Google has announced a trio of new AI-powered shopping features. The tech company is rolling out more conversational search capabilities for shopping in AI Mode, so that buyers can make more specific and descriptive queries to find exactly what they’re looking for. The AI Mode results will also be formatted to match the type of search, delivering shoppable images for prompts with a more visual angle or side-by-side comparisons of different traits for shoppers considering several options of what to buy.
There are also two new agentic shopping features. First is an agentic checkout for finding and buying an item at a particular price. Shoppers can use Google’s price-tracking feature to set the sale price they want to pay for a particular product, and can opt to allow Google’s AI to purchase the item when it hits the desired discount. Users will have to confirm the purchase and shipping info before the agentic checkout purchase is completed via Google Pay. For now, agentic checkout is limited to US shoppers at select online retailers including Wayfair, Chewy, Quince and certain Shopify stores; Google said it plans to support more sellers in the future. (Presumably Amazon will not be one of them.)
Finally, once you know what you want to purchase, Gemini can call local businesses to ask about product availability. The agentic AI can gather information about prices, stock and current promotions, ask relevant follow-up questions, then will email the results to the user. The first wave of categories that will support AI phone calling are toys, health and beauty, and electronics, and it will be available to US Search users.
Google has been rapidly expanding its shopping tools to include AI integrations, with new resources such as virtual clothing try-ons and shoe shopping.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-adds-agentic-ai-checkout-to-shopping-140000930.html?src=rss
