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"As consumers begin to use AI agents to do their shopping..." are people actually doing this? Has anyone here done this?

nlh 1y ago
Great question - similarly, I've seen posts recently (Fly.io's comes to mind) where people are talking about how "swarms of AI agents are using our service". I'd love to learn more about what that actually means - does that mean tool usage from LLMs? Cursor agentic mode? Command-line hints for how to do a deploy? We're entering an era where PR/the press is talking a lot about "AI agents" and I'm not sure that fully matches with the reality of what's going on out there en masse (at the moment).
thenthenthen 1y ago
Scalpers?
nope1000 1y ago
Buying, absolutely not. But I could see a use case of describing your requirements to a product in natural language and it searches matching products and finds places to get them. So using the AI for the thing it's good at: transforming natural language. And not for what it's bad at: making reliable decisions.
mongol 1y ago
I have tried to ask Chat GPT to do "shopping research" for me. I think this is a viable thing. But the actual shopping I want to do myself.
aerostable_slug 1y ago
I would. Me: "Chuck and Lisa are coming over tonight with the kids. Find me a recipe for dinner they'll all like and have the ingredients delivered in time for me to make it. Remind me to turn on the pellet grill if we're using it." It: "It looks like it's going to be a beautiful afternoon. How about reverse seared tri-tip? There's a sale at FoodMerchant..."
- vel0city 1y ago
  10lbs of ribs ordered at the pickup only bbq shop an hour away. 20 gallons of coleslaw ordered from another place delivered to your old address. It sent an improper command to your smoker which is now targeting 900F for the next 20 hours. Perfect for your party of eight people. Don't get me wrong, I truly agree there will probably be a point things will be an agentic future. The same chain of events could have been said about booking travel arrangements a couple of decades ago. But until the rest of meatspace actually moves towards those things being normal these things are still in the realm of fantasy on average.
  - anthonypasq 1y ago
    what makes you think this isnt completely reasonable to accomplish in 5 years?
    - vel0city 1y ago
      Did I give a number? I just said "until the rest of meatspace actually moves towards those things being normal". Is that next year? 5 years? A decade? More? I don't know. But it's not going to be normal tomorrow, I'm pretty certain of that.
- ceejayoz 1y ago
  "I told you Lisa has celiac." "I apologize for any misunderstanding. How about an entire loaf of sourdough?"
  - mindslight 1y ago
    I realize you probably wrote that yourself, but that apology is way too short. You're also missing the context where the previous recommendation was the same sourdough.
    - ceejayoz 1y ago
      Yeah, fair. I figured I'd avoid burning down some rainforest for a joke.
mrdependable 1y ago
I would if I didn't think people on the selling side were paying to get in my shopping basket. In that case, it feels like it would be too easy to get ripped off. Knowing how the world works that is exactly what will happen.
lovich 1y ago
I had two friends give their credit cards to ai agents nearly a year ago and were flabbergasted that anyone else in the group wasn’t immediately hyped to adopt the technology, much less have a problem with it
- jdesmond 1y ago
  what do the agents purchase?
  - lovich 1y ago
    Pizza and shit on Amazon from what I recall. They had some belief that any mistakes “would be fixed” with no further explanation or really ability to even respond to further questioning on who would be doing the fixing, why they would be fixing a mistake caused by someone else’s complete lack of fear of risks, or how that “fix” would mechanically function
kylehotchkiss 1y ago
I use AI to explain brand options in spaces I'm not well versed in (for example, I don't really know how to trust Home Depot's positioning of certain brands, and I just don't trust their store purchasing teams as much as I trust Costcos or Targets). It does OK. It gives me a list that I can branch out and Google from.
haiku2077 1y ago
Yes, I use LLMs to help me buy gifts for friends. It works really well. You type in their personality and interests and a price range and you get several good ideas.
zingababba 1y ago
"As consumers begin to use the AI shopping agents we will create for them using AI coding assistants" - says the AI agent writing the article.

nlh 1y ago

Great question - similarly, I've seen posts recently (Fly.io's comes to mind) where people are talking about how "swarms of AI agents are using our service". I'd love to learn more about what that actually means - does that mean tool usage from LLMs? Cursor agentic mode? Command-line hints for how to do a deploy? We're entering an era where PR/the press is talking a lot about "AI agents" and I'm not sure that fully matches with the reality of what's going on out there en masse (at the moment).

thenthenthen 1y ago

Scalpers?

nope1000 1y ago

Buying, absolutely not. But I could see a use case of describing your requirements to a product in natural language and it searches matching products and finds places to get them. So using the AI for the thing it's good at: transforming natural language. And not for what it's bad at: making reliable decisions.

mongol 1y ago

I have tried to ask Chat GPT to do "shopping research" for me. I think this is a viable thing. But the actual shopping I want to do myself.

aerostable_slug 1y ago

I would. Me: "Chuck and Lisa are coming over tonight with the kids. Find me a recipe for dinner they'll all like and have the ingredients delivered in time for me to make it. Remind me to turn on the pellet grill if we're using it." It: "It looks like it's going to be a beautiful afternoon. How about reverse seared tri-tip? There's a sale at FoodMerchant..."

vel0city 1y ago
10lbs of ribs ordered at the pickup only bbq shop an hour away. 20 gallons of coleslaw ordered from another place delivered to your old address. It sent an improper command to your smoker which is now targeting 900F for the next 20 hours. Perfect for your party of eight people. Don't get me wrong, I truly agree there will probably be a point things will be an agentic future. The same chain of events could have been said about booking travel arrangements a couple of decades ago. But until the rest of meatspace actually moves towards those things being normal these things are still in the realm of fantasy on average.
- anthonypasq 1y ago
  what makes you think this isnt completely reasonable to accomplish in 5 years?
  - vel0city 1y ago
    Did I give a number? I just said "until the rest of meatspace actually moves towards those things being normal". Is that next year? 5 years? A decade? More? I don't know. But it's not going to be normal tomorrow, I'm pretty certain of that.
ceejayoz 1y ago
"I told you Lisa has celiac." "I apologize for any misunderstanding. How about an entire loaf of sourdough?"
- mindslight 1y ago
  I realize you probably wrote that yourself, but that apology is way too short. You're also missing the context where the previous recommendation was the same sourdough.
  - ceejayoz 1y ago
    Yeah, fair. I figured I'd avoid burning down some rainforest for a joke.

mrdependable 1y ago

I would if I didn't think people on the selling side were paying to get in my shopping basket. In that case, it feels like it would be too easy to get ripped off. Knowing how the world works that is exactly what will happen.

lovich 1y ago

I had two friends give their credit cards to ai agents nearly a year ago and were flabbergasted that anyone else in the group wasn’t immediately hyped to adopt the technology, much less have a problem with it

jdesmond 1y ago
what do the agents purchase?
- lovich 1y ago
  Pizza and shit on Amazon from what I recall. They had some belief that any mistakes “would be fixed” with no further explanation or really ability to even respond to further questioning on who would be doing the fixing, why they would be fixing a mistake caused by someone else’s complete lack of fear of risks, or how that “fix” would mechanically function

kylehotchkiss 1y ago

I use AI to explain brand options in spaces I'm not well versed in (for example, I don't really know how to trust Home Depot's positioning of certain brands, and I just don't trust their store purchasing teams as much as I trust Costcos or Targets). It does OK. It gives me a list that I can branch out and Google from.

haiku2077 1y ago

Yes, I use LLMs to help me buy gifts for friends. It works really well. You type in their personality and interests and a price range and you get several good ideas.

zingababba 1y ago

"As consumers begin to use the AI shopping agents we will create for them using AI coding assistants" - says the AI agent writing the article.