Shoppers carry bags of purchased merchandise at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on December 11, 2022.
Mark Makela | getty images
Google New artificial intelligence tools were announced Thursday that can help you with your holiday shopping. So, if you’re shopping for a 4-year-old nephew this year, it might help you find ideas along the lines of “gifts for 4-year-old who likes science” to see what he might like. Is.
This is the latest example of how Google is using generative artificial intelligence in its products, and it comes ahead of the holiday season which may draw people to use the site compared to other options. Holiday spending is expected to reach a record high, according to the National Retail Federation, which is estimated at $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion.
Google Shopping has three new features that were announced Thursday:
- This can tell you what kind of gift a person might like based on the interests you provided in the search.
- It can generate a photorealistic image of your desired item, all you have to do is describe it.
- It now features 40 photos of men and women of different shapes, sizes and backgrounds in an effort to create the experience of trying on virtual clothes.
People can opt out of gifting features and image generation options by visiting Search Labs and turning on Search Generative Experiences (SGE).
Here’s what’s new:
The first feature, which is a part of Google’s Search Generator experience, lets you type a phrase into the search bar, such as “great gifts for home cooks” and Google will return a list of gifts, detailing items that would give a home cook And other non-material items like cooking classes.
You can also get more specific and type in something like “Gift for a 7 year old who wants to be an inventor.” In that case, it recommended the $25 Inventors Box Set from Target, among other products.
Google’s second new tool also uses SGE and is designed so that you can specify exactly what you’re looking for by describing it. So, if you want to search “puffed up, colorful metallic looking jacket” it might return results like the image below:
Google will generate photorealistic images in an effort to make shopping easier.
The AI creates a photorealistic image of a variety of items that fit the description you typed, and then after you click, real products similar to the generated image will appear. It’s more designed for when you’re looking for something for yourself, but don’t know exactly what you want. It will launch in the US in December.
Google has 40 photos of men and women of different shapes, sizes and backgrounds to give people a virtual try-on experience.
The last new function lets you see how a product might look on you. For example, you can search “brown jacket at J-Crew” and Google will show you photos of 40 different men and women of different shapes, sizes, and backgrounds so you can see what a piece of clothing looks like on different models. How does it look? A version of this already existed for women’s tops, but now it’s a more widely accessible tool.
Correction: This story was updated to reflect that this is not the first time generative search has been used in Google Shopping.