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Published in: Artificial intelligence (AI)

AI Agents & The Future of Personal Shopping

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This blog post provides an extended version of our podcast solo episode, featuring key highlights with slight alterations for readability. To listen to the full episode, check out our podcast on Spotify and Amazon Music.

Personal shopping is undergoing a tech-driven transformation, with AI-powered agents stepping in to offer personalized recommendations and concierge-like service across fashion, beauty, and retail. In fact, industry experts have dubbed 2024 “the year of the AI assistant,” as practical shopping agents emerged as one of the most impactful applications of artificial intelligence for consumers and brands. Nearly every major retailer is now experimenting with an AI shopping assistant or chatbot – from e-commerce giants to department stores – aiming to streamline how we discover and buy products  . This trend isn’t just hype; it signals a fundamental shift in how people will shop in the coming years, blending technology with the high-touch experience of personal stylists.

Rise of the AI Personal Shopping Assistant

Traditional online shopping often required us to sift through endless catalogs and reviews. AI agents promise to change that by serving as smart personal shoppers who can search, compare, and even purchase on our behalf. Amazon was among the first to introduce such an assistant (reportedly named “Rufus”), which rolled out in early 2024 to help users ask natural language questions and get tailored product suggestions. Not to be outdone, Walmart began beta testing a GenAI shopping assistant in its app that can handle questions like “Which TV is best for watching soccer?” and then follow up with context-specific queries (e.g. asking about your room lighting) to refine the recommendation. The vision, as Walmart puts it, is for these AI helpers to become “trusted shopping companions” available anytime – transforming stores from a place to simply buy items into the first stop for advice on any need.

Tech giants are likewise infusing their platforms with shopping-savvy AI. Google recently debuted an “AI Mode” for Google Shopping that combines its powerful new generative models (Gemini) with the Shopping Graph of products. Shoppers can upload a photo of an item or an outfit idea and virtually try it on using a custom image-generation model that realistically understands fit and drape on different body types. Google’s AI Mode will even track prices and autonomously complete purchases when you hit a “buy for me” button – automatically adding the item to your cart and checking out via Google Pay. In other words, Google’s search engine is evolving into a personal shopping agent that can handle everything from inspiration to transaction. Early capabilities include curating product recommendations, generating summary overviews of item specs, and integrating with partners like Warby Parker (for AI-driven eyewear fitting) and L’Oréal (for generative beauty imagery) to enrich the experience.

Meanwhile, AI-native upstarts are jumping in to reshape the shopping journey. The AI search engine Perplexity introduced a “Shop Like a Pro” tool that amalgamates results from across the web into one conversational recommendation feed  . Users can ask for, say, the best noise-canceling headphones, and Perplexity’s agent compiles feature breakdowns, reviews, and price options into an interactive shopping module – letting you compare and even complete a purchase without ever leaving the platform. In a demo, a user was able to find the perfect headphones and buy them within the AI’s interface (through Best Buy) seamlessly  . Analysts believe this could be a tipping point for “AI Agent Commerce,” where search and shopping converge . It’s telling that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has called autonomous AI agents “the next giant breakthrough,” envisioning assistants that learn individual needs and handle complex tasks with minimal effort from users. In retail, that means an agent might eliminate the tedious gap between researching products and actually buying them  – one personalized conversation could replace dozens of clicks and scrolling.

Smarter Shopping: From Recommendation to Checkout

The capabilities of these AI shopping assistants go far beyond basic chatbot duties. They are increasingly able to personalize recommendations, streamline decision-making, and handle routine purchase tasks end-to-end. For example, many consumers already use voice assistants like Alexa or Siri to reorder household goods, but the new generation of agents can proactively manage more complex shopping needs. Imagine telling an AI your upcoming event or style preferences, and it curates a selection of outfits or products just for you. This is quickly becoming a reality. One notable example comes from China’s retail giant Alibaba: its Taobao shopping app launched an AI assistant called “Wenwen” (meaning “ask ask”) that interacts through natural Q&A. Wenwen can generate detailed product recommendations with images and even short videos, summarize the pros and cons of items, ask clarifying questions, and find the best deals available. During major sales events like Singles’ Day, millions of shoppers turned to this AI helper to navigate discounts – it can surface the most cost-effective options and provide instant price analysis across sellers. In essence, it’s like having a bargain-hunting expert and product guru in your pocket, available 24/7.

This agentic approach to shopping is catching on globally. In the U.S., Amazon’s assistant and Walmart’s AI concierge join others like Target’s upcoming chatbot and even Instacart’s AI for grocery ordering. Europe is seeing innovation too: for instance, Dutch fashion retailer Omoda launched “Omoda Stylist,” a Google-powered conversational agent on its e-commerce site. Customers can chat with it as if consulting a stylist – describing something like a “bohemian wedding look” – and the AI will parse the request and pull together a coordinated outfit from Omoda’s inventory. Under the hood, it uses Google Cloud’s advanced Vertex AI and multimodal search (text + image understanding) to mimic the experience of having a personal stylist on demand  . This is just the first phase; Omoda plans to integrate avatar-based outfit visualizations and even your own wardrobe data in future iterations to make the advice even more bespoke.

Notably, it’s not only retailers building these tools – enterprise tech providers are offering white- label AI shopping assistants too. Amazon’s cloud division AWS, for example, released a ready-made shopping AI that any retailer can customize and deploy. And outside the retail industry, various platforms want to be the entry point for your shopping needs: Apple has integrated ChatGPT technology into Siri for more conversational abilities, Yahoo Mail is leveraging AI to help users track orders and deals, and even FedEx is exploring AI-driven services around deliveries. The race is on to become your trusted digital personal shopper, whether it’s on a store’s site or within your email or search engine. If these trends continue, experts predict seismic changes in consumer behavior – we could move from manually hunting for products to simply stating our needs and letting an agent handle the legwork.        

Virtual Try‑Ons and Immersive Experiences

One of the game-changers for personal shopping has been the rise of virtual try-on technology, supercharged by AI. In fashion and beauty, where seeing is believing, AI-driven try-ons bridge the gap between online and in-store experiences. Google’s new shopping features, for instance, include a virtual try-on that can digitally dress your own uploaded photo in an apparel item – the AI understands how a garment would fold or stretch on different body shapes, producing a realistic fitting image. This helps shoppers visualize outfits on themselves before buying, increasing confidence in online purchases. In beauty, augmented reality mirrors have been around for a few years (like apps that show how a certain lipstick shade looks on your face), but generative AI is making these tools far more accurate and personalized. L’Oréal’s ModiFace technology, for example, uses AI to analyze your facial features and skin tone via a selfie, then lets you virtually apply makeup or hair color with uncanny realism. L’Oréal even unveiled a device called “Perso” that uses AI to create custom skincare and cosmetic formulas on the spot – it analyzes your skin needs (via an app and photo analysis) along with environmental factors like local humidity or UV index, and then dispenses a personalized moisturizer or serum blend tailored to you. This level of hyper-personalization, powered by AI, was almost science fiction a decade ago but is quickly becoming reality in the beauty domain.

On the fashion side, startups are pushing virtual try-ons to new heights. A notable example is SpreeAI, a rising player in fashion tech valued at $1.5 billion, which offers a photorealistic digital fitting room experience. With SpreeAI’s technology, shoppers can effectively “become the model” – uploading a photo to see clothing items rendered on their own body with such realism that “the naked eye can’t tell it’s virtual,” according to the company. Impressively, their AI-driven sizing tech claims 99% accuracy in predicting how an item will fit, addressing one of online fashion’s biggest pain points (choosing the right size). Beyond just trying on single items, SpreeAI is rolling out features like an AI stylist and a virtual wardrobe that learns your style, aiming to deliver a dynamic, engaging shopping journey tailored to each user . The benefit is twofold: consumers enjoy a fun, personalized experience, and retailers see fewer returns and higher conversion rates as shoppers are more confident in their choices.

Crucially, these immersive tools are not just gimmicks – they’re reshaping expectations. Shoppers increasingly will expect to “try before you buy” in digital spaces, and AI makes that possible at scale. We’re already seeing mainstream retailers integrate AR mirrors and AI fit assistants in their apps and stores. The next step is combining these try-on experiences with the personal shopping agents: for example, an AI might recommend a complete outfit and then show you each piece on your own virtual avatar instantly. According to trend forecasts, in the next few years virtual try-ons that actually work (without glitchy or “one-size-fits-all” filters) will become standard, and AI-driven styling services that learn your taste over time will make shopping feel almost clairvoyant in anticipating what you’ll love. The end goal is a shopping journey so personalized and seamless that it “feels almost psychic in its ability to understand what you want before you even know it yourself,” as one luxury retail expert puts it.

AI Stylists and Personalized Outfit Curation

For fashion enthusiasts, one of the most exciting developments is the emergence of AI stylists – digital agents that can curate outfits and advise on style as a human personal shopper would. These range from consumer-facing apps to behind-the-scenes tools for professional stylists. On the consumer side, there are now AI-powered stylist apps where you can chat about fashion dilemmas (“What should I wear to a beach wedding?”) and get instant suggestions. Some apps let you upload photos of your wardrobe and then the AI can recommend new items that would complement what you already own, aiming to maximize your closet. For example, the startup Pronti offers an AI wardrobe assistant that learns your style from the clothes you log and then suggests outfits or shopping picks accordingly (alongside similar services like Save Your Wardrobe or ShopLook). Even major retailers have launched AI stylist features: as mentioned, Omoda’s conversational stylist helps shoppers find entire looks rather than isolated pieces, and luxury e-commerce sites like Net-a-Porter have experimented with AI personal shoppers that refine recommendations based on your browsing and purchase history.

Over time, these systems learn an individual’s preferences – color palettes, silhouettes, favorite brands – and improve their suggestions, much like a human stylist remembering a client’s tastes. Interestingly, AI is also empowering the human stylists behind the scenes. Recognizing that algorithms alone may not capture every nuance of personal style, some services blend AI and human expertise. A luxury fashion startup called The Floorr, for instance, provides a digital platform for real human personal shoppers to manage clients, complete with AI-driven tools that can generate outfit mood boards or automate parts of the sales process. This helps freelance stylists scale their business while maintaining a personal touch. Similarly, popular styling services like Stitch Fix have long used algorithms to assist their human stylists in selecting items for customers (an early example of AI- human collaboration in personal shopping). As AI improves, we may see a model where AI handles the heavy lifting of filtering thousands of products down to a personalized selection, and then a human stylist fine-tunes the final picks or adds that creative flair. For consumers who crave unique fashion advice, this combo could offer the best of both worlds: efficiency and personalization from AI, plus the empathy and trend-savvy of a human expert.

From streetwear to high fashion, AI-curated style is becoming the norm. We’re seeing it in luxury retail in subtle ways: Moda Operandi is using machine learning to predict emerging fashion trends (helping buyers stock the next “hot” items before they sell out), and Farfetch employs AI for smarter logistics to ensure that if you do love something, it’s available in your size and delivered swiftly. This kind of background optimization means your favorite online boutiques can feel as if they magically knew what you’d want. And at the ultra-high-end, personal styling gets even more high-tech. For VIP clientele, LVMH brands use AI-driven clienteling apps that give sales associates superpowers: before a top customer walks into the boutique, the AI has analyzed their preferences and purchase history so thoroughly that staff can prepare a personalized experience – their preferred styles ready on the rack, the fitting room set at their ideal temperature, even their favorite beverage or language preference anticipated. This “quiet” use of AI enhances the white-glove service without the customer ever feeling an overt tech presence. It’s a prime example of how luxury is leveraging AI to deepen personalization in a very human, tactile way, rather than using it for flashy gimmicks.

The Beauty Sector Gets Personal with AI

In beauty and cosmetics, personal shopping takes the form of personalized product recommendations and consultations – and here too, AI agents are making waves. Virtual beauty assistants can analyze your individual features or concerns and suggest products/regimens just as a beauty consultant would at a store counter. L’Oréal has been a pioneer in this space: they launched the “Beauty Genius” AI assistant, billed as the first personal virtual beauty advisor, which uses a mix of generative AI and augmented reality. Beauty Genius can chat with users about anything from skincare routines to makeup application tips, drawing on L’Oréal’s vast knowledge base (thousands of expert Q&As) to provide authentic, tailored advice anytime. Crucially, it’s not just a chatbot pushing products; it can also leverage AR to let users try on a new eyeshadow or test a foundation shade within the conversation, making the experience interactive and personalized. Other major beauty retailers like Sephora have also integrated AI – Sephora’s app features a Virtual Artist that uses AI/AR to allow customers to sample makeup virtually, and their online quiz “assistants” use algorithms to personalize skincare recommendations based on user responses.

Beauty is inherently personal, and AI is helping brands make it even more so by tackling the age-old challenge of product-fit. Foundation matching, for example, has been made easier with AI shade finders that scan your skin tone via camera and suggest the ideal product (taking into account undertones and even oxidation over time). Skincare brands are using AI-driven diagnostics: you upload a selfie and an algorithm (trained on dermatological data) will highlight issues like dryness or redness and then propose a routine. Some companies like Proven Skincare and Atolla (now part of Function of Beauty) use online AI quizzes that gather data on your skin and lifestyle, then formulate a custom product just for you. These AI systems continuously learn – as you give feedback (“this moisturizer felt too heavy” or “my skin improved after using the serum”), the recommendations refine. The future might even see smart mirrors with built-in AI assistants in our homes: imagine getting up in the morning, looking in the mirror, and an AI voice gently says, “Noticed your under-eyes are a bit puffy today, shall I recommend a cooling gel?” – followed by a quick AR demo of how you’d look after using it.

For beauty retailers and consumers alike, the benefit is a hyper-personalized shopping experience that was previously only possible with one-on-one professional consultation. Now, anyone with a smartphone can have a personal beauty concierge. This democratization of expert advice is a major trend driven by AI. It not only enhances customer satisfaction (you’re more likely to love products that truly suit you), but it also builds loyalty – because once an AI assistant learns your profile, it can continue to serve up spot-on suggestions season after season. As L’Oréal’s tech incubator lead Guive Balooch noted when unveiling their AI projects, “one-size-fits-all beauty is becoming a thing of the past” – consumers expect solutions tailored to their unique needs (and AI is the key to delivering that at scale).

New Players and Global Innovations

While big brands grab a lot of headlines, the future of personal shopping with AI is also being shaped by nimble startups and international innovators. We’ve already touched on some (like SpreeAI in the U.S. and Omoda in Europe), but it’s worth noting how broad this movement is. In Asia, especially, e- commerce platforms are ahead of the curve in AI-assisted shopping. China’s Taobao/Tmall (Alibaba) integration of the Wenwen assistant is one example of large-scale deployment, and it highlights a unique use-case: using AI to game the system for the shopper’s benefit – finding every coupon, stacking promotions, and timing purchases for the lowest price  . That’s an AI persona quite akin to a savvy shopping friend who knows all the tricks. We can expect global e-commerce to adopt similar features, as consumers everywhere love a good deal.

Another interesting newcomer is Klarna’s AI shopping tool (as a payments company branching into recommendation): Klarna launched an AI-powered personal shopping feed that learns your style and browsing habits, showing products from various merchants in a TikTok-like feed of personalized inspiration. Even social media is joining in – for instance, Snapchat’s “My AI” chatbot can not only chat with users but also suggest products (Snap has AR try-on lenses and can recommend fashion items if you show it a picture). And speaking of social, the rise of virtual influencers and AI-driven fashion content means we might soon get style tips from a digital avatar that has analyzed thousands of runway images. In short, the landscape is exploding with creativity: from AI that designs custom outfits on the fly, to bots that scour second-hand marketplaces for that sold-out handbag you wanted. The key for all these newcomers is finding a niche that adds value beyond what the tech giants offer.

One such niche example: a startup in the Midwest U.S. (Grand Rapids) called Thermal is reportedly developing personalized online “showrooms” for each shopper, combining real stylist input with AI curation to recreate the boutique experience virtually. And in the realm of sustainable fashion, apps like Save Your Wardrobe leverage AI to help you not just shop for new items but also better use what you have – offering outfit ideas from your closet and suggesting what few additions would round it out (a very modern take on personal shopping that’s as much about what not to buy). These varied innovations show that AI in personal shopping isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition; it can be adapted to luxury couture or thrifty resale, to high-touch concierge models or fully automated experiences. Crucially, the international perspective ensures the future of AI personal shopping is rich with diverse approaches. For example, in India, e-commerce leaders are introducing AI chatbots in multiple languages to cater to their vast user base and guide first-time online shoppers. In Europe, fashion-tech startups are blending AI with heritage craftsmanship – imagine an AI that helps you design your own made-to-measure clothing by learning your preferences and connecting you with artisans. And of course, in the tech-forward markets of South Korea and Japan, we see things like AI shopping assistants embedded in messaging apps or virtual department stores in VR, where an AI avatar can guide you through a 3D shop. The bottom line is that AI agents are poised to revolutionize personal shopping globally, and the most interesting innovations often come from these local or specialized players that approach the problem from a fresh angle.

A New Era of Personalized Shopping

Taken together, all these developments signal that we are entering what some have termed the “Agentic Era” of retail  – a phase where the focus shifts from just bigger and better AI models to useful AI assistants orchestrating specific tasks like shopping  . In personal shopping, this means the experience of finding and buying products becomes increasingly conversational, interactive, and uniquely tailored to each individual. Instead of you trawling through websites or aisles, your AI agent will do the heavy lifting: understanding your needs, narrowing choices, negotiating prices, checking out, and even scheduling deliveries or returns. Early evidence shows consumers are eager for this convenience – during the 2024 holiday season, AI-driven tools helped drive over $14 billion in online sales on Black Friday, with AI chat usage up 31% and retail chatbot traffic skyrocketing (1800% higher than the year before)  . People are getting comfortable letting AI assistants help them shop, and as the technology improves, that comfort will only grow.

What’s especially exciting is that this isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about enhancing the joy of shopping. The best personal shoppers (human or AI) don’t just fetch items – they surprise and delight you with finds that suit your style, they simplify decisions, and they make you feel understood. AI agents, armed with vast data and learning capabilities, have the potential to do this at scale. They can remember every preference you’ve ever stated, stay on top of millions of products and trends, and be available the moment you want advice. Of course, challenges remain – AI must continue to improve in understanding the nuances of human taste and avoid overwhelming users with choices (decision fatigue is real). There are also concerns about privacy and ensuring that the recommendations are unbiased and truly in the consumer’s best interest. However, the trajectory is clear: AI is becoming an indispensable partner in the shopping journey, from your phone to the mall to your vanity mirror.

In the near future, we might look back and wonder how we ever made do with clunky search bars and generic product grids. As AI agents and personal shopping converge, the experience will feel more like having a knowledgeable friend or a professional stylist by your side at all times – one who can instantly scan the globe for exactly what you want (or didn’t know you wanted) and get it to you effortlessly. Whether it’s finding the perfect dress for a big occasion, choosing a foundation that perfectly matches your skin, or simply saving time on the weekly grocery run, AI personal shoppers are gearing up to deliver a new level of convenience and personalization. The future of personal shopping is being written by algorithms and agents, yes, but at its heart it’s about you – your unique style, needs, and desires – finally at the center of every retail experience.

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