Different playbooks emerge as companies look to monetize their chatbots without losing trust.

Amazon turns shopping into a live AI conversation: Real-time answers reduce scrolling but risk flattening brand voice in summarized speech.

Platforms like ChatGPT are influencing more purchases, with sales forecast to hit $144 billion by 2029.

A growing share of consumers are integrating AI into their shopping journeys, with ChatGPT driving nearly 21% of Walmart’s referral traffic in August and playing a major role for Etsy, Target, and eBay. GenAI is now the second-biggest source of product recommendations, with trust in AI shopping tools soaring from 46% to 86% in just months. Retailers are experimenting with frictionless AI-driven checkout, while Salesforce predicts AI tools will drive 21% of global holiday orders this year. Amazon, however, is blocking AI crawlers to protect its ecosystem, a risky strategy that may drive shoppers to rivals.

The news: Walmart rolled out Sparky, its generative AI (genAI) assistant, to all Walmart app users this week—a preliminary step that puts it closer to achieving its agentic ambitions. Our take: By broadening Sparky’s capabilities, Walmart is trying to position itself not only as a shopping destination, but also as a place where consumers can go when they need everyday life advice or information—such as how to fix a leaky faucet or help with event planning. Whether the retailer succeeds will depend on how well Sparky works, and whether it can convince shoppers to overcome their current skepticism of AI tools.

GenAI is playing a bigger role in the shopping experience: Consumers are turning to AI tools for product recommendations, research, and inspiration.

Retail genAI use is skyrocketing: Retailers are wielding the tech to improve productivity and the customer experience while shoppers rely on genAI to uncover deals and product recommendations.