It’s the end of November, and that means it’s time to scour the internet for the best Black Friday deals.
Fortunately, if you’re reading this, you already know that TechRadar is one of the best places online to find a discount; we have journalists all over the world looking for the best ways to save you money.
However, as TechRadar’s AI Senior Writer, I spend a lot of my time testing the newest innovations in the world of artificial intelligence, and this week, OpenAI launched a new upgrade to ChatGPT just in time for the biggest shopping event of the year.
ChatGPT shopping research is a new tool that uses AI to take out the work of doing your own deal hunting, and I gave it a try to see how it compares to a human-curated buying guide.
Hey ChatGPT, find me the best AirPods deals
Yesterday, I wrote about the best AirPods Black Friday deals currently available, so I had AirPods Pro 2 discounts on my mind this morning when I went to test out ChatGPT shopping research.
I decided to enable shopping research (simply click the + button in ChatGPT to select it) and ask a fairly vague, yet easily solvable shopping prompt: “AirPods Black Friday deals.”
ChatGPT started to think, and then asked me a few questions based on my needs, such as what my price range was and which models I was interested in. Then, the AI showed me multiple products in a card-style UI where I could say if I was interested, and if not, why I wasn’t.
Within two minutes, ChatGPT's shopping research provided me with a full shopping guide for AirPods and included the two main discounted deals in the UK at the time of writing. It was pretty impressive, I can’t lie.
Then again, that was an easy test – would it be able to handle a more complicated challenge?
How about something more vague?
Often, when you’re looking for a Black Friday deal, you look for guidance on what the best product and the best discount are. So to test this, I asked ChatGPT shopping research to “Find me a good Black Friday deal on an air fryer for the kitchen.”
Could ChatGPT compete with the excellent information I could find in TechRadar’s best Black Friday air fryer deals article? I pointed ChatGPT in the direction of a dual-chamber air fryer, preferably made by Ninja, because I could see that there were plenty of deals on these already available in the sales.
This time, ChatGPT shopping research took seven minutes to recommend me a product, and while it found one of the best deals on offer at the moment in the UK, it only gave me two options. On TechRadar's human-curated page, meanwhile, we have seven for the UK and the same number for the US.
The experience using ChatGPT shopping research was pretty pleasant; in fact, I quite enjoyed leaving AI to its own devices while I went about my workday. That said, I can’t properly recommend this new AI tool yet, and it’s for the same reason that I don’t think anyone can truly complete tasks using the other research offerings on the market either – namely reliability.
99% isn’t good enough
When you look at TechRadar for a deal this Black Friday, you can be sure that the price has been verified and that the author has done their due diligence to be certain that you won’t find a better price.
With ChatGPT research tools, whether that’s this particular shopping one or deep research, you can never be 100% certain that it isn’t hallucinating in some form along its thought process. And, considering it can make things up, misunderstand situations, and maybe even overlook retailers, you can never know if the deal it’s pointing you towards is actually the best.
ChatGPT shopping research is really well done if you need extra help with making a purchasing decision, but it doesn’t replace the hours and hours spent by humans to update deals posts in real time to ensure you can save the most money possible, or even if a discount isn’t involved, point you towards making a purchase you won’t regret.
After testing out ChatGPT shopping research, I’ve found a newfound appreciation for the work my colleagues and I put in during seasonal sales like Black Friday – whether that’s researching products to ensure they offer the best bang for buck, or scouring the web to check price history. Journalists all around the world, not just on this site, work hard over the holiday period so you don’t have to.
I’ll continue to use shopping research for information and quick product comparisons, but it still requires human research, whether that’s done independently or by using a website with professionals.
At the end of the day, AI is just another resource to help you to save that little bit of cash at this time of the year, and using it alongside other platforms won’t hurt. Just don’t treat ChatGPT shopping research as gospel, or you might end up losing cash, rather than saving it.
Today's best Black Friday deals - quick links
- Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
- Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
- Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
- Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
- Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
- Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
- Lowe's: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
- Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
- Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
- T-Mobile: up to $1,100 off latest iPhone 17
- Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
- Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor
Today's best Black Friday deals - quick links
- Amazon: up to 66% off tech & essentials
- AO: up to £500 off Dyson, Bosch & Hisense
- Argos: up to 50% off appliances, tech & toys
- Boots: save on 1,000s of beauty products
- Currys: deals on Ninja, Shark & Lenovo
- Dell: laptops from £279
- Dyson: up to £550 off vacuums
- EE: Switch 2 bundles from £20/month
- John Lewis: up to 50% off tech & fashion
- Lego: sets & accessories from £2.99
- Samsung: deals on appliances & phones
- Very: up to 40% off tech, toys & fashion
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