I let Google's new AI tools take on my holiday shopping list – here's how it went

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• You can talk to Google in AI Mode to explore gift ideas.
• The Gemini app can reveal product prices and places to buy them.
• Agentic AI could find local products and items on sale.

The holiday shopping season is almost upon us, and that means finding the right gifts for family and friends. This annual expedition can be time-consuming as you struggle to figure out what items to buy. Why not turn to your friendly, neighborhood AI to see if it can help? Well, that’s Google’s pitch this year.

In a new blog post, Google touted the latest shopping skills available through AI Mode, Gemini, and even AI agents. You can strike up a conversation in Google’s AI mode to discuss your shopping needs. You can get shopping ideas via the Gemini app on your mobile device. You can even send an AI agent on a shopping spree to find out which items are in stock and on sale.

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I tried Google’s AI-powered shopping tools to see if and how they could help me with my own holiday list. Some of the features are still in the process of rolling out and therefore aren’t quite ready yet. But here are the preliminary results based on my testing.

Google Search’s AI Mode

First up is Google Search’s AI Mode. Here, you can ask questions about a product or category, and Google will serve up the price, reviews, and other details. To try this out, head to Google’s search page, select AI Mode, and then type your question. But don’t phrase it as just a series of keywords. Write it in natural language as if you were speaking to a friend.

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I told Google that I was looking for a sweet dessert wine as a gift for a friend. In response, the AI suggested six different wines with descriptions and details of each one and links to online retailers where I could purchase them. Google also offered tips on how to package a wine bottle as a gift and how to pair it with chocolate or a fruit tart.

The results were helpful, but I was expecting more. However, there should be further enhancements reaching this feature as we get closer to shopping season. So this is one I’ll have to revisit.

Gemini mobile app’s shopping skills

Next on the list are new shopping skills built into the Gemini mobile app. Rather than just present you with simple text-based suggestions, the app will now be able to offer more useful shopping ideas courtesy of Google’s Shopping Graph.

To try this out, I made sure I was running the latest version of the Gemini app on my iPhone. After firing up the app, I asked the AI to find gift ideas for Doctor Who fans and places to buy them. In response, Gemini suggested clothing, kitchenware, collectibles, media, and games. It also provided descriptions and links for several online and physical retailers where I could buy Who-related merchandise. This is another feature still in the process of rolling out, so it should get even better over time.

Google’s agentic AI

That brings us to agentic AI through which Google can carry out specific tasks on your behalf. And here’s one task that promises to free up your time.

Let’s say you’re looking to buy a certain product locally. You’d typically have to contact all the local stores to see if the item is in stock and what it would cost. Instead, you can tell Google to call for you.

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Using a feature called Duplex technology, Google’s AI will call the stores, ask if they carry the item you want, and inquire about any special prices or sales. Further, the AI agent can also track the price of an item that interests you and notify you when it reaches a certain amount.

I wasn’t able to access the “Let Google Call” option, but I did try the price tracking option. For this, I searched Google for an iPad Air. Tapping one of the product cards let me select the option to check the price. From there, I told it to alert me if the price went below a specific number. I was also able to tell it to automatically buy the product for me if the cost reached my preferred price. At this point, the price hasn’t dropped to the level I want, so I wasn’t able to fully test this. But the initial process was quick and easy to set up.