Google announced on Sunday that it is teaming up with Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair and other major retailers to turn Gemini AI into a virtual merchant as well as an assistant, a move aimed at expanding shopping features for the chatbot's users, news agency AP reported.
Through this latest offering, Google will enable customers to buy products instantly from some businesses and pay using different payment options without leaving the Gemini chat which they used to find products, according to Walmart and Google.
The launch was announced on the first day of the National Retail Federation’s annual convention, held in New York. Most of the discussions in the event are expected to extensively cover the role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and its impact on consumer behavior.
“The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail,” said John Furner, Walmart's incoming president and chief executive, in a joint statement with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
How does the shopping feature work?
Users may be wondering how this feature works. The process is quite simple: if a customer asks Gemini AI what clothes they must carry for a winter ski trip, for example, the chatbot will suggest products and gear from a participating retailers’ inventories.
Particularly in the case of Walmart, users can receive customised product recommendations based on their past purchases by linking their Walmart and Gemini accounts. If they choose to purchase products via the chatbot, those items can be added to their existing Walmart or Sam's Club online shopping carts, according to the statement.
Sam Altman-led OpenAI and Walmart announced a similar deal in October, saying the partnership would allow ChatGPT members to use an instant checkout feature to make purchases of almost everything available on Walmart’s website, except for fresh food.
Major tech companies compete to create tools for AI-powered shopping
Google, OpenAI and Amazon all are racing to create tools that would allow for seamless AI-powered shopping by taking chatbot users from browsing to buying within the same program instead of having to go to a retailer’s website to complete a purchase. The race between OpenAI and Google has heated up in recent months.
Before the recent holiday shopping season, OpenAI launched an instant checkout feature within ChatGPT that allows users to buy products from select retailers and Etsy sellers without leaving the app.
Google said the AI-assisted shopping features in Gemini only would be available to U.S. users initially but that it planned to expand internationally in the coming months.