Can Google win AI shopping?

Google has quietly embedded AI into the shopping journey for years — from personalised product suggestions to visual search — but without a conversational interface, it felt like passive optimisation, not a new behaviour. Now, with the shift to dialogue-based search, AI is becoming a visible, emotional layer in commerce.

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ChatGPT sparked early interest by reframing interaction as something intuitive and human-like. It gave people the sense they were being guided, not sold to. Google enters with scale and trust, but faces a critical challenge: can it maintain that trust while balancing commercial priorities? If conversational results begin to mirror traditional pay-to-play search, the experience risks feeling transactional, not personalised.

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The opportunity lies in moving beyond relevance to resonance — helping users discover not just what’s popular, but what’s right for them. That requires cultural fluency: an ability to understand taste, tone, and timing. For brands, this shift is profound. It’s no longer enough to rank or retarget — now they must show up in ways that are contextually meaningful and emotionally intelligent.

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Advertising will inevitably enter these spaces, but the formats must evolve. The most effective brand interactions in AI-powered commerce won’t interrupt — they’ll inform, guide, and align with a user’s intent. This is more than a shift in search; it’s a shift in how consumerism is embedded into daily digital behaviour.

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In this new model, a brand’s success won’t be determined by volume or visibility, but by the value it brings to the conversation. Selling becomes secondary. Signalling — with clarity, creativity, and cultural relevance — becomes the true differentiator.

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Catch Nina's comment and full article in Vogue Business.

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Photo by Borislav Maydanyuk on Unsplash

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