Google is powering AI shopping with conversational search, agent checkout, and AI that connects with stores on your behalf

Google is rolling out a bunch of AI shopping updates just before the holiday season. The company on Thursday unveiled a host of new tools and features, including conversational shopping in Google Search, new shopping features within its Gemini app, stockist checkout, and even an AI tool that can call local stores to see if the product you want is in stock.

The company believes the additions will help improve the online shopping experience, which even today still involves a lot of hard work, explained Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of advertising and commerce at Google, in a pre-launch press conference.

“We feel it shouldn’t be so boring, and shopping should feel — and can feel — more natural and easy,” she said. “The idea here is that we want to stick to all the fun parts of shopping, like browsing, like serendipitous discovery, things like that, but then skip all the hard and boring parts.”

One update will allow consumers to ask shopping questions in AI mode, Google’s conversational search feature that lets you use natural language queries in a chatbot-style interface. The answers will be tailored to your question, and the chatbot will provide you with images when you need visual inspiration, along with other details like price, reviews, and available stock.

So, if you are looking for comfortable sweaters in fall colors, you will see photos of the options available to you. But if you’re comparing items, such as skincare products, Google may instead show insights in the comparison table.

Google noted that the AI ​​placement is powered by its shopping graph, which includes more than 50 billion product listings, 2 billion of which are updated every hour, and said the inventory information you see is usually up to date.

Another shopping update will enable the Gemini app to provide detailed ideas as answers, rather than just text suggestions in response to shopping-related questions. This is only available to users in the US currently.

The company confirmed that consumers using AI mode will see sponsored listings, but since the features are still experimental, these ads will not appear in the Gemini mobile app just yet.

It is worth noting that Google is offering a proxy payment service within Google Search in the United States, including an artificial intelligence mode. The feature is currently compatible with merchants like Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and select Shopify stores.

To use Proxy Checkout, you can start tracking the price of an item to be notified if the price drops within your budget. You can then choose to have Google purchase the item for you on the merchant’s site using Google Pay. The company says it will always ask for your permission first, and will ask you to confirm your purchase and shipping details.

“This is good for shoppers, because they don’t have to constantly check to see if the item they want is on sale. It’s great for retailers because it brings back a customer who would otherwise have moved on,” Lilian Rincon, vice president of product management at Google Shopping, said during the press conference. “Proxy Pay is built on Google’s Trusted Shopping Graph and also G Pay, so you can rest assured that you’re seeing accurate results and that your payment information is safe,” she noted.

Another AI feature can contact businesses on your behalf to find out if a store offers a product, how much it costs, and if there are any promotions.

This feature is based on Google’s Duplex technology. foot Back in 2018, in addition to the shopping graph and payments infrastructure. After providing information about the product you are looking for, the AI ​​will contact local stores, inquire about the product, and then return to you with a summary of its findings.

The feature is now rolling out in the US for select categories like toys, health and beauty products, and electronics. To use this feature, you can search for products “Near Me,” then use the “Let Google Call” option. The AI ​​will then guide you with questions related to the items you are looking for.

The company says it is mindful of how merchants experience these calls, and will make sure the chatbot won’t call too much and is clear about the questions it asks. Retailers can choose to opt out of receiving such calls as well. Those who don’t first hear that Google reveals that it is an artificial intelligence that calls on the customer’s behalf and only follows up when the call taker says it’s okay.

Google executives planned to demonstrate the technology during Wednesday’s press conference, but Wi-Fi issues on their part led them to abandon the demo before it was completed.