AI‑assisted shopping tools become a major experiment this holiday season

An Associated Press feature reports that major retailers and tech platforms including Walmart, Amazon, Google, and OpenAI are rolling out more capable AI shopping assistants that can personalize product suggestions, track prices and even call local stores to check inventory. While Salesforce estimates AI will influence roughly $73 billion in global sales over the core holiday period, analysts say adoption remains uneven and many shoppers are still wary, making this season an early test of how quickly AI agents can reshape online retail behaviour.