Savvy Black Friday shoppers use AI to find deals

Leaving the stress of in-store shopping behind, he said AI helps eliminate the FOMO when shopping on Black Friday. “Sometimes you get scared,” said Malervy, who runs the website AI GPT Journal. “You want to make sure you’re getting the right price.”

According to a survey of 2,000 consumers by research group Attest, Malervy is among the 44 percent of likely Black Friday shoppers who say they plan to use AI this year. Other AI companies, including OpenAI and Perplexity AI, have recently expanded their search and shopping capabilities to attract consumers to use their tools during the holiday season.

Retailers expect Thanksgiving weekend to see the most shoppers on record. Chains like Kohl’s Corp. and Best Buy Co., historically big Black Friday destinations, reported a bleak sales outlook Tuesday and warned that shoppers are waiting for big sales events.

American shoppers are entering the holiday shopping season with a variety of stressors, from inflation to the fallout from a polarizing presidential election to multiple ongoing wars. Not only are they picky about how they spend their money, but they also look for ways to make it easier for them to buy gifts at reasonable prices.

This has led some consumers to place their Christmas shopping in the (digital) hands of bots. Retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. are also turning to AI to make shopping — and finding deals — easier.

“I think this is a look into the future,” John David Rainey, Walmart’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. He said the retailer is working on AI tools to improve product searches.

Frédéric Bourgeois-LeBlanc, a 32-year-old from Montreal, said he always went to Best Buy to get the latest gadgets. But shopping has become too stressful and now requires too much research to find the best product at the best price, said Bourgeois-LeBlanc, who works in public relations.

Instead of scouring review sites and watching online tutorials, he said he turned to Weever.AI, a recently launched website that allows shoppers to ask questions and get product recommendations. This Black Friday, Bourgeois-LeBlanc is craving gaming headphones for his Xbox. He said AI makes it easier for “someone like me who isn’t used to doing really extensive research.”

At Weever, the company is preparing its systems for an onslaught of users. “We know we will see a recovery,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Frédéric Marcoux. Perplexity AI, which recently released a shopping bot, also said search volume around “Black Friday” and “Cyber ​​Monday” increased.

The AI ​​tools can also put a new twist on the old tradition of designing an all-day shopping plan. Instead of spending hours finding hours and deals, ChatGPT can create an itinerary for even the most extreme Black Friday shoppers.

Looking for a Black Friday itinerary, ChatGPT recently suggested a 12-hour jaunt through New York City, starting at 6:30 a.m. at the iconic Macy’s Inc. flagship in Herald Square. This included “luxury shopping” on Fifth Avenue, “trend finds” in Soho, and stops at Best Buy, B&H Electronics Emporium, and Strand Bookstore, as well as lunch at Chelsea Market. The itinerary reminded people to “keep hydrated and wear comfortable shoes” as “walking and crowds can be very tiring.”

Of course, generative AI like ChatGPT tends to require some fine-tuning. The AI’s answers are not fixed and it decides which answers to give based on probability. In some cases, inaccurate or outdated information is provided.

When asked, “Where should I go shopping on Black Friday in NYC?” ChatGPT suggested lunch at the Plaza Hotel’s food hall, which has been closed for years.

When asked to suggest other options, the bot recommended fast-food restaurant Shake Shack for lunch and hotspot Carbone for dinner, which unsurprisingly has no reservations for that day or next month. ChatGPT warns users that it can make mistakes and “encourages users to fact-check all important information,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. Paid versions of the Service have real-time search capabilities and therefore may produce different – ​​and more accurate – results.

In many cases, shoppers say the best deals are no longer found in brick-and-mortar stores or are easy to find on retailer websites. In the modern age of dynamic pricing and rapidly changing offerings, buyers need to put their best foot forward.

“Sometimes you look and it looks like the 2020 offerings,” said Lisi, 17, a student and online influencer who goes by “Lisi Shops” on YouTube and TikTok and who asked Bloomberg to keep her last name private hold. “It’s like, no, I want this year’s deals.”

Lisi said she studied AI in school and, after hours of searching online, became comfortable with the idea of ​​using ChatGPT to find deals.

Sana Akibu, a digital merchandising manager in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said she now starts every shopping search on ChatGPT.

She saw an offer for a bracelet on Instagram earlier this year, but then couldn’t find it. “I would have sworn I’ve seen their listings before. Then I thought to myself, “You know what, let me ask ChatGPT to see what happens,” Akibu said.

She entered promotional codes for the brand and date to ensure it was a current offer. “It opened up a whole new shopping experience,” she said. She plans to use the bot for at least Black Friday holiday shopping for her family, and probably more.

With support from Jade Khatib, Jaewon Kang and Shirin Ghaffary.