‘Tis the season for spending money. And holiday shopping just got an AI upgrade.
Google is unleashing a wave of new tools designed to make buying gifts faster, easier, and a lot more fun. The lineup includes conversational shopping in Search, new Gemini-powered recommendations, agentic checkout, and even an AI that will call local stores for you.
Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of Ads and Commerce at Google, said that the tech giant believes the new features will enhance the online shopping experience.
“We feel it really shouldn’t be so tedious, and shopping should feel — and can feel — a lot more natural and easy,” Srinivasan said during a press briefing ahead of the launch. “The idea here is we want to hold on to all the fun parts of shopping, like the browsing, like the serendipitous discovery, and things like that, but then skip all the tedious, hard parts.”
Intelligent responses to searches
AI Mode in Search gives users “an intelligently organized response that brings together rich visuals and all the details you need,” such as price, reviews, and inventory information, to help make a quick decision on what to buy, the company said.
Responses are tailored to a user’s specific question and will provide a comparison table with side-by-side considerations for that product, including insights from reviews.
AI mode is powered by Google’s Shopping Graph, which contains over 50 billion product listings, with two billion updated every hour, the company said.
Gemini will make shopping suggestions
If a user is searching for ideas of what to buy, the Gemini app can now do more than provide simple text suggestions. Users can find “shoppable product listings, comparison tables, prices from across the web, and places to buy” within the app, Google said.
Calling all local stores
Google can now call stores on a user’s behalf if they find a product and need it fast or want to buy it locally. When a user searches for certain products, they will see the “Let Google Call” option.
Once they tap “get started” and answer a few questions, AI will call nearby stores to see if they have what you’re looking for, how much it costs, and if there are any special promotions. The feature is powered by Google’s Duplex technology.
Checking out the agentic way
For shoppers who don’t want to have to manually track products that may or may not go on sale — only to have them then sell out — Google will do it for them, down to the specific size, color, and amount they want to spend. The user will be notified when the price falls within their budget.
Users also have the option to have Google buy the product for them on eligible merchant sites with Google Pay. Google said it will always ask for permission first and will only make a purchase once the user confirms the purchase and shipping details.
Check out how Instacart is leveling up grocery shopping with its new “Cart Assistant” AI — think meal-planning, product recommendations, and even store-calls on your behalf.