Victoria Winter relies on artificial intelligence every day. In particular, ChatGPT for her to-do list. She’s an entrepreneur and busy mom of two in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Whenever ChatGPT first came to the market, I was like, ‘Ah, I know exactly what to do with this,’” she said.
She uses ChatGPT’s dictation feature to do things like create a bedtime routine list for the babysitter, transcribe notes from calls — and this year for holiday shopping, to brainstorm gift ideas for her kids.
“I like to get outdoor toys,” she said. “So, it could be like, ‘What’s something I could get today that would be appropriate for a 4-year-old that we could keep adding on to it, making like a full jungle gym.’”
More and more consumers like Winter are turning to generative AI to help with online shopping. Adobe found that 2 in 5 people surveyed plan to use generative AI for holiday shopping this year. It’s a slice of a bigger picture of online sales, which Adobe expects to rise this holiday season nearly 8.5% over last year — to almost $241 billion.
It’s the first holiday season for Walmart’s chatbot, still in beta testing. And also the Rufus assistant, which came out in February from Amazon.
Of course, buying online is already easy for consumers, so these AI tools are more of a bonus than a necessity, said Forrester retail analyst Sucharita Kodali.
“People purchase repeatedly from Amazon multiple times a day in many cases, so it’s sort of, what problem are you looking to solve with GenAI?” she said.
Kodali said there are three reasons consumers shop online rather than in store: to search for specific products, see which retailers sell those products and to get them delivered fast.
“GenAI has not proven itself to be that much of a value add in any of those things,” she said.
What shoppers do seem to be using it for is to find brand recommendations and compare prices. It’s still early days for GenAI shopping and Vivek Pandya, lead insights analyst for Adobe, said young consumers seem to really like it.
“So we’re seeing a really significant uptick in traffic coming from generative AI sources to retail sites,” he said.
Amazon says its Rufus chatbot has already answered tens of millions of questions from shoppers. It recently rolled out AI-powered gift guides. Walmart is talking up the convenience of its chatbot to help find the perfect gifts. CEO Doug McMillon said on an earnings call back in August that GenAI is already helping drive digital impulse sales. For example, this would be like if you’re shopping for a new soccer ball for your kid and the shopping assistant suggests shin guards and cleats too.
But who knows if AI will change how people buy stuff. Brad Jashinsky, a director analyst at Gartner, likens this moment to the early days of Alexa, when people thought everyone would start dictating shopping lists to their devices. “But what they ended up using voice search for was less for shopping and more for asking what’s the weather going to be, setting kitchen timers, recipes, that type of thing,” he said.
Right now, GenAI is most helpful if you’re trying to decide on a big purchase, like a TV, said Jashinsky. That’s what he’s shopping for right now.
“Even just understanding the brands and what’s out there. I felt like it’s all new to me because I haven’t purchased one in a long time,” he said.
Jashinsky’s been asking both Amazon and Walmart’s AI assistants for help. He said they both generate good review summaries and allow you to compare product details. “Where you can ask it if it’s a good deal and they’ll tell you like about pricing. I think Amazon has the edge with their tool on that side,” he said.
On the other hand, he said it felt like Walmart had a bigger selection. But Jashinsky hasn’t bought a TV yet.
“I feel embarrassed, but I’m waiting for Black Friday deals before I pull the trigger,” he said. In other words, AI or not, just like always, shoppers want a good deal.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.