According to TechRepublic, this is the first truly AI-driven holiday shopping season, with Salesforce estimating AI will drive 21% of all global holiday orders, amounting to $263 billion in sales. A Coresight Research survey found over half of US consumers will likely use AI for shopping, and in the UK and Ireland, 61% of 2,000 surveyed shoppers have already used AI tools, mainly for price comparisons. The article highlights how shoppers like Rachael Dunfell used Microsoft’s Copilot to find a perfect, niche Viking-themed bike part, and details how OpenAI has launched an Instant Checkout feature within ChatGPT, partnering with major retailers like Etsy, Shopify, Walmart, and Target. However, analysts like John Harmon of Coresight warn that OpenAI tightly controls this new shopping gateway, and retailers feel an urgent need to standardize product data so AI models don’t overlook their products.
The Algorithmic Middleman Is Here
Here’s the thing: we’ve just outsourced the “I have no idea what to get them” panic to a chatbot. And it’s working. The story about finding Viking bike parts is a perfect example. That’s a needle-in-a-haystack purchase that traditional search or browsing would almost certainly miss. AI is becoming this incredibly powerful, personalized discovery engine. But that power comes with a huge shift in control. The relationship isn’t just between you and the retailer anymore. There’s an algorithmic middleman in the mix, and it’s one that companies like OpenAI and Microsoft absolutely control.
Retailers Are Playing Catch-Up
So what does this mean for the stores? Basically, they’re in a frantic race to make their data AI-friendly. If your product descriptions are messy, your specs outdated, or your inventory data inconsistent, the AI model might just skip you entirely. As Melanie Nuce-Hilton from GS1 US pointed out, it’s often the small brands that lose visibility when this happens. Think about it. The AI is trawling the web, ingesting product info. Garbage in, garbage out. A big brand like Walmart can afford to engineer its data and strike a direct partnership with OpenAI. Can a small, independent spice company like Burlap & Barrel? They’re benefitting from good SEO feeding the AI, but the playing field is already tilting.
The Convenience vs. Thought Trap
For consumers, the trade-off is fascinating. Allan Binder, the teacher in Hanoi, nailed it. AI will make informed shoppers even more informed. It’s a super-powered research assistant. But for the uninformed? It makes it dangerously easy to buy without a second thought. You get a slick, confident suggestion from a chatbot, hit “Instant Checkout,” and you’re done. Did you check three other sites? Compare materials? Read actual human reviews? Probably not. The risk is we trade the friction of research for the convenience of a recommendation we don’t fully understand. Is that a good deal?
Where Does This Go Next?
Look, this is just the beginning. The partnerships are the big tell. When Walmart—a brand built on low prices—starts pushing its AI shopping feature to appeal to younger, tech-savvy shoppers, you know this is about brand repositioning as much as sales. I think we’ll see a two-tier system emerge fast. Big players with direct AI integration and everyone else hoping their SEO is good enough to get scraped. The “browser tab marathon” of holiday shopping is slowly being replaced by a conversation. And the company hosting that conversation holds all the cards. The question isn’t *if* you’ll use AI to shop soon, but how much you’ll trust it when you do.
