One of the promises of the next era of generative AI is that technology will be agentic, or have the ability to perform tasks autonomously on behalf of chaotic humans. This means that AI agents will theoretically be able to “reason” about the next steps they should take, allowing them to execute multiple actions from a single query. The possibilities are endless, if you believe the hype: think maximum efficiency and productivity, plus a host of other buzzwords one might hear during a tech giant’s quarterly earnings call. All I want the AI to do for me, though, is shop.
I understand that some people find shopping a pleasurable act, but I’m overwhelmed by the options, whether I’m in an actual store or stuck in an endless scroll. Before the December holidays, the pressure mounts even more: How do you convey to someone exactly how much they’ve been appreciated this year, every year, and capture that appreciation in something more thoughtful than a soy wax candle? I was ready to let AI take the wheel.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve offloaded my gift shopping to Perplexity AI, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Amazon’s Rufus to see if I could finally delegate one of the tasks I most despise to the AI. I used the apps as pure utilities; for literal compliance, it means with a commercial purpose. I unleashed the generative AI bots and burned planet Earth in a quest to find the perfect baking equipment.
Spoiler: I quickly learned that none of these apps can make standalone purchases, at least not yet. They are glorified search tools that have the ability to analyze and summarize product descriptions as well as compare different items. I still had to type and retype directions about what types of gifts I was looking for, and for the most part, I also had to enter my payment information and go through the checkout process on each retailer’s website.
I used the bots to buy five people, ranging in age from 6 months to 49 years. A close friend who is very fond of baking became one of my main test cases. I also tried to come up with holiday gift ideas for my 16-year-old niece, who once congratulated me in a text message saying, “Don’t worry, you’re not half.” (I have the screenshot saved.) Another person on my shopping list was an editor and musician friend with eclectic taste who is celebrating a major birthday right after the new year.
One of the AI apps I tested has a feature designed specifically for shopping. Perplexity AI, a well-funded generative AI search company that has come under fire for allegedly lifting content from news publishers, last month launched a new service called Buy with Pro, which includes a $20 per month subscription to Perplexity Pro . Buy with Pro is described as a “first-of-its-kind AI shopping experience” that promises to make online shopping “10x easier and more fun.” This immediately struck me as a hallucination of artificial intelligence, because online shopping is not fun in the first place. (In terms of disclosure, Buy with Pro and other AI gift guides are also technically competitors of WIRED, which earns affiliate revenue from our fully human-produced, human-reviewed, human-edited gift guides. )
