The internet has absolutely revolutionized the way we shop. Whether you're after groceries, clothes, the best phones or something else entirely, our first instinct is to head online and see where we can pick it up the cheapest.
Now, though, it seems like big tech is having another go at this — employing AI to do all that initial searching for you. Google just showed off a bunch of features related to this during the Google I/O 2025 keynote. And, if I'm being totally honest, I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Especially if it's not entirely clear if I will always get total control over how my money is being spent.
I never trusted Alexa with my wallet
The idea of buying with AI, or some approximation of it, is nothing new. One of the reasons Amazon created Alexa was to give customers the option to purchase items with their voice, rather than using an app or website — with particular emphasis on buying from Amazon itself.
Shopping with Alexa has evolved a lot over the years, and the core feature is still around. You can ask Alexa to order something for you, after placing it in your basket, without ever looking at what it is. That's something that has never sat right with me.
When I'm shopping I tend to do a lot of looking around. If I want something specific, that means checking different retailers, or at the very least using Google to see who has what. Then, if it's a generic product, I'll be browsing the different options to check up on price, features, materials and all the other things on offer.
Odds are I'm not going to pick the first listing I see, or even the second and third. I need to find the right thing for me, and it may not be the most obvious or even the cheapest option. The whole shopping process is weighing up what I need, how much I have to pay, and when it needs to arrive — among other things.
These are the things that are being calculated in my mind as I'm browsing, rather than something I can fully articulate off the top of my head. It's why I could never fully trust Alexa to pick those items for me, even if I'm the one that verifies my basket before any money is handed over. And that's not likely to change anytime soon, even if it's a different AI involved in the process.
Google's offering mixed signals with AI-powered shopping
Google I/O keynote was filled to the brim with AI news and previews. To the point where it was actually quite difficult to keep up with everything Google had on the table. But two sections immediately stood out to me — and both of them were shopping related.
The Project Astra demo, where Google's AI attempts to help fix a bike involves Gemini calling a local bike shop and then placing an order for a new tension screw. While Gemini never acts independently, the one thing I noticed was that it was able to place a pick-up order without actually telling the user how much it's all going to cost.
A tension screw for a bike is not going to be expensive, even from a small independent store that can't cut costs like Amazon does. But the fact Google did all that without divulging key information is slightly concerning. Sure, it's on the user to actually ask those questions, but Gemini shouldn't need to be prompted to tell you all the important details.
But that's at odds with later demos at I/O, where Google showed how Search's new AI Mode can make the act of shopping online easier. The short version is that using Gemini and LLMs, Google can now do research for you, and help you find the kind of stuff you may want to buy, and without you needing to use very specific keywords.
But it was also made clear that this was all controlled by you, and regardless of how much research Google AI does for you the actual act of making the purchase is entirely down to you, rather than a blind purchase.
Obviously these are different systems that account for shopping in very different ways. But you'd also think there would be some level of consistency between them both — especially since these demos were not happening live.
Bottom line
I'm not a big fan of AI, and I've made my feelings very clear on that in the past. Features either feel too gimmicky to be of any use, or feel like they don't actually save me much in the way of effort.
On top of that I'll always remain skeptical of Google's AI Search features, given how poor the AI Overviews have been since they first started rolling out.
The new AI Mode shopping features seem rather interesting, and the ability to ask AI for recommendations on what to look for could be useful. That is, assuming it's able to do everything Google says it can do.
But no matter what happens, I absolutely will not be handing over all the decision-making process to a machine — and I sure as heck won't be letting it buy stuff for me.
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