Best Ways To Use AI For Holiday Shopping 

VML’s Future Shopper eport found that the majority of consumers worldwide have already tried using artificial intelligence (AI) for shopping, while more than half plan to check AI for product recommendations this holiday season.

For those who rely on AI assistants like Muse, Claude, or Alexa as shopping companions, Colleen Kirk, D.P.S., professor of marketing and management in the School of Management, recommends using these tools thoughtfully when shopping for gifts to preserve feelings of ownership.

Today’s chatbots have very human-sounding responses. This creates the feeling of shopping with a trusted friend. “With voices that mimic human inflections, tone, and emotional cadence, it’s easy to forget that when you talk or text with your chatbot, you’re not conversing with a human,” Kirk says. 

Kirk, who has researched psychological ownership (the feeling of a deep personal sense of possession for a product or brand) as well as emotional responses to AI writing, cautions that naming a chatbot further increases feelings of trust and connection, which may make shoppers more susceptible to the chatbot’s recommendations.

“In my research, we have found that social connectedness moves people from feeling that something is ‘mine’ to feeling that the same target is ‘ours’. Therefore, as we engage with a human-sounding chatbot, we are more likely to begin to identify with the chatbot, and this can increase this sense of collective psychological ownership,” notes Kirk.

If an AI chatbot supplies gift ideas before shoppers have thought about the recipient themselves, they may feel less ownership of the choice. Kirk’s research suggests some consumers may even feel a sense of guilt when using AI to help come up with gift ideas, similar to how one might feel guilty using AI to write a heartfelt message to a loved one.

Consumers will also have stronger feelings of ownership if they lead the conversation with an AI chatbot, rather than when the AI agent takes over and rewrites their ideas.

Kirk shares, “Research has found that when people turn to AI at the very start of an idea generation task, they report less ownership, less autonomy, and less creative confidence than people who come up with their own ideas first and use AI only to expand or refine them.”

Therefore, Kirk encourages consumers to brainstorm their own gift ideas first to make the gesture feel more authentic—then check with AI using specific criteria. Shoppers can also ask their chatbot to suggest ideas they may have missed or poke holes in their choices before making the final gift selection themselves.

Much of the research on consumer psychology demonstrates the importance of touch, such as handling an item in the store, which creates feelings of ownership that may also add to the joyful experience of holiday gift giving. When shopping with AI agents, personally adding a gift to the cart and completing the purchase can preserve a sense of ownership. Kirk recommends adding a personal touch, such as a handwritten message or wrapping presents thoughtfully, to potentially increase gift-giving joy.

Kirk suggests using AI for everyday purchases, like grocery necessities, which may free up time for more enjoyable holiday activities. Her research also found that consumers’ feeling of guilt reduces when using AI to write text for acquaintances, making AI assistants well-suited for providing gift suggestions for coworkers, like an office Secret Santa.