Retail giants harness AI chatbots to personalize holiday gift recommendations

(2 Dec 2024)

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4537507

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++MUSIC CLEARED FOR EDITORIAL USE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Bend, Indiana - 26 November 2024
1. Computer keyboard
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press:
“Hi, my name is Haleluya Hadero and I am a business reporter with the Associated Press. So consumers shopping online on Cyber Monday are likely going to encounter AI chat bots that are intended to help them in their shopping journey. Chat bots have been around for a while, usually to help us do task oriented items like, you know, returning an item. But now companies are trying to make them more conversational and offer a more personalized experience for shoppers.”
3. Various of screen record of interaction with Amazon Rufus chat bot
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press:
“This year, Amazon rolled out a new generative AI powered shopping assistant named Rufus. Walmart is currently testing its own shopping assistant, which is going to be available for a certain number of shoppers this holiday season. And in the past two years, other companies like Shopify have also rolled out their own chat bots.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 14 February 2019
5. Photo shows Amazon offices

ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Bend, Indiana - 26 November 2024
6. Amazon Rufus chat bot

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bentonville, Arkansas - 5 October 2007
7. Photo shows front of the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. headquarters 

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - 29 May 2019
8. Still photo shows the headquarters of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify

ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Bend, Indiana - 26 November 2024
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press:
“But chat bots aren't the only thing that companies are doing. Last month, the A.I. company Perplexity A.I. said it was putting shopping features and its AI powered search engines that allows shoppers to do comparisons between products.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Davos, Switzerland - 15 January 2024
10. Still photo shows people are reflected in a window of a hotel at the Davos Promenade 

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 5 July 2024.
11. Photo of the Perplexity website and logo are shown in this photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 25 November 2024
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Mallazzo, Future Commerce Analyst
“What is clear to me is just as an outside observer is is there's serious commitment from Amazon to to to really give this a college try. And for a company with that much to lose. If you think about the sheer millions of dollars they make every minute an hour of the day from search - to me it sort of says something about the inevitability of of this being sort of the next form factor of of online commerce.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Bend, Indiana - 26 November 2024
13. Amazon Rufus screen record

ASSOCIATED PRESS
South Bend, Indiana - 26 November 2024
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Mallazzo, Future Commerce Analyst:
“Now we're sort of rapidly moving towards a world where - the stats differ - but something like, you know, 1 in 4 to 1 in 5 kind of avid shoppers have made a purchase through through a chatbot or conversational commerce interface.”
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Mallazzo, Future Commerce Analyst:
“I think there's one major step that needs to happen for for mass consumer trust, and that's to some degree the chatbot needing to be able to show its work.”
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Mallazzo, Future Commerce Analyst:
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