6 hours ago
2
Google wants its AI tools to be your personal shopper. And maybe it'll tell you if that shirt really does look good on you or if it actually looks ridiculous.
The company detailed its new AI Mode for shopping at its annual I/O developers conference Tuesday. That includes an improved conversational shopping experience, a checkout feature that allows you to buy when prices are best and the ability to upload a picture of yourself to "try on" clothes you find online.
Read more: Google I/O Live Blog
These new features come less than a month after OpenAI introduced shopping features in ChatGPT Search, a move that appeared to show OpenAI trying to compete more directly with Google's search and shopping features.
The "try on" feature is available starting immediately in Search Labs in the US. It builds on existing "try on" technology, but instead of using a mock-up body type, you can upload a picture of yourself and see what the clothes would look like on you. The function works with shirts, pants, skirts and dresses.
During a live demo, Vidhya Srinivasan, Google's vice president and general manager for ads and commerce, said the company built a custom image generation model specifically for fashion. "To create a try on experience that works at scale, we need a deep understanding of the human body and how clothing works on it," she said.
The AI Mode shopping experience, expected to launch in the coming months, is designed to be more conversational. You'll be able to chat with the AI tool to get more inspiration and find the right product from a wide variety of retailers. Google said its Shopping Graph -- its database of products and retailers online -- now has 50 billion product listings, with more than 2 billion being updated every hour. AI Mode will be able to offer you personalized responses to your queries and then allow you to narrow them down based on your more specific requests. A new right-hand panel in the Shopping Graph will update as you narrow your request.
A new checkout feature, debuting in the coming months, will let you track the price or allow you to look for a specific product at a certain price. You can get notifications for when prices drop and confirm when you're ready to actually buy the product. Google's AI agent will complete the checkout on your behalf through Google Pay.
Google's shopping features will also be able to, for example, track down event tickets across different sites to find the best deal, without you having to search dozens of times for the right site.
