Major retail chains and technology companies are significantly enhancing their artificial intelligence (AI) tools in preparation for the 2025 holiday shopping season, aiming to streamline the gift-buying process for consumers and capture a larger share of online spending. These advanced AI-powered shopping assistants and agents, offered by industry giants like Walmart, Amazon, and Google, go beyond traditional chatbots. They are engineered to deliver personalized product recommendations, meticulously track prices, and even facilitate orders through unscripted conversational interactions with customers. These features complement broader shopping updates from general AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

A notable innovation for the season includes Google's AI agent, launched recently, which can be commanded to contact local stores to verify product availability. Salesforce estimates that AI will influence approximately $73 billion, or 22%, of all global sales between the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the Monday following the holiday in 2025. This figure represents an increase from $60 billion the previous year and encompasses diverse AI interactions, from ChatGPT queries to AI-generated gift suggestions on retail websites. Despite these advancements, Brad Jashinsky, a senior retail industry analyst at Gartner, suggests that AI's overall impact on holiday shopping will be “relatively limited” this year. This limitation stems from the fact that not all shopping sites possess useful AI tools, and not every shopper is yet inclined to adopt them. However, Jashinsky notes that as more retailers deploy these tools and they improve, consumer comfort and adoption will gradually increase, though changes in customer behavior typically take time.

The technology is set to influence holiday shopping habits in several key ways, particularly by bypassing the traditional search bar. AI’s capacity to simplify the quest for the ideal present is evident in tools that promise quicker and more detailed results with fewer clicks than conventional web browsers. OpenAI has upgraded ChatGPT with a specialized shopping research feature, which generates personalized buyers’ guides based on product pages, reviews, prices, and past user interactions. This tool is particularly effective for complex items such as electronics, appliances, or detail-intensive goods like beauty products or sporting equipment. Amazon's shopping assistant, Rufus, introduced last year, now retains previously provided customer information, such as family demographics or interests, to personalize recommendations using browsing and purchase history alongside reviews. Google has refined its AI Mode search tool to answer intricate natural language questions, allowing users to specify detailed preferences like a “casual sweater to wear with a skirt or jeans in New York in January.” Responses are drawn from Google’s extensive database of 50 billion product listings, and the tool can also produce comparative charts detailing prices, features, and reviews. Lilian Rincon, Google's vice president of product for consumer shopping, characterized this as an “expansionary moment” for both technology and commerce. Concurrently, Walmart's AI shopping assistant, Sparky, provides occasion-based recommendations and synthesizes customer reviews, while Target’s AI-powered gift finder, exclusive to its holiday app, responds to prompts regarding recipient age and hobbies.

Another significant development is the proliferation of new pricing tools and alerts. While price trackers like CamelCamelCamel for Amazon and PayPal’s Honey browser extension have existed for years, this holiday season introduces enhanced options. Amazon has launched a 90-day pricing history tracker for nearly all its products and allows shoppers to set up alerts for price drops within their budgets. Google, which previously offered a basic price tracker, now provides a more advanced version enabling users to refine requests with details like garment size and color. Microsoft’s Copilot has also debuted a price tracker this year. Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe, anticipates that these new pricing tools will intensify pressure on retailers to maintain competitive pricing, as many consumers will discover price alerts for the first time.

Finally, there are new sophisticated ways to buy, with Amazon, OpenAI, and Google actively developing tools for seamless AI-powered shopping that allow consumers to complete purchases directly within the AI program, bypassing the need to navigate to a retailer’s website. OpenAI has introduced an instant checkout feature within ChatGPT, enabling users to purchase suggested products from Etsy sellers and select Shopify brands, including Glossier, Skims, and Spanx, without exiting the app. A partnership with Walmart allows ChatGPT users to shop for most items available on Walmart’s website, excluding fresh food, though it currently supports only single-item purchases. A different agreement with Target permits shoppers to add multiple items, including fresh food, to a ChatGPT cart, but directs them to the Target app for final payment. Amazon and Google are also providing glimpses of autonomous AI assistants that can execute purchases. Experts classify these as “agentic AI,” which are designed to be more independent and advanced than generative AI chatbots primarily focused on research and writing. Amazon’s Rufus now features an “auto buy” button that allows automatic purchases when a product’s price meets a set alert level, with customers receiving notification of completed orders and a limited window for cancellation. Additionally, Amazon has introduced a “Shop Direct” button within Rufus searches for brand-name products, redirecting users to other retailers’ websites if Amazon does not stock the desired item. Google’s AI Mode price tracker includes a “buy for me” option that automatically completes purchases via Google Pay when the price is right, a feature available for products from Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and some Shopify merchants, with plans for further expansion. Google has also expanded its web browser with an automated AI call feature that phones local businesses on behalf of customers seeking information or specific products, disclosing that the caller is an AI. This feature is initially being applied to categories such as toys, health and beauty, and electronics, with stores retaining the option to opt out of participation. Target and Walmart have not commented on whether similar services are part of their future plans.