ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Holiday shopping isn't just a trip to the mall anymore. You've got all kinds of choices, and you can do it all from the comfort of your home. There's Cyber Monday, TikTok Shop and now artificial intelligence. Retailers are increasingly using AI to get you to buy. Our cohost Leila Fadel spoke with a technology analyst about using AI to help you save.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Adam Dumey is global vice president of retail for the consulting firm World Wide Technology. Good morning, Adam.
ADAM DUMEY: Good morning. How are you?
FADEL: I'm doing all right. Although, I have a feeling this conversation is going to add to my retail problems of shopping too much (laughter).
DUMEY: Oh, dear.
FADEL: So how are retailers using AI to get people to buy stuff?
DUMEY: Yeah, so retailers really, more so than in previous years, have really adopted this AI thing to help consumers find items more easily. This year, you can go on a significant number of websites with natural language and say, I'm looking for a large green shirt that sits above my waist - I'm 5'11 - and you can get very high-fidelity results.
FADEL: So I hear how this is beneficial for the retailer, putting the product in front of the customers. But what's it going to do for shoppers? How can AI be beneficial for shoppers?
DUMEY: Sure. So we can walk through a tool called Honey. So if you go to amazon.com, and you type in your search bar something that you're interested in - what are you into this season?
FADEL: Well, I'm trying not to spend money. But I do have to buy things for my 7-year-old nephew and my 5-year-old nephew.
DUMEY: OK.
FADEL: So maybe toys for ages 5 to 7?
DUMEY: Perfect. Let's see that. Scroll down and pick an item.
FADEL: All right, Clue Juniors.
DUMEY: Perfect. Great game, by the way. My kids have it as well.
FADEL: Oh, do they?
DUMEY: They do. That's right. I have a 12- and an 8-year-old boy, and they have played both of those. And so what you see out of the gate immediately is you see this pop-up that comes up.
FADEL: Oh, it says Honey's top pick. You'll save $2.37 here.
DUMEY: Exactly. So if you do compare prices at these two stores right, if you click that, you're able to see some market intelligence, where this product is sold within other retailers. And if you scroll down, it also provides you the ability to look at the price differences across each of them.
FADEL: Well, in my quest to always save money, this is really helpful (laughter).
DUMEY: And it's not just you. If you click on see price history, right above $11.49...
FADEL: Oh, see price history.
DUMEY: Exactly. So you have the ability to look here at a 30-day window, and you see that the price is dropping, which gives you the comfort and confidence knowing that this is the right time to buy. So click on last 30 days and go to 120 days. Perfect. Now, what this does, it tells you that prices have fluctuated quite significantly from time to time. It also shows that recently, prices actually increased. So there's the appearance of a discount. It's called anchor pricing. They raise these prices to give you a false sense of comfort. I created an index of 15 things for myself, and every single one showed that prices started rising about three weeks ago. So across my basket, two thumbs down.
FADEL: That is so unfair.
DUMEY: It is.
FADEL: And it so works on me, but now I'm going to be armed with the information.
DUMEY: Yeah, exactly. Fight back.
FADEL: So what's the future of AI shopping?
DUMEY: I'll take it in two categories. I believe consumers do want the ability to have merchandise recommended with confidence and trust. I do think as well that the future is to have more of an engaging experience. So if you think of your shopping experience today, it's a lot of pictures, it's a lot of clicks. Going forward, there's going to be a lot more media aspect to shopping. There's going to be a lot more engagement between you and the screen or you and your mobile device, where there's a back-and-forth conversation, including characters that we've grown up loving, including influencers. And it's just going to make the experience much more enjoyable.
FADEL: Adam Dumey is with the consulting firm World Wide Technology. Thank you, Adam.
DUMEY: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRATE DIGGERS' "FRUIT LOOPS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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