--- title: Your Secret Weapon This Holiday Shopping Season Could Be... ChatGPT? description: Need gift ideas? AI may be your secret weapon this holiday shopping season. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 497 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Shopping - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2024-11-25T22:19:03.000Z' modified: '2024-11-25T22:19:03.000Z' section: Shopping tags: - News word_count: 605 canonical: https://money.com/ai-for-holiday-shopping-gift-ideas/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Illustration of the concept of AI helping out with holiday gift ideas](https://img.money.com/2024/11/News-Holiday-Gifts-Ask-AI.jpg?crop=0px%2C183px%2C2880px%2C1620px&quality=85) As we approach the holidays, artificial intelligence is taking center stage. Whether that’s a blessing or a curse — well, that depends on how the burgeoning technology is used. On one hand, Coca-Cola is facing fierce backlash after it used generative AI to reimagine its beloved 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” campaign. On the other, some proponents of AI say that the very same tool can reduce the stress of one of the biggest holiday to-dos: shopping for gifts. John Licato, a computer engineering associate professor and AI researcher at the [University of South Florida](https://money.com/best-colleges/profile/university-of-south-florida/), recommends using AI to help you pick the perfect gift for friends or family. ## Make sure you're protected when shopping online ### Identity Theft Protection software can provide peace of mind so you can shop online without any worries. Click on your state to get started today! [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/f2406da20cf4?ap_referrer=%2Fai-for-holiday-shopping-gift-ideas%2F) “You can refine the AI's suggestions by giving feedback, helping it become more accurate in offering thoughtful, tailored gift ideas,” Licato said in a [news release](https://www.usf.edu/news/2024/usf-expert-tis-the-season-for-ai-among-shoppers-and-retailers.aspx). Recent [data from Adobe](https://news.adobe.com/news/2024/09/092524-adi-holiday-forecast) suggests that many online shoppers are already asking AI to help them pick products. AI referrals to retail sites have increased eightfold since 2023; the software firm expects the trend to pick up even more this holiday season. In fact, a [recent survey](https://www.debt.com/research/americans-will-spend-less-this-holiday-season/) from Debt.com found that 65% of shoppers said they were willing to spend more than usual on a gift if AI gave them an ideal recommendation. ## How to use AI to buy Christmas presents~ ~ By now, most folks are accustomed to using Google to do basic product research, probably by pecking in “best” followed by whatever type of product they’re searching for. In milliseconds, Google populates pages and pages of results, usually topped by several sponsored products. But AI works a little differently. And not all AI chatbots are created equally. Licato recommends using reputable ones like ChatGPT and Claude, which use advanced language-learning models that are trained with extensive amounts of data and have real-time access to the internet. Many retailers now have their own on-site AI chatbots. Take Amazon’s shopping-assistant chatbot, Rufus, for example. Rufus can help you search for products... but only ones on Amazon.com. In some cases, these retailer-run AI tools might not be as advanced as ChatGPT, or they may have different goals such as only selling you products offered on the site. When you’ve decided on which AI tool you want to use, tell it a little bit about your shopping goals and budget. According to RetailWire’s [holiday shopping forecast](https://retailwire.com/discussion/will-genai-influence-the-2024-holiday-shopping-season/), one major perk of using a tool like ChatGPT over a regular search engine is that AI uses natural language, not just a few key words. You can describe at length what you’re looking for — even if you don’t exactly know what that is yet. You can also feed the chatbot as much information about the person you’re shopping for as you want. Basic facts like their interests, relation to you, hobbies and more can go a long way in getting tailored gift ideas (though Licato suggests using only publicly available information on the person if you have privacy concerns). After you’ve homed in on the item you want, you can get even more specific recommendations. The chatbot can also help you compare prices across retailers if it’s hooked up to live search engines. Just make sure the pricing is accurate. Licato recommends asking the chatbot to provide links directly to the site so you can double check. Once you get the perfect gift, all that’s left is deciding whether to tell the recipient that ChatGPT came up with the idea. ### Includes VPN & password manager ![View Plans](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/29035/medium_031b14e8-19d0-4ec7-b6f0-04e29d54e75a.png) Our Partner [View Plans](https://money.com/go/585d719904d7?bidid=4022926541&ptid=661463474&ptoken=12ccf6b9312b832e93d4ddc9797c7eec) ### Comprehensive 3-bureau monitoring system ![View Plans](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/22930/medium_1cbc8db8-3f08-443a-9212-ffc20f3572c5.png) Our Partner [View Plans](https://money.com/go/fc323d9aa5e0?bidid=4022926539&ptid=661463474&ptoken=0f79ee2558f63f21f58ab669c6961eb8) ### Over 40 years of experience in the field ![View Plans](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/29533/medium_0d1a7abe-469a-4c92-bc75-b14db9a97c71.png) Our Partner [View Plans](https://money.com/go/20f5ee856ce4?bidid=4022926537&ptid=661463474&ptoken=1667d04657430e20b4dba880d242c12b) ![View Plans](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/39603/medium_19e58401-022f-4bdc-bc08-ac1e419ddcdf.webp) [View Plans](https://money.com/go/4a59e03d689d?bidid=4022926546&ptid=661463474&ptoken=3e4a9f7cce965f898eb83b31858f80d0) ![View Plans](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/38916/medium_94286108-57cf-442c-8244-b54cf4d80c68.webp) Our Partner [View Plans](https://money.com/go/e4649da64229?bidid=4022926542&ptid=661463474&ptoken=24a8dd5b6d0e62e2dcbc7162e425e869) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/29035/medium_031b14e8-19d0-4ec7-b6f0-04e29d54e75a.png) Protect yourself from the threat of Identity Theft with Aura [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/ce5c60e9ca63?ap_referrer=%2Fai-for-holiday-shopping-gift-ideas%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/ai-for-holiday-shopping-gift-ideas/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Shopping", "item": "https://money.com/shopping/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Your Secret Weapon This Holiday Shopping Season Could Be... 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