AI agents fall short of delivering agentic holiday shopping experience
It’s the holiday rush, and suddenly every tech company is shouting about AI assistants that can browse sites, compare prices and even order things for you. OpenAI, Google and Amazon have each put out prototype agents that claim to cut down the chaos at checkout. The demos look polished, but the first users I’ve heard from mention glitches - items get mis-identified, links break, and the bots often freeze when stock is low.
The hype paints a picture of a near-future where you hand off an entire shopping trip to a digital clerk; the reality, however, feels more like a beta test. Retailers are already slipping these tools into their apps, so the question isn’t “does the tech exist?” but “can it actually cope with the quirks of holiday demand?” One quote sums up the gap between what’s promised and what actually works, and why “agentic shopping” still seems out of reach.
The aim is to encourage people to hand off parts of the browsing and ordering experience to AI tools and usher in an era of agentic shopping. But while these so-called agents have started to become more commonplace, they are far from taking over as full-time virtual buyers. OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and other AI chatbot developers are still negotiating with major retail partners on the best way to limit costly mistakes by agents and the amount of product data and chat history that have to be exchanged to make these agents successful, according to executives at seven tech and ecommerce companies who spoke with WIRED.
AI agents aren’t quite ready to run your holiday shopping list yet. With Instant Checkout, ChatGPT can drop an Etsy order straight from the chat, which feels like a glimpse of more autonomous browsing. Still, you have to confirm the details, and the flow stops before it becomes truly hands-off.
It’s a move forward, not the finish line. The idea of an “agentic” shopping era is obvious, but today’s tools can’t fully replace a human shopper. Companies like OpenAI, Google and Amazon are tinkering with integrations, yet none have shown a smooth, end-to-end virtual buyer that picks products, compares options and handles returns.
So it’s hard to say how fast those gaps will shrink. You can play with limited automation, but you’ll still need to watch pricing, size and delivery. In practice it feels more like a handy shortcut than a decision-making substitute.
Whether upcoming updates will close the functional divide remains unclear, and retailers are still testing the feature with a small set of merchants before rolling it out widely.
Further Reading
- How AI Shopping Assistants Are Changing Holiday Buying in 2025 - BlueConic
- Holiday Shopping in 2025: AI Takes Center Stage, Demanding Retailers’ Urgent Adaptation - NotPIM
- The next chapter of online shopping: From search bars to AI agents - Mizuho Americas Insights
- Agentic AI poised to disrupt retail, even with 50% of consumers cautious of fully autonomous purchases - Morningstar (PR Newswire/Bain & Company)
- AI Holiday Shopping Trends 2025 - Talkdesk
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Common Questions Answered
What issues have early users reported with AI agents during holiday shopping?
Early users have encountered glitches such as mis‑identified items, broken links, and agents stalling when limited‑stock alerts appear. These problems undermine the promised seamless browsing and ordering experience for holiday shoppers.
How does OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature work with ChatGPT for holiday purchases?
Instant Checkout lets ChatGPT place an Etsy order directly from the chat interface, streamlining the checkout process. However, the user must still confirm order details, so the experience is not fully hands‑off.
Why are OpenAI, Google, and Amazon still negotiating with retail partners about AI agents?
The companies are working to limit costly mistakes by agents and to define how much product data and chat history can be shared. These negotiations aim to balance automation benefits with the risk of errors in holiday shopping.
What does the article suggest about the readiness of AI agents to replace human shoppers for holiday lists?
The article concludes that AI agents are not yet ready to fully replace human shoppers, as current implementations still require user confirmation and can falter on complex tasks. While progress is evident, the technology remains a step forward rather than a finished solution.