that promise shoppers faster and more detailed results than a web browser. OpenAI upgraded ChatGPT with a research feature that provides personalized buyers' guides. Amazon's Rufus now remembers information customers previously fed it, like having four children that all like board games. Google's AI Mode search tool provides answers to detailed questions like wanting to buy a casual sweater to wear with a skirt or jeans in New York in January. Walmart's Sparky offers occasion-based recommendations and synthesizes reviews. An AI-powered gift finder on Target's app responds to prompts such as the age and special hobbies of the recipient.

• New pricing tools and alerts: Tools for tracking online prices have been around for years, but this season, Amazon launched a 90-day pricing history tracker for virtually everything it sells. Shoppers also now can set up alerts to receive notifications when prices on specific items fall within their budgets. Google launched a more advanced price tracker that lets users refine requests with details like a garment's size and color. Microsoft's Copilot also launched a price tracker.
• New ways to buy: Amazon, OpenAI, and Google are racing to create tools that would allow for seamless AI-powered shopping by taking consumers from browsing to buying within the same program instead of having to go to a retailer's website to complete a purchase. New tools from Amazon and Google will give shoppers a taste of having autonomous AI assistants do the buying. While the services still are limited, "agentic AI" is intended to be more independent and advanced than the generative AI chatbots that excel at research and writing.

More here.