Google Introduces Retail-Calling AI to Streamline Shopping  ## Metadata - Author: [[Hard Fork AI]] - Full Title: Google Introduces Retail-Calling AI to Streamline Shopping - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/57ace95c-ce33-48d8-a8f6-0dd93d396efd ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Google's Data Advantage In Shopping** - Google pairs Gemini chat with its Shopping Graph to offer up-to-date product recommendations from billions of listings. - This combination gives Google a strong advantage in conversational shopping over competitors. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Because they have two different key components. Number one, they have the chat experience with Gemini. And number two, they actually have what is called the Google shopping graph, which includes over 50 billion product listings, 2 billion of which are updated every hour. And they have a ton of inventory information that is usually up to date that nobody else has. So I think Google is going to really crush it in this space. So what exactly are all of the features that they have rolled out? So a lot of this stuff they actually talked about and sort of unveiled at Google IO, which I went to in San Francisco earlier this year. But you know, there's always that kind of space between them rolling out it, they're announcing a new feature and actually rolling it out. So I'm excited that a lot of this stuff is getting rolled out. Of course a lot of these new shopping features are inside of its gemini app uh one of them is called agentic checkout so agentic checkout this is i guess this is the quote from google what They said about it they said we feel it really shouldn't be so tedious and shopping should feel and can feel a lot more natural and easy the idea here is that we want to hold on to all the fun Parts of shopping, like the browsing, like the serendipitous discovery and things like that, but then skip all the tedious hard parts. Okay, so this is Google's VP and GM of ads and commerce at Google that is kind of like giving us this preface of what their goal is here. As far as the shopping goes, they gave a cool demo and some cool examples. One that i was interested in um they said you know can you recommend a face cream to fight winter chapped skin imagine as a user you're asking this question it's going to have like right Underneath of that kind of like the google gemini or the google ai response i'm more used to seeing now in the google results where it's like for winter chapped skin dermatologists recommend Blah blah so it's going to have this like ai generated chat gpt response. And then right below that, it says, here are some top rated options at different price points. And it has products which are pulling right out of their out of their product graph, right? What's interesting to me here is that right now they kind of they kind of frame this in a way ([Time 0:01:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a6d1305d-6cd3-4102-9c6f-20948774a442)) - **Conversational Search Delivers Rich Product Results** - Gemini's AI mode gives tailored shopping answers with images, prices, reviews, and inventory details in-chat. - That makes product research faster by consolidating visual inspiration and practical buying info. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Just rolled out is going to allow you to ask shopping questions in AI mode. So this is their conversational search feature. And it's going to let you use just natural language in a very in the basic other chat bot style interface. And the responses are going to be tailored to your question. And they are also going to give images when you need visual inspiration. They'll have details like prices, reviews, available inventory. So it is actually useful in a sense that if you are talking, if you actually are trying to go shopping and you are talking to about products, it can give you a whole bunch of information About a whole bunch of products right there in your chat. So I do see that as very valuable. I'm concerned about them making it spammy. I hope they don't do that. And an interesting example of them trying to be more useful that they gave is like, if you have two products, you can post and post them to Gemini and be like, hey, compare these two products And like, you know, give me side by side information. So like if you're in Google, and it's you find your your lip chap, and there's two different brands that can make a table side by side comparing the two products, which like, to be honest, That is a pretty interesting, useful research tool. I feel like that's something you could do with chat GPT, perhaps by screenshotting the two products, but like, whatever, it is useful. They also confirmed that people that are using the AI mode are going to see sponsored listings. But as the features are ([Time 0:03:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f46eaf44-e759-42dc-beca-9aca541020e0)) - **Watch For Sponsored Results In AI Mode** - Expect sponsored listings to appear in AI mode, at least on desktop while experimental features roll out. - Consider that promoted products may surface even inside conversational recommendations. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Screenshotting the two products, but like, whatever, it is useful. They also confirmed that people that are using the AI mode are going to see sponsored listings. But as the features are still experimental, those ads aren't going to appear in the Gemini mobile app just yet. So if you are on, you know, your desktop using AI mode, you will see sponsored listings. And again, this kind of goes to some of my concerns, but whatever. I mean, it's not really concerns. It's just the way the internet works with advertising, but like they can recommend ([Time 0:04:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cf926de2-b5ee-427d-8adb-5616439e5b99)) - **Agentic Checkout Is A Baby Step Toward Automation** - Agentic checkout can track prices, alert you to drops, and buy items via Google Pay with permission. - This is an incremental but meaningful move toward automated shopping agents. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Google is rolling out agentic checkout. This is the big one that I'm excited for. It's going to be inside of Google search. It's also included in AI mode. And it's currently only available with a few different merchants. They have, I think, Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and then a bunch of different Shopify stores that have this. So it's definitely not like on everything. I honestly think you can get a lot of these features just using something like Comet from Perplexity, or using something like Atlas from OpenAI. But anyways, Google's Google is trying to roll it out in their own way directly in Google Chrome, which to be fair, is I mean, or just on Google search, but it's basically the same thing That Perplexing Atlas are doing with their own browsers. And so because Google has Google Chrome, I think they have a good way to kind of get into this. But to use the agentic checkout, you can basically start by tracking an item's price and then you can have it notify you if the price drops. So that's one use case. And so, you know, like let's say you see a new bike that you really want to buy. You're just like, hey, let me know if this bike ever comes below this price that's in my budget, it will let you know. So that's like one cool feature of the agentic shopping. You can also opt to have Google buy the actual item for you on the website using Google pay. Google said that it's ([Time 0:05:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bf14b749-f7c0-4d2f-97c5-416293fd22f6)) - **Be Cautious With Automated Purchases** - Use Google Pay and agentic checkout carefully and confirm payment details when prompted. - Allow agentic checkout only for trusted merchants until features mature. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Also going to ask for your permission first before it actually confirms a purchase and, and also for your shipping details. I think that's fine. I think that's pretty useful, though. What they specifically said about it, Lillian Rincon, VP of Product Management for Google Shopping, was talking about this and said, This is helpful for shoppers because they don't Have to consistently check to see if the item they want is on sale. And it's great for retailers because it brings back the customer who might otherwise have moved on. Agentic Checkout is built on Google's Trust Shopping Graph and also GPay so you can rest assured that you're not or that you're seeing accurate results and that your payment information Is ([Time 0:07:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/38429ff2-1704-4efa-9db9-bdcdd10aa3cc)) - **AI Calls Bridge Online And Local Stores** - 'Let Google Call' sends an AI voice agent to phone local stores and report back prices, bundles, and availability. - This bridges digital search and physical retail by automating vendor calls at scale. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Baby steps towards agentic shopping. So I will give them some kudos to that. One thing that I do think is really cool is that they have something called let Google call inside of your listing. Like let's say you're, you know, you're talking to it about, you're like, Hey, I want to learn guitar. What kind of electric guitar should I get? Blah, blah, blah. It's like talking back to you. You're like, sweet. I don't want to like order something online because it's going to take too long. Can you call all of the local guitar stores and ask them what the price is on on like a beginner guitar google will actually go and call all of the stores and then it will give you an update On what it said in their example of like what it will do basically in the in the thread it's like it's like okay we called strum station they said that they sell electric guitars and that They have models suitable for beginners that range from 179 and up they said that they can figure out bundles with an amp and accessories. Another one, it said they also have vintage and secondhand items. So it's like really asking them like, what are your prices? What are your package deals? Do you ever have secondhand stuff? It's asking them all of these questions that, you know, it has the context from your conversation. It knows what you're interested in. I think that is a phenomenal feature. Also, it'd be pretty cool to just get it to call all the restaurants around you and see who has availability on a Friday night when or you know what their wait times are, and then you just Get a big list, you don't have to go call 10, 10 restaurants, you're like, Oh, this one has, you know, the lowest wait time of the ones I'm interested in, and you go there. So I think this this feature is going to be really useful. They just have an AI voice agent that goes and calls these businesses. Some people have I've heard say that like, like people like businesses are going to be concerned or annoyed having this AI call them. But like, honestly, as a business owner, as a you know, I have a podcast studio in Arizona. And if an AI agent called me to ask for my pricing, I mean, first of all, I would hope they could just go to look at my website, so they won't have to bother me with that. But like, if someone was interested in recording and wondering what my availability was for that day and what my price is, I mean, I would tell them just like it was a normal person. It doesn't really bother me. And I guess maybe some people are annoyed because they feel like this is just going to get used to shop around, right? Like the AI agent can call 10 places where before, you know, someone might call like two or three. So you put a lot more effort into sales on a phone call where you feel like they might only be calling a couple other places where it's like if it's an AI and it's going to call 10, then it's A race to the bottom on price, perhaps. I don't know. So there's concerns and questions that businesses have. But at the end of the day, for users and consumers, I think this is a fantastic ([Time 0:08:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9548969b-c203-4397-9a7e-8542fc4997a6)) - **Merchants Can Control AI Call Exposure** - Merchants can opt out of AI calls, and Google plans limits to avoid excessive or time-wasting interactions. - Despite concerns, these calls represent valuable leads that many retailers will likely accept. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Businesses have. But at the end of the day, for users and consumers, I think this is a fantastic tool. And this is rolling out now in the US for a bunch of different categories, but not everything, right? So they kind of do these limited roll ups right now. It's just for toys, health and beauty products and electronics. If you want to use it, you just search for products that are quote near me. And then you just use the button like Google call and then the AI is going to go and do all of that for you. I think this is exciting. Google said that they're, you know, kind of looking out for how merchants are going to experience these calls. They're trying to make sure that the chatbot isn't going to call too often. And also that they make it, you know, clear about the questions that it is asking. You know, they don't want to waste people's time. Like, I don't know, you can imagine like an AI chatbot trying to do chit chat, small talk with you and you're just trying to get your price. And you're like, okay, get to the point, right? So retailers can choose to opt out of receiving those calls as well. But I mean, it's a lead. So I don't know why you really want to do that. I think it's, you know, likely that you will make a sale from it or there's some chance you make a sale from it. So I think a lot of people will keep that. Google executives plan ([Time 0:10:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aa70a728-cac0-4886-aa9e-dec7d427effa)) - **Demo Glitch Exposed Early Limits** - Jaeden recounts that Google's demo failed due to Wi‑Fi issues during a press event, highlighting tech fragility. - He credits Google for the idea but cautions demos can crash and features aren't perfect yet. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Hope this works well, but it's so tricky with these demos when the demos crash. I mean, you do got to give them kudos, but definitely this technology is not perfect. Okay. All in all, I'm excited about the direction that Google is going with agentic shopping. Not everything is completely there yet. But you can see the direction they're taking. And I hope this is really useful in the future and saves us a lot of time when it comes to shopping and buying things on Google. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast. If you enjoyed the episode today, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review. And as always, make sure to go check out my startup AI box if you want to get all of the top AI models in one place for 20 bucks a month, and you don't have to have a million subscriptions. So I hope that is useful for you, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your ([Time 0:12:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4c49f578-b754-4cf2-ace8-585ffcce78bc))