Generative AI can enhance shopping experiences, providing more personalized product recommendations. Select retailers such as Mercari are using this technology to build AI-powered shopping assistants, hoping to streamline consumer decision-making. However, with some AI assistants delivering inaccurate or less-than-ideal results, there seems to be a lot left to be desired for customers. In an article for The New York Times, shoppers described engaging with these types of AI, expressing frustration over their experiences.
Olivier Toubia, Glaubinger Professor of Business, summed up what many of these experiences lack: simplicity. In terms of AI technology, Toubia believes that consumers “don’t necessarily want to have five different generative A.I. tools that they would use for different purposes.” Many of the anecdotes from the article reflected this opinion, as consumers wished that AI shopping assistants could provide better results.
Learn more about what consumers want from generative AI and what companies are striving to achieve by adopting the technology.
Mentioned Faculty
Olivier Toubia
Olivier Toubia is the Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research focuses primarily on innovation, customer insights, and creative industries. Specifically, he combines methods from social sciences and data science in order to study human processes such as motivation, choice, and creativity. He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Marketing Science. He teaches Foundations of Innovation, Generative AI for Business and the core marketing course. He received his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Marketing from MIT.