The technology competition among major artificial intelligence (AI) development corporations is expanding into the shopping sector. They have recently launched a series of services utilizing AI features in the shopping field, leading changes in the e-commerce industry.
On the 31st of last month (local time), the Financial Times (FT) reported, "OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google have consecutively introduced AI-based shopping features, prompting major brands to reconsider their online sales strategies," adding that "it has become important to understand how AI systems identify products and how chatbots recommend them."
In recent months, AI corporations have successively introduced shopping features. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, launched 'ChatGPT Commerce' in April, allowing users to search for products and compare options, as well as make purchases directly within the ChatGPT interface. This enables ChatGPT users to view product images, detailed information, prices, and reviews all at once.
The U.S. AI startup Perplexity also unveiled an AI browser named 'Comet' in July, which includes shopping features. The AI agent embedded in Comet, called 'Comet Assistant,' can perform various daily tasks such as shopping, booking, sending emails, and summarizing schedules. Microsoft (MS) also introduced a web shopping assistance feature called 'Action.'
Google introduced a feature that allows users to compare various products using AI, as well as provide notifications to consumers when the price of a specific product drops below a certain level. Lillian Lincon, vice president of Google Shopping Products, explained that Google's latest feature "prevents the complex and tedious process of having to open 20 tabs to compare different products."
The reason that AI platforms are successively launching shopping features is that people are becoming increasingly reliant on AI. The global IT research firm Gartner predicted that the use of traditional search engines would decrease by 25% by next year due to the rise of generative AI chatbots and agents. People are turning to AI platforms to address their inquiries instead of traditional search engines.
Advertisers are realigning their sales strategies to accommodate AI shopping features. FT reported that "advertisers are creating long keyword-focused URLs to make their brands stand out in AI-generated results or utilizing exposure in areas recognized by chatbots as authoritative websites."
AI startups are also making their mark in the shopping sector. Profound, REFINE, and Algolia offer services that allow monitoring of brand exposure within AI chatbot conversations.
There are analyses suggesting that the emergence of AI shopping will shake the existing e-commerce framework. James Cadwallader, co-founder of Profound, stated, "AI is stealing consumers from brands," adding that "eventually, consumers will only interact with response engines, and AI agents will become the primary visitors to websites and the internet."
Dimy Albers, CEO of global digital agency Dept, noted, "For most brands, it has become crucial to be noticeable in the eyes of AI chatbots, and the fact that product sales are no longer limited to their own platforms or Amazon will complicate matters," predicting that "in the future, transactions will take place between AI agents rather than consumers."