How to Use AI to Help Your Holiday Shopping
From saving money to picking the best gifts, tech can lend a hand this season — if you feed it the right information first.
Shoppers looking to stretch their holiday budget this year have a powerful tool to help: Artificial intelligence. Already, nearly seven in 10 consumers use AI tools to assist them as they shop, the marketing firm LDWW reports. And various surveys have found that anywhere from 29% to 65% of consumers specifically plan to use AI to help with holiday purchases this year, from coming up with gift ideas to finding the best deals.
"Going into the holiday season, AI is going to be very helpful, especially when you are trying not only to stick to a budget but also to get help with product recommendations," says Stephanie Carls, a retail analyst at coupon website RetailMeNot.
Getting the most useful guidance from AI, however, depends heavily on the directions you give it. As you make your holiday gift list and check it twice, here are the specific tasks the technology can perform and how you can make the most of the tool.
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Use AI to build a gift budget
Before you shop, AI can help you determine the best way to allocate your funds, based on the total amount you want to spend and the recipients on your list. "Get as detailed as possible about the number of gifts and types of people you're buying for," says Brad Jashinsky, a director analyst at Gartner.
Sample starter prompt: My total holiday budget is $1,000. My list includes my partner, two adult family members, three children, two teachers, my best friend, three coworkers and a Secret Santa present with a $50 limit. Suggest a dollar amount to spend on each person, including the cost of taxes, wrapping paper and cards.
Follow-up prompt: Adjust this budget to spend less on the children and more on my partner. Include a few gift ideas for each person.
Use AI to brainstorm gift ideas
Give AI as many specifics as possible about your intended recipient to get a tailored, creative shortlist of potential presents. Kelly Askew, global retail lead at Accenture, says that a good prompt should contain three elements: context (that is, details about who the gift is for, such as their age, life stage and relationship to you); intent (the kind of gift you want, such as practical, fun or low-cost); and the desired action (the specific information you want AI to provide, such as a certain number of ideas or gift suggestions from a particular store).
"People are often overwhelmed by the number of choices or are trying to buy for someone they might not know well," Askew says. "AI can help them go down the funnel of every item in the universe to land on the top two or three gifts they could buy."
Sample prompt: Give me 10 fun gift ideas for my 18-year-old niece who just started college, likes art and anime, is into skincare, and loves Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams. Her favorite stores are Lululemon, Hollister and Brandy Melville. I want to spend $100 or less.
Follow-up prompt: She goes to school in Florida and does not own a record player. Give me a new list that doesn't include vinyl or winter apparel.
Use AI to narrow your choices
Once you know the type of gift, you can use AI to cut through choice overload and select the best product in that category. Include any must-have features as well as potential deal breakers.
Sample prompt: Find three lightweight laptops that are good for gamers, have a long battery life and cost less than $500. Do not include options without a standard USB-C port.
Follow-up prompt: Make a comparison table showing the pros and cons of each model, based on customer and expert reviews.
Use AI to get the best deals on gifts
AI makes it easier to compare multiple prices across various stores without constantly re-entering the search terms and keeping track of offers yourself.
"AI turns all of that into a single question," Carls says. "You say what you want once, and it looks across retailers for you, so you land on the decision faster instead of spending your night collecting the pieces."
Sample prompt: Find the best deal available now, including shipping costs, for the Acer Aspire Go 16 laptop.
Follow-up prompt: Search for discount codes that could lower the cost.
Use AI to get the best value from a specific store
Many retailers, ranging from Amazon and Walmart to Lowe's and Sephora, now have proprietary AI assistants you can chat with on their site or app while you're shopping. You can ask those assistants questions about specific products, to make suggestions and for additional discounts.
Sample prompt: Show me green, size-medium sweaters suitable for an office holiday party. My budget: $75.
Follow-up prompt: Which sweater has the best reviews? Show me accessories to complete the outfit.
AI shopping do's and don'ts
About one-third of shoppers regret an AI-recommended purchase, a recent survey from the review site SmartCustomer found. To help ensure you're not among them, follow these do's and don'ts.
DON'T use prompts that are too vague. The more specific the details you provide, the better the answers you'll get. Asking AI to identify the "best headphones" will yield less-useful results than asking for the "best wireless, over-the-ear headphones with noise control under $200."
DO double-check the results. AI sometimes pulls outdated information and prices or can distort product reviews. "Trust the technology to build your shortlist, then confirm the price and other product information on the retailer's page," says Stephanie Carls of RetailMeNot.
DON'T rely on the first answer. AI's initial response may be helpful, but the iterative answers that come from a back-and-forth exchange lead to the most useful recommendations. "The more you give AI, the more it will give you in terms of the criteria and considerations you have in mind," says Lars Perner, a professor of clinical marketing at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
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