Google AI Shopping Feature Expansion: Google expands its Gemini AI chatbot with instant shopping features in collaboration with Walmart, Shopify, and others, enabling seamless purchasing experiences at the National Retail Federation conference.
Google said Sunday that it is expanding the shopping features in its AI chatbot by teaming up with Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair and other big retailers to turn the Gemini app into a virtual merchant as well as an assistant.An instant checkout function will allow customers to make purchases from some businesses and through a range of payment providers without leaving the Gemini chat they used to find products, according to Walmart and Google.The news was announced on the first day of the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York, which is expected to draw 40,000 attendees from retail and technology companies this week. The role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and its impact on consumer behavior are expected to dominate the three-day event.”The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail”, John Furner, Walmart’s incoming president and CEO, said in a joint statement with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaei.Google’s new AI shopping feature works this way: if a customer asks what gear to get for a winter ski trip, for example, Gemini will return items from a participating retailers’ inventory.In the case of Walmart, customers who link their Walmart and Google accounts will receive recommendations based on their past purchases, and any products they decide to buy via the chatbot could get combined with their existing Walmart or Sam’s Club online shopping carts, according to the statement.
