Google executive shows how new AI tools work to make holiday shopping easier
Google is unveiling new tools to make price comparing and purchasing even easier as the holiday shopping season gets underway.
What is hybrid shopping?
A big retail trend this season is hybrid shopping, which combines brick and mortar in-store browsing with an online shopping experience.
Retailers and shopping apps alike have started rolling out new tools with AI technology to help bring the best of online shopping into the store with you, using your phone to seamlessly get product information and more right at your fingertips.
How Google Lens and AI technology is transforming holiday shopping
Lilian Rincon, vice president of product for Google Shopping, gave "Good Morning America" consumer and technology correspondent Becky Worley an exclusive firsthand look at how the new technology works.
Once a customer sees something they think could be a perfect gift, they can use Google Lens to search for full details. Simply snap a photo of the product on display in the store using the Google app and a page of results tailored to the store you're in will quickly show insights like shopper reviews, price comparisons, similar products in-stock and more.
The update was made possible thanks to Google's "major advancements" in its AI image recognition technology, which is powered by the Shopping Graph's more than 45 billion product listings and inventory data from a range of retailers.
"The No. 1 thing people care about during the holidays is price. So this really helps give confidence that this is a good time to buy it," Rincon told "GMA."
Seventy-two percent of Americans say they use their smartphone while shopping in-store, according to Google, but more than half of those shoppers have left a store empty-handed because they didn’t feel confident enough to buy.
To use all the new Google search tools, shoppers can open the Google mobile app or go to the Google site on their phone's browser and find the camera icon to search by image.
AI tools available at top retailers like Walmart, Macy's and more
Amazon launched its own AI shopping assistant, Rufus, in February, which was designed to help customers save time by answering questions on everything from product details to making tailored deal recommendations.
Walmart now has an AI chat bot to help create a personalized shopping experience, while Macy's utilizes features such as a virtual try-on.
Dana Avidan Cohn, director of editorial content for Macy's, told "GMA" that "AI is just another tool that's going to make shopping easier for our customer."
"It's great for the customer to be able to quickly understand how our products are measuring up and what the value really is," she explained.
