A Christmas Inspired by ChatGPT

Previously, securing the best deals on Black Friday often required consumers to spend hours waiting outside Best Buy or Walmart, eagerly rushing inside as dawn broke. Nowadays, savvy shoppers are increasingly leveraging ChatGPT and various AI tools to enhance their shopping experiences.

For the second year in a row, Jim Malervy, 46, from Philadelphia, is making use of ChatGPT along with other AI solutions for his holiday purchases. Thanks to an AI-powered pricing application, he was able to score a $50 discount on an iPad for his oldest daughter last year.

This year, he is on the lookout for a Margot Robbie rollerblading Barbie doll, inspired by the popular movie, for his younger daughter. He plans to utilize several applications, such as PayPal’s Honey, which helps find the best prices. His target: a 30% discount.

Avoiding the stress of physical stores, he notes that AI alleviates the anxiety of missing out on Black Friday bargains. “Sometimes you feel anxious,” said Malervy, who operates the site AI GPT Journal. “You want to make sure you’re getting the best price.”

Malervy belongs to the 44% of expected Black Friday shoppers intending to utilize AI this year, according to a survey conducted by the research firm Attest with 2,000 consumers. Numerous AI companies, including OpenAI and Perplexity AI, have enhanced their shopping and search capabilities to attract consumers during the busy holiday season.

Retailers are bracing for an influx of shoppers over the Thanksgiving weekend. However, renowned chains like Kohl’s Corp. and Best Buy Co., which have typically been shopping hotspots on Black Friday, reported disappointing sales forecasts on Tuesday, indicating that consumers are holding out for bigger promotional events.

A Preview of What’s Ahead

American shoppers are entering the holiday season burdened by various stressors, such as inflation, the aftermath of a contentious presidential election, and ongoing global conflicts. They are being more selective with their spending, seeking ways to make gift-shopping more manageable.

This has prompted some consumers to delegate their holiday shopping to digital bots. Major retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. are also leveraging AI to streamline shopping and deal discovery.

“I genuinely believe this is a glimpse of what lies ahead,” stated John David Rainey, Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer, during a recent interview, highlighting that the retailer is in the process of developing AI tools to enhance product search functionalities.

Frédéric Bourgeois-LeBlanc, a 32-year-old from Montreal, expressed that his visits to Best Buy for the latest tech have become overly stressful, requiring considerable research to find optimal products at the best prices. Employed in public relations, he now relies on Weever.AI, a novel platform where shoppers can ask questions and receive product recommendations. This Black Friday, he is seeking gaming headphones for his Xbox, finding AI to be a convenient option for someone like him who isn’t used to conducting in-depth research.

Weever is preparing for an influx of users. “We expect a surge,” said Co-Founder and CEO Frédéric Marcoux. Perplexity AI, which recently launched a shopping bot, also noted a rise in search activity around “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.”

The integration of AI tools is also modernizing the conventional method of planning a shopping expedition. Instead of spending hours organizing store hours and deals, ChatGPT can craft a detailed itinerary for even the most dedicated Black Friday enthusiasts.

In a recent inquiry for a Black Friday itinerary, ChatGPT suggested an ambitious 12-hour outing in New York City, commencing at 6:30 a.m. at Macy’s Inc. in Herald Square. The plan included luxury shopping on Fifth Avenue, trendy finds in Soho, stops at Best Buy, the B&H electronics store, and the Strand bookstore, culminating with lunch at Chelsea Market. The itinerary included a reminder to “stay hydrated and wear comfortable shoes” to manage the extensive walking and crowds.

However, generative AI like ChatGPT often needs some adjustments. Its responses are not fixed; instead, it operates based on probabilities to determine which answers to give. Occasionally, the information it supplies might be outdated or incorrect.

When asked, “Where should I shop for Black Friday in NYC?” ChatGPT recommended lunch at the food hall at the Plaza Hotel, which has been closed for several years.

When prompted for alternatives, the bot suggested having lunch at the fast-food chain Shake Shack and dinner at the trendy Carbone, which surprisingly has no reservations available for that day or for the following month. ChatGPT warns users about its potential inaccuracies and encourages verification of any critical information, according to a spokesperson from OpenAI. Paid versions of the service offer real-time search capabilities and might lead to different — and more accurate — outcomes.

Finding Great Deals

In many cases, shoppers report that the best bargains are no longer located in physical stores or easily found on retailer websites. With the rise of dynamic pricing and ever-changing deals, shoppers have had to elevate their search strategies.

“Sometimes, when you search, it feels like you’re looking at deals from 2020,” said Lisi, 17, a student and online influencer known as Lisi Shops on YouTube and TikTok, who requested that Bloomberg withhold her last name. “I want the deals from this year.”

Lisi has been studying AI in school and has started to embrace the use of ChatGPT for finding deals after spending countless hours searching online.

Sana Akibu, a digital merchandising manager from Gaithersburg, Maryland, revealed that she now begins every shopping search on ChatGPT.

This past year, she spotted a deal for a bracelet on Instagram but later found it hard to track down again. “I knew I’d seen their deals before. So I thought, let me ask ChatGPT and see what happens,” said Akibu.

She prompted the bot for promo codes from the brand, specifying the date to ensure it was a current deal. “This opened up a whole new shopping experience,” she remarked. She plans to use the bot for her family’s Black Friday shopping and likely more in the future.

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