Finding the right product at the right price is no longer a headache. This holiday season, a new generation of artificial intelligence is listening to your needs, analyzing your tastes and ordering for you. This rapid change in uses perhaps marks the end of long hours spent comparing offers.
Smarter tools to reduce searches
Entering keywords and filtering through dozens of pages is becoming an outdated habit. In 2025, the trend is towards conversational AI, capable of responding to requests formulated in natural language. Thanks to its AI Mode, Google can now understand a query like “a casual sweater for January in Paris” and display a comparison table bringing together prices, reviews, colors and styles. This approach effectively replaces traditional sponsored links.
At OpenAI, the enhanced version of ChatGPT can develop a fully personalized buying guide. The tool cross-references data from product pages, reviews and previous exchanges with the user. It is particularly relevant for complex items, such as household appliances or sports equipment.
For its part, Amazon is pushing personalization even further. Its Rufus assistant memorizes the preferences expressed by the user, including family profiles, interests, or previous purchases. A lover of children's board games will thus receive recommendations adapted to each person's age and preferences. All these tools converge towards a common objective: reducing the number of steps necessary between desire and the purchasing decision.
Why the smart shopping assistant is changing purchasing habits
Until now, external comparison sites like CamelCamelCamel or Honey made it possible to monitor prices. But the major platforms now offer their own alert tools. Amazon now displays 90-day price history for almost all of its products. The user can set a trigger threshold, and the control is then carried out automatically.
Google, for its part, is pushing personalization even further with its tracking tool. It takes into account criteria such as size, color or other options. Microsoft is following the same path with its integrated function in Copilot. The objective is clear, even if it remains implicit. It's about never missing any good deals.
According to Salesforce, these technologies accounted for $73 billion in sales during the week of Black Friday. This represents 22% of purchases over this period. The year before, the figure was 60 billion. The progress therefore seems very rapid. For Caila Schwartz, an analyst at Salesforce cited by AP News, this dynamic should increase as tools evolve.
A new era for the relationship between customer and algorithm
By testing direct purchasing from assistants, Amazon, OpenAI and Google want to take a new step. ChatGPT already allows you to finalize an order based on its suggestions without leaving the application, notably at merchants like Glossier, Skims or Spanx via Shopify. The functionality, deployed with Walmart in October, covers almost the entire catalog (excluding fresh products) but remains limited to one order per item.
At Target, a similar experiment allows the creation of a basket in ChatGPT, with finalization in the distributor's application. Amazon also offers an “auto purchase” function which validates the order as soon as the defined price is reached. The customer is notified afterwards, with a short period of time to cancel. For now, these services remain reserved for the United States. In France or Europe, they are not yet available, but that could quickly change.
This automation is based on new, more independent algorithmic logic. Companies are now talking about autonomous intelligence, or “agentic AI”. The assistant no longer just helps, he acts. Google, for example, is testing an assistant capable of calling local businesses to check the availability of a product. The merchant is informed that this is an automated call and remains free to refuse.
Over the months, this “laisser-faire” logic could reverse the historical relationship between merchant and consumer. The customer delegates, the AI decides. This shift, still timid, could well transform online purchasing into a simple deferred approval.
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
