AI News Feed
Market watch
LG UltraFine Evo 32U990A-S Hits Record-Low $1,099 on Amazon, TechRadar ReportsNewegg Labor Day Deal: 32GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200 Kit Nearly Half Price at $179.99 with CodeGalaxy Z Fold 8 inner screen corners reported with excessive giveHuawei unveils Mate XT 2 tri-fold with privacy-screen edition as Apple prepares folding iPhoneWall Street Analysts Recommend Nvidia, Uber and Marvell for Long-Term GrowthLenovo, AMD and Huawei Put Local Large-Model AI at Center of New Devices
LG UltraFine Evo 32U990A-S Hits Record-Low $1,099 on Amazon, TechRadar ReportsNewegg Labor Day Deal: 32GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200 Kit Nearly Half Price at $179.99 with CodeGalaxy Z Fold 8 inner screen corners reported with excessive giveHuawei unveils Mate XT 2 tri-fold with privacy-screen edition as Apple prepares folding iPhoneWall Street Analysts Recommend Nvidia, Uber and Marvell for Long-Term GrowthLenovo, AMD and Huawei Put Local Large-Model AI at Center of New Devices
Products & Applications

AI chatbots take over back-to-school shopping, CNBC reports

CNBC reports families are increasingly assigning back-to-school shopping to AI chatbots, which compare prices and time purchases.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-05 12:36

Alexander Lee, an accounting professional in Brooklyn, told CNBC he used OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude this year to prepare the school-supply list for his two children, one entering first grade and one starting preschool. He said the AI tools reduced the stress of going to Target, Home Depot and Costco, adjusted his shopping list and told him when buying certain items would save 20% to 30%. Before, he spent hours reading reviews and scouring forums, he said.

Lee is part of a broader trend. The National Retail Federation's latest survey found that 61% of shoppers said they used generative AI or other AI-powered shopping tools this year to find the best prices and discounts and request product ideas. Kristina Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager of creator marketing agency Trevant, said almost 70% of shoppers are asking AI to find deals, compare products and summarize reviews.

Coughlin said the notable change is that consumers are using AI to delegate decisions, not just for discovery. “What's different this year isn't that parents are using AI for discovery — it's that they're using it to delegate their decision-making,” she said. For consumer-facing companies, AI has become a bridge from product discovery to the completed transaction, CNBC reported.

That dynamic gives Amazon and Google advantages over OpenAI and Anthropic, whose leading AI tools have fueled the habit but are not yet publicly traded; both are planning initial public offerings. Google’s edge comes from search-based understanding of consumer intent and its Gemini AI models, while Amazon leverages a massive product catalog, years of Prime purchase history and its Alexa for Shopping assistant.

Consumers can now give an AI assistant a detailed list of their child’s age, school requirements and budget and ask it to identify the best options and the optimal time to buy, CNBC reported. Google’s Gemini models are being developed to handle such detailed, multi-step requests.

Aniket Deosthali, co-founder and CEO of agentic commerce company Envive, said shoppers using artificial intelligence tend to spend more. “Shoppers are spending 30% to 40% more per order when they're shopping with AI, and they're seeing an exponential increase in AI-assisted shoppers,” he told CNBC. Deosthali, who previously led Walmart’s generative AI shopping experiences, said businesses are showing “a big spike” in interest in making themselves more discoverable through AI.