When Shopping Starts Talking Back

AI SHOPPING

Google’s new AI trio turns search, buying, and even phone calls into a single fluid conversation.

Google wants to make shopping feel less like work.

This week, the company unveiled a set of AI features that quietly redraw the flow of how we search, choose, and buy.

Conversational product queries, an agent that checks out for you, and an AI that phones stores to confirm stock in real time.

Individually, they seem like conveniences.

Together, they hint at something bigger.

A world where the shopping journey compresses into a single dialogue with Google sitting in the middle of every decision.

So what’s really changing?

Google’s new AI-mode search turns product discovery into a back-and-forth chat.

Instead of keywords, you simply talk: “Find a lightweight winter coat that’s not black, under $150.”

The system responds with curated images, specs, reviews, inventory, and price comparisons.

The real shift is pacing.

You don’t browse; you iterate.

Search is becoming a relationship, not a query.

In the U.S., Google can now complete purchases for you at select retailers (Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, some Shopify merchants).

You approve the order, and the rest (shipping details, Google Pay, confirmation) is handled by the agent.

It turns I want this into I’ll take care of that for you.

Google is quietly inserting itself into the final step of the transaction, the moment of money.

Reviving its Duplex technology, Google’s assistant can now ring local shops to check availability, pricing, and promotions.

It introduces itself as AI, gets the facts, and returns with a summary.

Early categories include toys, beauty, and electronics. It’s mundane, but radical: the digital assistant doing analog legwork.

The boundary between online and offline shopping just dissolved a little more.

There’s something almost intimate about this shift.

Google isn’t just helping us find things; it’s starting to act on our behalf… comparing, confirming, deciding.

Convenience is the headline, but delegation is the subtext.

And delegation always comes with questions.

Whose judgment is being trusted?

Whose incentives shape the options we see?

We’re edging into a world where the assistant has agency and where we may forget how much agency we’ve handed over.

As Google learns to talk, buy, and call for us, the real question becomes simple… in a world of effortless commerce, what choices will still feel truly our own?