Shopping for a new iPhone or Mac will apparently soon come with built-in AI help. Apple is working on a new shopping assistant for the Apple Store app that will use artificial intelligence to answer questions and guide purchases.
The question now is, are shoppers ready for that?
How will the AI shopping assistant work
AI shopping assistants are rapidly becoming a standard feature across online retail. These chatbots can answer questions about products, compare different models, recommend purchases based on a shopper’s needs and even help track down the right accessory or configuration. And it seems Apple is getting into the game.
The Apple Store app’s privacy policy just got a new section titled “Virtual Shopping Assistant.” The company says the feature will use your account information, device identifiers, carrier details, and chat history to personalize responses. And if you allow location access, that gets factored in too.
The assistant will also save your chat transcripts. That way, you can easily pick up the same conversation the next time you open the app. Apple says it will use the data for business analytics, and if you choose to opt in, improve the assistant itself. When available, this setting will be managed under Account > Settings > Chat Improvements in the app itself.
But before sending your chat to unnamed partners, Apple claims it will scrub personal identifiers. While it does not explicitly name names, the wording suggests a third-party AI model could be powering the whole thing.
Testing may already be underway
The virtual shopping assistant isn’t publicly available in the Apple App Store as of now. But the privacy policy has enough details to show that Apple could already be testing the assistant with some users.
For features like these, Apple has followed a similar pattern before. Back in February, it added an AI assistant to its Support app, but even that feature is yet available to every user.
Apple is pushing AI into retail
And this isn’t Apple’s only AI experiment in retail. In May, the company added a chatbot to its internal Sales Coach app. This helped retail employees to answer questions about products with official training materials.
Recently, it was spotted testing a “Live Notes” system at select Apple Stores, using AI to record and summarize Genius Bar sessions.
Will AI sell you stuff?
Not everyone is convinced that it will be helpful. The bigger question is: With access to your account and data, will the assistant serve you or Apple’s bottom line?
To be fair, human staff at the Apple Stores have the same incentive to upsell, but they have generally kept it low-pressure. With AI chatbots, they’ll also want to get customers to buy while also sometimes making things up. This means Apple will still need human oversight to catch bad advice before it reaches your cart.
Whether Apple’s new assistant is a useful shopping companion, a pushier salesperson or a clueless “expert” remains to be seen. We’ll know more once the feature starts showing up in the app.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
