By KELVIN CHAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

Shopping assistant chatbots were a novelty a year ago. Now, they’re everywhere.

After rolling out AI-powered assistants, online retailers and tech companies have been adding more artificial intelligence features to make online shopping easier and more convenient.

The latest crop of AI-powered shopping services and tools made their debut in recent weeks, just in time to kick off the holiday shopping season that begins with Black Friday.

Here’s a rundown of existing and newly released AI services that can help with your search for the perfect gift in the run-up to Christmas:

Retail chatbots

Amazon led the way by rolling out its Rufus chatbot in 2024. Other ecommerce websites followed with their own AI assistants to enhance the online shopping experience.

Walmart’s Sparky chatbot is available on the retail giant’s app and can synthesize reviews or offer product recommendations based on occasions, such as Christmas. Target recently unveiled a gift finder chatbot on its app, but it’s only available for the holiday season. Ralph Lauren partnered with Microsoft on the “Ask Ralph” chatbot to provide style recommendations.

The aim of deploying chatbots is to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. Instead of entering search terms and keywords, you can type or use voice dictation for a conversational back-and-forth.

The results, in my experience, can be mixed.

FILE – Amazon’s generative AI-powered shopping assistant, Rufus, appears on a computer monitor, Dec. 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

I tried Rufus recently to find a replacement aftermarket stainless steel pot for my rice cooker, as well as a protective trivet for my kitchen sink faucet. In both cases, the results weren’t quite right and didn’t seem to capture the wide range of products available. Sometimes the results were completely unsuitable.

I ended up doing a more painstaking search of product listings’ pictures and specifications to find the right items. The problem, I suspect, is partly because I was looking for generic products. Searches for name-brand products may produce better results.

AI-powered buying advice

Perhaps you don’t want to limit yourself to a single retailer’s website in your Christmas shopping search. Or you’re not sure where exactly to find that perfect gift.

Tech platforms have rolled out AI-powered shopping tools that can cast a wider net by searching multiple sites.

OpenAI added a new “shopping research” feature to ChatGPT last week that can provide personalized buying advice for products that are heavy on detailed specs, like electronics or appliances. The feature will activate if you ask ChatGPT a shopping-related question or manually turn it on in the chat window. OpenAI says it can go beyond simple questions, such as checking a price or feature that regular ChatGPT can easily answer.

Google users can get a similar experience when they use its search engine in AI Mode, which recently got a big update for shopping searches. The company says users can describe what they’re looking for as if talking to a friend and get an “intelligently organized response” based on 50 billion product listings, with pictures alongside prices, reviews and inventory info.

Google added similar shopping features to its Gemini AI chatbot app for U.S. users last month.

Meanwhile, Perplexity unveiled its own shopping assistant feature last week that can tailor recommendations based on previous searches.

Shoppers browse through stores at Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)

I asked all three to find a soft cotton flannel shirt. Both ChatGPT and Perplexity asked me for specific requirements, such as budget and must-have features. ChatGPT’s response was the most detailed, with options from six brands including its top pick, and included pictures, prices and point-form summaries for each shirt. It also compiled the results into a comparison table.

Results from Google, which didn’t ask follow up questions after my initial request, felt the most general. Perplexity’s results fell in between.

Try it on virtually

So, you think you’ve found a stylish cardigan for your spouse. But you’re not sure about the silhouette or vibe.

Generative AI “try on” tools let users see what a piece of clothing might look like on the wearer.

Existing virtual dressing room tools have relied on complex 3D rendering, real photoshoots and augmented reality. Often, shoppers were limited to picking a model that best fit their body type to see how clothes fit.

Google is now tapping AI to allow shoppers to virtually try on garments and shoes using pictures of themselves in simple poses. Among the exceptions: accessories like hats or jewelry, bathing suits and lingerie.

To use this feature, which is available through Google’s shopping desktop search and mobile app in Australia, Japan Canada and the U.S., just tap the “Try it on” button on a product’s photo and then add a full-length photo of yourself. You can then save the image of yourself with the tested item or share it. The original photo is also saved to your account so you don’t need to keep uploading fresh images.

If you’re shopping for a gift for someone, Google says you can upload their photo, but only if you have their permission.

AI agents buy it for you

Now that you’ve figured out what exactly to get for those special people on your Christmas gift list, it’s time to buy. But if you want to outsource some of the legwork involved, there are “agentic AI” tools that can help.

Amazon users can use an “AI agent” to buy a product on their behalf if the price falls to a desired level. Google has launched its own “agentic checkout” feature, which can automatically buy a product you’re keeping an eye on with its price-tracking feature. Google’s feature has rolled out to a small group of retailers, including Wayfair, Chewy and Quince we well as some Shopify merchants.

Both companies say they’ll always confirm with you before the AI agent makes the purchase.

Amazon is taking it a step further by allowing shoppers to buy items that aren’t in stock directly from other brands’ websites. If you see a product on the Amazon Shopping app with a “Buy For Me” button, you can buy it through the usual Amazon checkout page but the AI agent will then carry out the transaction on the other brand’s website with your encrypted payment details. The feature was in test mode but is being rolled out more widely.

AI calls for availability

Prefer to buy in person? It’s a good idea to make sure a bricks-and-mortar shop has the product you want before heading over. Google has launched an AI service that will call local stores to ask.

Black Friday Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy’s flagship store on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

It’s only available in the U.S. for toys, electronics and health and beauty products. When doing a Google search for the product you want, add “near me” to the end of your search query. Then, if you see “Let Google Call” when scrolling through the results, you can tap the “Get started” button. Answer some questions about what you’re shopping for, whether you want updates by email or text.

Google will then contact stores near your location to ask if the item is in stock.

The bot works swiftly but results might be limited. When an AP reporter in New Jersey asked Google to call around about a specific Acer monitor, the agent returned quickly with a reply from a local computer repair shop that sold refurbished monitors. It appeared to ignore nearby big-box outlets selling electronics.

According to Google’s text update, the local repair shop didn’t have the monitor, but did have a similar-sized one — sans the other bells and whistles — for a lower price.

Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip.

Doing Somalis a disservice

There are approximately 80,000 Somali residents in Minnesota, most of whom work in jobs as varied as translators, nurses, hospital workers and in restaurants, meatpacking and other manual jobs. Are all of them fraudsters, gangsters and/or contributors to the terrorist group, al-Shabab in Somalia? Hardly.

Both Tim Walz and Donald Trump do the Minnesota Somali community a grave disservice, Walz by ignoring serious wrongdoing within the community to avoid criticizing a loyal political base, and Trump by disparaging Minnesota Somalis as a whole group.

Not treating Minnesota Somalis as individuals or stereotyping them as an ethnic/racial group is wrong, un-Minnesotan and un-American.

Richard M. Ryan, Woodbury

 

Wary of excesses in the name of DEI

I read with interest “So DEI doesn’t work. What would be better?” (Nov. 30). This was an opinion piece by Nina Stachenfeld chastising those critical of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

I am a centrist Democrat. While I certainly support the ideal of people of color achieving greater success economically and otherwise, I am wary of excesses committed in the name of DEI. Prior to the New York Times Magazine story described below, DEI efforts had faced only minimal levels of accountability; following, many efforts under the DEI umbrella have been performative and counterproductive, in my opinion.

In October of 2024, the New York Times Magazine (hardly a right-wing publication) published a major story entitled “The University of Michigan doubled down on DEI; what went wrong.” The subheading was, “A decade and a quarter of a billion dollars later, students and faculty are more frustrated than ever.” This story established that the University of Michigan was at the leading edge of DEI amongst academic institutions from the mid-2010s through the time of the article. It implemented a staggeringly large program to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The NYT Magazine story compellingly establishes that these efforts did not come anywhere near achieving the desired results. In fact, the efforts in many ways increased division and cynicism. In addition, persuasive evidence is provided that the DEI initiatives and culture restricted academic freedom and freedom of speech. The story is a dispassionate and scathing portrayal of institutional failure.

In my opinion, the University of Michigan example is reflective of DEI programs throughout the country, particularly after the murder of George Floyd: well intentioned, rich in resources, complete lack of accountability, limited tangible results, highly polarizing.

As he does, Donald Trump has gone much too far in his efforts to obliterate any shred of DEI programming throughout the country. However, that does not mean that DEI as it has been implemented cannot be legitimately critiqued (Stachenfeld notably does not present alternative approaches to implementing DEI).

Peter Langworthy, St. Paul

 

Paid leave: another opportunity for fraudsters?

Considering the actual and some alleged fraudulent situations funded by taxpayers in the state of Minnesota, wouldn’t this be a good time to put the upcoming “paid leave” program on hold?

We are all aware — Democrats and Republicans — that our lawmakers burned through an approximately $18 billion surplus two years ago instead of refunding it to taxpayers. Why should anybody trust the present leadership in administering a new benefits program? All the tax-paying residents of Minnesota deserve to have confidence that our money is being spent wisely and not initiating another opportunity for fraudsters in our state.

Kathleen Langer, St. Paul

 

Elect reps who will protect against abuse of power

I have never sensed fear of my government before (except maybe when I was stopped for speeding) until a recent Tuesday when I was locked into a classroom. The lockdown was an effort to protect immigrant students from possible detention by government agents reported to be in the area. I realized then how fearful it can be for anyone of a government that is skirting the law to advance its own agenda. That may include detaining persons in the wrong place at the wrong time as ICE agents seek to deport as many “illegal” persons as they can. It can also include persons at the highest levels of government who have to spend time and resources to defend themselves from retaliatory charges.

Please elect legislative representatives who will seek to protect any of us from abuse of government power.

Kenneth Gilmore, Oakdale

 

No third term

Let’s see. Gov. Walz was in charge and slow to respond when Minneapolis was looted and burned. He squandered an $18 billion surplus while simultaneously raising taxes. He was asleep at the wheel when Minnesotans were defrauded of at least $1 billion of their hard-earned tax dollars. Now he wants to run for a third term. You’ve got to be kidding. I’ve lived here all of my life and have never seen a more incompetent governor. He has sullied the reputation of the once great state of Minnesota and certainly doesn’t deserve a third term.

R.P. Merry, Chisago City

 

The economy is in shambles?

The Mall of America reported 235,000 people visited the mall on Black Friday. A record for that day. Cyber Monday sales were reported to be $14.25 billion. A record for that day. I personally went to Ridgedale mall and you could not find a place to park. Yet the liberal/progressive parties and news outlets are telling us once again to not believe our own eyes and ears when they tell us the economy is in shambles.

Don Anderson Jr, Cottage Grove

 

Blame somebody else

From Friday’s Pioneer Press on the state budget:

“Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislative leaders and Gov. Tim Walz blamed President Trump for the state’s fiscal issues”.

Does Gov. Walz ever take responsibility for anything? While Trump can be blamed for many things, mismanaging our state’s finances isn’t one of them. Who squandered the $18 billion state surplus? Who put in place programs that will drain our resources in the future? On whose watch did the biggest fraud in the US take place?

Walz reminds me of an 8th grade classmate who was the root of chaos on the playground. As soon as the nuns burst onto the scene he would literally point to someone else.

Gerald Kraut, St. Paul

 

Sainted

Stillwater Sunrise Rotary and 15 other area Rotary Clubs are grateful as this holiday season starts for the project supporting Down syndrome children in Idlib, Syria. The $21,000 project to buy and operate a shuttle bus to transport the children served by White Hearts Center in Idlib is in full operation just weeks after the funding was provided to them.

The new bus is currently in service with two staff members and a driver. These staff members receive special training on how to interact with children with Down syndrome to ensure their safety.

With this new service, students are included in therapy and community engagement opportunities that previously were inaccessible to them.
Learn more about the amazing people of White Hearts Center at www.whiteheartscenter.com.

Mark S. Fisher, Lake Elmo

 

Thanks for the Hamm preservation district

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the Saint Paul City Council and to the residents of the East Side for the unanimous vote to grant historic designation to the Theodore Hamm Brewing Company Heritage Preservation District on Nov. 5. This decision represents more than a milestone for a development project — it is an affirmation of our shared belief in the future of the East Side and the people who call it home.

As someone who grew up in public housing after my family arrived in this country, I know personally what stable, affordable housing can mean for a family’s sense of dignity, belonging and possibility. My mom worked hard, and our community supported us. Those experiences shaped my values and fuel my commitment to building projects that serve and strengthen neighborhoods, rather than displace them.

The redevelopment of the Hamm’s site is an opportunity to revitalize an iconic place in St. Paul’s history while providing much-needed affordable housing, commercial and community spaces, and green spaces that will be open and welcoming to all. The project is designed to improve connections to Swede Hollow Park and the Bruce Vento Trail, and to create new gathering places that celebrate the East Side’s cultural richness and creativity.

I also appreciate the thoughtful approach St. Paul has taken to urban planning. The city’s removal of parking minimums and encouragement of more walkable, transit-connected development reflects forward-looking leadership. Our plan includes underground parking to meet residents’ needs while promoting a more vibrant, accessible environment.

But most importantly, this project has always been about community. The East Side has consistently voiced its desire for investment that honors its history, supports its families, and invites its future. I am proud that JB Vang is a local, family-owned firm founded and operating in St. Paul and uplifted by the people who live here. We are committed to the long term.

Thank you to the City of St. Paul, community leaders, neighborhood organizations, and the many residents who have shared their time, ideas, concerns and support. Together, we are ensuring that the Hamm’s site will not only be preserved, but renewed — so it can once again serve as a gathering place, a source of pride, and a home for opportunity on the East Side.

J. Kou Vang, Stillwater.
The writer is president and CEO of JB Vang

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President Donald Trump is promoting the idea of sending a $2,000 check to most Americans funded by revenues brought by his tariffs on imports.

The scheme has received a frosty reception from Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress and economists alike, and they are unlikely to happen. If the White House really wants to ease the burden that tariffs have created for lower-income households, then it might want to look to our neighbor to the north, Canada, which has become a global leader in making consumption taxes more equitable.

Tariffs, which total around $200 billion this year through October, are essentially a regressive consumption tax. The duties are paid by importers, which then try to pass their added costs to their customers, which typically increases the prices of imported goods paid by consumers. That’s the tax.

Even when the prices paid are the same across all consumers, the loss of purchasing power is greatest for those with the least income. Because lower-income households already spend a higher share of their income, they must spend an even greater percentage of their incomes when prices rise due to tariffs.

The regressivity of the Trump administration’s tariffs is substantial. The Budget Lab at Yale estimates the costs to consumers in the near term will be 2.4% of annual income for households in the bottom earnings decile. For the top decile, it’s only 0.8% of income. The burden is three times larger for the bottom than the top, so tariffs reinforce the “K-shaped” dynamics in the economy. In addition to being less equitable, regressive taxes magnify the severity of a recession, since a household’s after-tax resources fall faster than their income.

Tariffs are clearly not an ideal way to raise tax revenue. But a better design could mitigate some of the economic harm to lower-income households. Several countries use targeted payments to offset the regressivity of consumption taxes. Canada is a prime example. It pairs a value-added tax on most goods and services with quarterly payments to low- and moderate-income households based on family income, marital status and the number of children.

The purpose is to counteract the regressivity of the tax. The total credits accounted for 12% of consumption tax revenues, according to a government evaluation in 2017. The credits more than offset the cost of the tax for the lowest decile of households by income and reduced the cost for other low and moderate-income households with the relief tapering off as income rises. Pairing the consumption tax with the quarterly credits almost entirely reversed its regressivity. In 2022, the Canadian government doubled the credit for six months to help offset the rise in inflation rates.

A revamp of Trump’s $2,000 payments, guided by Canada’s experience, would require several changes. First, payments should be much smaller and calibrated to the burden caused by the tariffs. The tariffs, according to the Budget Lab, cost households in the lowest decile less than $1,000 annually, and the median household cost is $1,400. Next, to compensate for the regressivity of tariffs, the payment should be tied to household income and phased out as income rises.

Also, a quarterly payment or a monthly payment would be better than a large one-time payment. The smaller, recurring payments would more closely match the extra costs incurred from regular purchases of goods. It would also be less inflationary because it would have a smaller effect on aggregate demand. Research on prior stimulus programs showed that consumers spend more from a large one-time payment than from smaller repeated payments. Smaller, repeated payments also spread the boost to aggregate demand out over time, limiting the risk of inflationary supply-demand imbalances.

Easing the burden of tariff policy on lower-income households is particularly important given other regressive policy changes this year. The Congressional Budget Office estimated how the provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would affect different income groups. While, on average, households were expected to see an increase in resources during the next 10 years from the legislation, those of low-income households were expected to decrease largely due to cuts in Medicaid and food stamps.

The $2,000 checks would be attention-grabbing, but they are poorly targeted and could end up creating even larger affordability problems than the tariffs. The White House needs to be clear about the burden that tariffs as a consumption tax impose and craft policies to lessen the harm on the least well-off. Canada won’t ever be our 51st state, but it can be a role model for our national policy.

Claudia Sahm is the chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Federal Reserve economist. She is the creator of the Sahm rule, a recession indicator

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A son whose father fought Nazis with his brain instead of a gun, and suggestions for children on your holiday gift list brighten our newly white landscape today.

“My Father Against the Nazis”: by Steven E. Mayer (Calumet Editions, $21.99)

There are many books about German Jews fleeing their country as Hitler gained power. But what happened to those who stayed until their last chance to leave?

(Jane Lake Birt / Calumet Editions)

Steven Mayer tells the story of his parents, Paul and Margo, as they grew up, fell in love and married. They finally left Nazi Germany in 1939, eventually making their way to the U.S. In his book, aptly subtitled “Part memoir, part history, part biography, part prophecy,” Mayer’s focus is mostly on his father, with whom he had a difficult relationship.

Paul Mayer was obviously a brilliant man whose future was taken from him by the Nazis. Just when he had received a law degree that would have allowed him to sit on the highest courts, Hitler’s rules against the Jews slowly took effect. It’s heartbreaking to read of how the anti-Jewish laws slowly tightened. Paul would tell of returning his academic robes still in the box because he wasn’t permitted to practice law.

It is hard to read of educated, well-to-do Jews, whose families had lived in Germany for centuries, thinking the Nazis wouldn’t take away their rights. They thought it was Jews from the East who would be targeted. But the Nazis didn’t care. Their laws applied to all who were Jewish.

Taking inspiration from John Dos Passos’ trilogy, Mayer provides a “newsreel,” styled like headlines, to help the reader understand the political events of the period he’s writing about through five generations from the early 1900s to the present day. If you follow his excellent timelines you will have the history of war and politics in the 20th century.

Steven Mayer was 16 in 1959 when he performed in “The Diary of Anne Frank” in the Twin Cities, wearing his father’s coat from his parents’ escape from Germany. When he asked about his paternal grandparents’ fate in a death camp, his father was so overcome with emotion that he revealed depths of trauma that would take decades for Steven to understand.

After the war, when Paul was a U.S. citizen, he was able to help the Jewish cause by becoming part of the intelligence group called “the Ritchie Boys” who helped interrogate Nazi prisoners. This secret U.S. military intelligence unit, composed mostly of Jewish refugees, was trained at Camp Ritchie, Md. Later in life Paul sought justice by working for reparations for Jews who had lost everything under the Third Reich.

“He understood that defeating fascism is not a one-time victory; it is generational work,” Mayer writes of his father.

Mayer, who wrote this book in his Amsterdam canal house, the same city where his parents debated whether to flee Germany, is a consulting psychologist and founder of Minneapolis-based Rainbow Research, dedicated to healing society. His previous book is “How to Save the World: Evaluating Your Choices.”

Mayer will discuss “My Father Against the Nazis” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Inkwell Booksellers Company, 426 E. Hennepin Ave., Mpls.

Teaser quote: A huge part of Paul’s story is the context of growing up in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, one of the most tumultuous and consequential fifty-year periods in Western Civilization.

For the little ones

“All the Stars in the Sky”: by Art Coulson, pictures by Winona Nelson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $19.99)

(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

What does it mean to be “important”? In this intelligent and thoughtful story, Clay wants to be named by his teacher the most important person in the school, but his wise grandma says no one person is more important than his family and community. So begins this story of individualism and responsibility. Told from an indigenous writer’s perspective, it discusses one’s place in the world and how we all light up the sky together.

Coulson’s many books and short stories for children include “Chasing Bigfoot.” After a career in journalism he served as first executive director of the Wilma Mankiller Foundation in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. He divides his time between Minneapolis and the North Woods of Wisconsin. Winona Nelson is a fine artist and illustrator of comics and children’s books. A member of the Ojibwe of Minnesota, she lives in Pennsylvania.

“Read Me a Story: Later I’ll Read You One!”: by Donna Lagorio Montgomery (St. Johns Publishing, $16.95)

(St. Johns Publishing)

Donna Montgomery has written books on a variety of subjects, including “Surviving Motherhood.” In her first illustrated children’s book, she says she wants to let children know the feeling of having a nice family and to give them an idea of happiness.

Her topics range from loving grandparents to how kids entertain themselves when Mom is distracted. We meet the neighborhood woman who gathers kids for walks, and smile at the way Mom embarrasses her child by popping up to take pictures during a school event.

This is a sweet story collection, filled with colorful sketches by the author, aimed at the little ones who still need someone to read to them.

“Go Away, Rock Snot!”: by Story Scouts of Grand Marais (Minnesota Children’s Press, $14.99)

Yes, there is such a thing as Rock Snot. And leave it to the Story Scouts to tell us about it in this paperback published by Anne Brataas, former Pioneer Press science writer and founder of Minnesota Children’s Press. It was co-created by 38 Story Scouts, ages 5 to 10.

(Minnesota Children’s Press)

We learn that Rock Snot is a recently discovered invasive species in northern Minnesota waters, a kind of algae that creates on rocks “gloppy, gross things” called didymo or Rock Snot. It pollutes streams by making thick mats that smother things like insect larvae that fish such as trout love to eat and need to survive.

The book explains the problem, the kids’ science solution (be sure it’s not stuck on boats or anything that goes in the water), and an imaginary solution. There is also an index of science terms and concepts. Color photos and drawings are sure to capture young readers attention.

If you have curious children on your holiday gift list, this is the book for them. It also has impeccable credentials, with collaborating mentors from the Science Museum of Minnesota, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The mission of Minnesota Children’s Press is to mentor rural students’ writing and illustration skills. Story Scouts is its publishing club for work by young people.

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