Looking for Stress-Free Holiday Shopping? Google’s New AI Assistant Has You Covered
Holiday shopping often turns into a chaotic juggling act—tabs multiplying endlessly as you hunt for the perfect gifts while trying to track prices and deals. Recognizing this hassle, Google has introduced a suite of AI-driven features designed to streamline the entire shopping experience and take the heavy lifting off your shoulders.
Conversational Shopping in Google Search
Google’s AI Mode in Search is now more interactive and intuitive, allowing you to describe what you want as if chatting with a friend. Whether searching for a trendy faux leather jacket or moisturizing creams, you’ll receive shoppable images and side-by-side comparison tables to help you decide. This feature integrates into the Gemini app and leverages Google’s extensive Shopping Graph to bring personalized results right to your fingertips.
Introducing Smart AI Agents
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“Let Google Call”: Found something you want locally? Google’s AI agents can now call nearby stores on your behalf, checking inventory, pricing, and promotions using the upgraded Duplex technology powered by Gemini. This automates the tedious and time-consuming task of store calls.
The AI assistant can call stores to verify stock and details for you. | Image credit — Google
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Agentic Checkout: Want to snag a deal without constantly monitoring prices? Set your budget and track item prices—the AI can automatically purchase the item for you through Google Pay once it hits your target price on the merchant’s site.
The shopping AI can make purchases for you when your specified price is reached. | Image credit — Google
Why These Features Matter
This isn’t just an evolution of Google’s search capabilities—it’s a strategic move to challenge Amazon’s e-commerce stronghold. For years, Alexa’s shopping tools focused mainly on reordering essentials. Google’s approach is bigger, aiming to fully assist you throughout the entire buying journey.
The “Let Google Call” feature is a standout, bridging online browsing with real-world local availability issues—something Amazon doesn’t currently offer. By syncing Search, AI via Gemini, and local store calls with Duplex, Google creates a seamless and futuristic shopping ecosystem.
User Feedback
In a recent poll, 85.7% of respondents said they would use these AI shopping features across Google services, indicating strong interest in the new tools.
My Thoughts on the New AI Shopping Tools
The agentic checkout feature feels ambitious and a bit bold—letting an AI automatically buy an item once it hits the right price might be thrilling for catching limited items, like hard-to-find toys or games, but probably less so for bigger purchases like furniture.
For me, the real game-changer is the “Let Google Call” option. I’ve lost countless minutes calling stores only to get vague answers about stock. Delegating these calls to an AI agent feels like a genuine breakthrough that saves time and frustration.
Google is firmly shifting from being just a search engine towards becoming a personal shopping assistant. Although I remain cautiously optimistic about the smoothness of these automated purchases, I’m excited to experience an AI that handles hold music and customer service calls for me.
