AI Transforms Gift Giving

If you’re like me, finding an original gift for that special something gets more difficult every year. We live in a world of plenty, where a large portion of the population no longer has any gifting needs, and often few wants as well. Artificial intelligence can help these difficult gifters, allowing givers to avoid spending hard earned money on unwanted presents and even avoid missing special occasions altogether. 

Different companies are approaching this problem in different ways. One company that has started to use AI to help its customers find gifts for their loved ones is UncommonGoods. Their tool, called Sunny, is a bot that users can feed information, including the recipient’s age group and interests, to help narrow the search to a list of suggested products. UncommonGoods has found that shoppers that utilize Sunny spend an average of 45% more than shoppers that go it on their own. 

Similarly, Alyce is a website that focuses on helping corporate gift givers find the right thank you for their clients. Alyce uses a combination of social data and business goals to help select gifts, and allows the giver to accept, choose a different gift, or give the value of the gift to charity. 

Others have taken a different approach to finding the perfect gift. One such idea includes uploading an image of the gift recipient in their “natural surroundings.” An AI model then looks at the image and all the items contained within it to try and understand what the gift recipient would enjoy receiving. It then matches these suggestions with products that are for sale, providing a link to purchase said gifts. 

No matter the tool, we expect to see this trend of AI-assisted shopping to continue to grow. With 48% of people reporting that they would trust AI to help make personalized gift choices, and 45% of millennials preferring to use AI-assisted shopping over traditional browsing, the future of artificial intelligence and gifting will only get stronger.