My AI shopping assistants are stuck in the past

All I wanted was a new smartwatch. I had a couple in mind, like the Google Pixel Watch 4 or the Garmin Vivoactive 6, but my AI shopping buddies seemed really convinced watches from a couple years ago were the way to go.

Over the past month, OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, and Microsoft have all introduced new shopping features on their AI platforms, right in time for the holiday shopping season. ChatGPT can generate a personalized buying guide for you. Copilot will help you track prices. Gemini will even call local stores for you.

After asking four different AI bots to help me find a new watch, I’m more impressed than I expected, but also pretty disappointed. Each AI got a few things right, but the hiccups are both funny and crippling.

I asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Copilot the same question to start off my search: “Can you help me find a good Android smartwatch for my Nothing CMF Phone 1?” From there, I let each AI guide me through the research and shopping process.

ChatGPT was the most conversational, and its new Shopping Research feature was the most involved and in-depth of the four AI models. It asked me what features mattered most to me (design and battery life) and showed me a dozen or so products to rate (“more/less like this”), then compiled a list of recommendations complete with a specs comparison chart. Afterward, it gave me a few links to deals on the top watch it suggested, the Garmin Vivoactive 5. The whole process took around 10 minutes.

The Fitbit Versa 4, Google Pixel Watch 3, and Ticwatch Pro 5 were also in ChatGPT’s recommendations for me. It was able to compare battery life, app compatibility, prices, and “best for” use cases for each, like “daily use,” “budget friendly,” or “strong Android integration.”

I wouldn’t normally turn to AI for help shopping for tech, but I can see how a feature like this could be useful to someone who isn’t sure what they’re looking for or where to start. Unfortunately, if I had trusted ChatGPT’s suggestions, I could have ended up with a last-generation Garmin watch, instead of the more recent Garmin Vivoactive 6.

To be fair to ChatGPT, I didn’t specify “latest,” and the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is still widely available at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. However, the newer Vivoactive 6 has some advantages that could have been deal-breakers, like more storage, GPS improvements, and new features like Smart Alarm. You might still go with the Vivoactive 5, especially if you want to save some money, but it could still be important to know what you’re sacrificing or just have more options to compare to.

This issue cropped up on all four AI models, to varying degrees. Gemini suggested the “latest model” of a few watches, including the CMF Watch Pro 3, but also gave me a comparison chart for three top recommendations, all of which were from 2023 and 2022, including the Google Pixel Watch 2, which has been updated a couple of times now. Is the Pixel Watch 2 still out there for less money than the newer Pixel Watch 4? Sure. But it also has less battery life, uses an older charging setup, has thicker bezels, runs on an older processor, and only comes in one size instead of two.

Perplexity suggested the most recent Pixel Watch 4, but also pointed me toward the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4… from 2021. Things got really interesting in Perplexity’s shopping tab, where the “More Products” section included a pile of cheap off-brand watches and even a phone. Perplexity made it easiest to get to actual purchasing links, though, which took longer to arrive at on ChatGPT and Gemini. If I had wanted a $7 “Smart Watch with Bluetooth Call,” I’d be in business.

Copilot immediately suggested the CMF Watch Pro 2, which is specifically designed to pair with my CMF Phone 1, but was left out of most of the recommendations the other AI models gave me. Unfortunately, Copilot still overlooked the more recent CMF Watch Pro 3. However, I found Copilot’s shopping sidebar the most useful. It included a price history, aggregated pros and cons from Amazon reviews, a few different purchasing links, and an option to get price tracking notifications.

Each AI successfully pulled up the CMF Watch Pro 3 when I tweaked my question to, “What are the best current smartwatches for the Nothing CMF Phone 1?” However, they continued suggesting older smartwatches alongside the Watch Pro 3. Again, the CMF Watch Pro 2 is still available and might be the right choice for some people. The AI models might even be pulling up older watches simply because newer models have fewer reviews.

Still, you wouldn’t necessarily know you might be missing out on a more recent iteration of any of these products unless you specifically ask the AI for the “current” or “latest” front-runners. In contrast, if you read one of our reviews or watch a comparison video made by a real person, they’ll explain why you might (or might not) want the latest version of a product. AI can sometimes get there if you dig a bit for it, but it’s pretty hit-or-miss.

Then there’s Google’s “Call for me” feature, which lets you send robocalls to local stores to see if they have the product you’re looking for. I had to use the Google app on my phone to get to this feature (rather than Gemini), and add “near me” or “nearby” at the end of my search query. When you scroll down in the location-specific results, you should see an option to let Google call for you, after asking you to confirm the details for your location and product request.

After waiting 15 minutes for Google to fire off those phone calls, it emailed me to let me know that every store it called doesn’t sell Garmin smartwatches. Perfect.

All these AI shopping tools might sound helpful on paper, but in practice, they aren’t sticking the landing. They seem to be pulling from product data that’s a couple of years old at this point, while also confidently giving you recommendations. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it could be easy to end up with an outdated product, or even just miss out on newer options the AI doesn’t realize exist.

The issue of time is enough of a deal breaker here that it makes it tough to recommend using any of these AI shopping helpers, at least right now. A couple of them are on the right track, particularly ChatGPT and Copilot, but they’re not suggesting current top picks often enough to replace up-to-date buying guides written by real people. For now, I’ll do my own smartwatch research.