Throughout history, personalization has taken on many forms: from Stone Age craftspeople creating tools and homewares by hand, to Victorian tailors taking exact measurements, to Gilded Age jewelers designing bespoke pieces, to Mid-Century carpenters and architects designing living and work spaces.
Has the personal touch been possible in every shopping experience, though? Not really — but AI is making it a whole lot more accessible.
AI shopping assistants and chatbots transform online transactions into something increasingly personalized and seamless — and customers are expecting it.
According to Adobe for Business, two in five shoppers now use AI retail tools on a weekly basis to personalize or guide their buying journey.
As businesses continue to implement AI solutions to meet the speed of commerce, AI shopping agents continue to evolve right alongside them.
Here's a breakdown of AI shopping assistants and chatbots, and examples of each. More evolved tools, like shopping agents, which can complete actions on shoppers' behalf, are also included for comparison.
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TERM |
ECOMMERCE DEFINITION |
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AI shopping tools |
An umbrella term for any AI-powered tool involved in helping shoppers discover, compare, learn about, and purchase products. |
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AI shopping assistants |
A conversational AI tool. Many are now evolving to be agentic — meaning they can complete actions/purchases for shoppers. They're designed to help shoppers discover, compare, and learn about products. These are often embedded directly in retailer websites or apps. Examples: Amazon Alexa for Shopping, Walmart Sparky |
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AI chatbots for shopping |
When someone uses an AI platform chatbot to discover, compare, and learn about products. This is an unofficial use of AI chatbots to support the shopping journey rather than a shopping-designed feature. Examples: ChatGPT, Google Gemini |
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AI shopping agents |
This is an agentic AI tool designed to make purchasing decisions and take action on behalf of shoppers. These are often embedded directly in an AI platform, but some AI shopping assistants like Amazon Alexa for Shopping now have some of these agentic functions. Examples: Microsoft Copilot Checkout, Perplexity Shopping |
By anticipating customer needs, simplifying product discovery, and personalizing every touchpoint, AI shopping assistants and chatbots can provide many welcomed benefits to any brand’s ecommerce experience.
AI's benefits are internal and external: It can help brands streamline internal processes, saving time and manpower, and ensure they show up in AI search results to keep shoppers interested, build a reputation, and drive conversions.
AI shopping assistants and chatbots automate routine tasks, such as handling inquiries or updating product descriptions, which can — quite helpfully — reduce the burden on human staff.
Other tools, like AI assistants for product experience management (PXM), can help brands create turn once-manual, tedious tasks like creating alt text or learning formulas into automated ones, all informed by their unique product ecosystem.
AI shopping assistants help optimize product offerings by dynamically generating personalized recommendations based on complex customer behavior.
Tools like Amazon's Alexa for Shopping continuously fine-tune product suggestions, even providing tailored titles for A/B testing.
While it’s not exactly a secret that cross-selling and promotion can lead to increased basket sizes, AI shopping assistants’ product recommendations can take that to the next level.
For example, a shopper can ask, "Help me plan a fish-themed birthday party for my two-year-old nephew," and the agent can help them buy everything they need in one place.
Finally, AI can also help brands in highly regulated industries ensure their customer communications comply with any relevant legal guidelines governing their work.
AI can also be crucial to ensuring a brand's product data is consistent across their channels, helping them be visible and show up in the answer engine recommendations.
Shoppers increasingly expect context in their shopping journeys — products that meet their unique needs of the moment.
AI shopping assistants, chatbots, and agents can help by personalizing recommendations and being there whenever (and wherever) shoppers need them.
AI shopping assistants can tailor recommendations based on user behavior, creating a highly personalized shopping experience — and matching the recall of a brand representative in a brick-and-mortar storefront — at scale.
Though brands can add their product feeds directly to platforms like OpenAI, these agents aren't limited to pulling from just one catalog. Rather, chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini can pull data from across the digital shelf to help shoppers find the best option, helping shine a light on digitally native, niche, or international brands.
AI-powered chatbots ensure customers have access to support around the clock, ensuring the brand can address a wide range of inquiries and problems, even if the human staff has gone home for the day.
Shopping on the digital and agentic shelf also doesn't have to follow the constraints of store hours. Shoppers can connect to assistants and chatbots to help them find what they're looking for from any time zone, any time of day, across the globe.
AI-powered shopping assistants and chatbots are transforming ecommerce, driving efficiency, engagement, and personalization throughout the customer journey. As advanced as these agents are becoming, however, the human element will always remain essential.
As more companies adopt AI-driven solutions, the future of shopping promises to be more engaging and efficient than ever before. With the right balance of automation and human insight, AI shopping assistants and chatbots will continue to evolve, creating high-touch experiences that benefit brands and customers alike.