I’ve been shopping online for 25 years but I had no idea how ChatGPT and Gemini could change the experience

2025 may be the first, full, official AI Holiday Shopping Season. Generative AI’s deep integration in Google (Gemini) and OpenAI GPT-5-powered ChatGPT’s ability to be a live hub for instant access to the most up-to-date commerce information is set to transform online buying habits. A recent Adobe report predicts a 520% year-over-year increase in AI shopping traffic. These are eye-popping numbers, so I decided to see how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude AI might handle a relatively common online shopping query, but during one of the season’s peak buying moments: Amazon Prime Day Big Deals.

I started with a prompt crafted to be a nice mix of specific and broad. The scenario, buying gifts for friends but trying to maintain some sort of budget, makes sense and could, in fact, be applied to a small family. Here’s what I wrote:

I want to buy five tech gifts for friends and am hoping you can help find the best stuff on Amazon during Prime Day (happening now). The parameters are that they have to be smaller than a bread box, cost less than $100, and be fun or even whimsical. It would be great if each one represents a significant discount.

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While I didn’t provide an overall budget, I constrained ChatGPT and others to a per-gift budget. My note about size was less about cost, though, since very small tech gadgets can cost you thousands. I just wanted to avoid large, silly gifts like a giant keyboard; no friend appreciates a huge present that doesn’t fit neatly in, say, a small studio apartment. In other words, I wanted fun, but considerate tech gifts.

After entering the prompt in ChatGPT (running GPT-5), Claude AI (running Sonnet 4.5), and Google‘s AI Mode (running Gemini 2.5 Pro), Gemini was first out of the gate with a rapid response. Claude took just a beat longer, and ChatGPT ruminated for a while over the query before returning its shopping suggestions.

As you might’ve guessed, the results across the three generative platforms share some similarities, but not as many as you might think. In general, Gemini returned the most varied, and I think, interesting list. Claude is, apparently, a big TechRadar fan and culled all its recommendations from this website’s Prime Day lists.

All followed my prompt closely and did their best to explain how each gadget fit the parameters of the prompt. Google Gemini did the best job of breaking it all down, though. Below, I’ll share all the results and note where the three platforms agreed on one gift.