ChatGPT and Gemini Race to Sell You Clothes Without Leaving the Chat

Google and OpenAI announced new shopping features almost simultaneously, and that is no coincidence. The fight to become your AI shopping assistant is entering an active phase.

Google has partnered with Gap Inc: the Gemini assistant can now do more than recommend clothes from the group's stores. It can also complete the purchase inside the chat interface. Gap Inc operates Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta. A user asks what to wear for the weekend, and Gemini suggests specific products with prices and a "Buy" button. There is no need to go to the retailer's site.

OpenAI did not stay on the sidelines. The company updated ChatGPT's shopping interface, making product search and comparison more convenient. OpenAI has not yet disclosed details of its partnerships, but the update is clearly aimed at the same segment: users who want a recommendation and want to act on it right away.

The race for shopping traffic has been running for several months. Earlier, Gemini got integrations with Walmart and Target following the same scheme: see a product in the chat, buy it without leaving Gemini. Now Gap Inc, one of the largest apparel retailers in the US, has joined them.

The model looks attractive to everyone involved. Retailers get a new sales channel without having to build their own AI. Google and OpenAI monetize conversational traffic by turning chat sessions into transactions. Users save time; the only question is how far they are willing to trust an algorithm with their purchasing decisions.

The battle for the position of "AI as the point of purchase" is a logical continuation of the war for search traffic. Where the path to a purchase once began with Google Search or Amazon, both players now want to route it through their own chatbot. Whoever first builds a sufficiently broad network of retail partners will win the main shopping channel of the next decade.