This is the first holiday season when people have seriously turned to searching for gift ideas with artificial intelligence chatbots, and experts have mixed opinions, writes the BBC.
British resident Rachel Dunfell knew only two things about her husband’s cousin – he likes racing bikes and is interested in Vikings, and that was not enough to choose a gift for Christmas. So she turned to Microsoft’s chatbot Copilot for help, entered information that she knew, and the chatbot directed the woman to a website where you can buy Viking-themed metal parts for bicycles. Dunfell noted that she would not have found anything like it on her own.
This year, artificial intelligence is changing shopping. People are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools such as Copilot, ChatGPT and Gemini for advice. They suggest ideas and compare prices. In Yuan, the trend is affecting both buyers and sellers.
John Harmon, senior technology analyst at Coresight Research in New York, called this the first holiday season to be driven by artificial intelligence. The firm’s survey found that more than half of U.S. consumers said they would or would definitely use artificial intelligence to help them shop. In Britain and Ireland, technology firm CI&T surveyed 2,000 consumers and found that 61% of respondents use or have used artificial intelligence when shopping. Most often, it is to find a store with the product they want or to find out where the best deal is. However, more than two-thirds of those surveyed could not recall a time when the results they got from an artificial intelligence-driven product surprised them.
Meanwhile, businesses are trying to get the most out of AI tools to make sure consumers see exactly what they want. A spokeswoman for information standards organization GS1 US said businesses are feeling the rush because AI is already determining what people are buying. She added that if the information available to the tool is incomplete or outdated, it may not recommend a product to the consumer, and
that’s often how small businesses lose visibility on the web.
Technology is moving toward offering more than just gift suggestions. OpenAI offers the ability to shop without leaving the ChatGPT chat. Since launching the feature in September, the company has signed on with several trading platforms and retailers. The first platforms were Etsy and Shopify, followed by Walmart in October, and Salesforce and Target in November. Of course, the solution is still new, and shoppers can’t just leave all their shopping to a chatbot.
Harmon noted that not every retailer can have its products sold through an AI chat. Some have not been approved by OpenAI, and the analyst added that the company holds all the cards in its hands — it controls which retailers end up in the chatbot’s store and how long it takes.
Using AI to find gifts can have its drawbacks. Sound engineer Allan Binder, who used AI to find gifts for family and friends last year, said the chatbot can show very specific products to a specific audience. He acknowledged that there are also some risks to relying solely on a chatbot’s offerings. Chatbots can help informed consumers get more information, but uninformed consumers are more likely to make rash purchases.
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