NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast - Santa’s New Helper: How AI Can Help You Wrap Up Your Holiday Shopping

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Learn how AI tools can help you brainstorm personalized gift ideas, compare options, and simplify your holiday shopping. How can AI help you save time and money? Should you trust AI for gift-giving advice? Hosts Tess Vigeland and Anna Helhoski explore how artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can streamline holiday shopping. Joined by NerdWallet experts Amanda Barroso and Kurt Woock, they offer actionable tips for integrating AI into your shopping routine while staying cautious about its limitations. They discuss how AI can generate gift ideas tailored to your budget and preferences, provide practical starting points for decision-making, and even organize comparisons in easy-to-read formats. In addition to the AI discussion, Tess and Anna recap the latest financial headlines, including the upcoming Black Friday Amazon worker strikes, the surprising drop in Thanksgiving dinner costs this year, and a rise in existing home sales as mortgage rates decline.  In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: holiday shopping, AI shopping tools, Black Friday shopping, shopping with ChatGPT, using ChatGPT for holiday gift ideas, AI gift recommendations, online shopping, Christmas shopping, holiday sales, AI-generated gift ideas, personalized gift ideas, AI holiday planning, smart shopping with AI, time-saving holiday tips, and AI-driven gift ideas. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [e-mail]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend.

Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Tess Vigeland in for Sean Piles. And I'm Anna Hilhoski. And this is our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money. We'll go deep into a single topic, then leave you with the latest money headlines. And today we're talking about AI. And shopping. And AI. I think you and I can maybe just sleep for the rest of today's episode and, you know, let the robot overlords take over. Yeah, I have a better idea. Let's bring on some nerds to talk about how we can use AI to help us with our holiday shopping. Oh yeah, I like that. That's much better. So for today's very special pre-Black

Friday episode, we welcome not one, but two fellow nerds to the microphone. Amanda Barroso covers consumer credit for us here at NerdWallet, and Kurt Wook covers mortgages, but more to the point is NerdWallet's chat GPT experimenter-in-chief. Hey there to both of you. Hey Tess. Hi. So have either or both of you been just waiting for Black Friday to do your holiday shopping? Or are you maybe done already with the help of artificial intelligence? I still have a few things to get, but I mostly know what those things are going to be at this point. I'm also one of those weirdos who starts making gift lists like at the end of summer and starts buying gifts really slowly over the next few months. But But you know, things do ramp up for me during Black Friday. And there are some

things on my list for sure. Waiting for the sales. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, Amanda, why don't you start us off here? Why are we talking about AI? Many of us are tight on time during the holiday season. I don't know about you guys, but I have like a million lists running in my head of things I have to do, including finding the right gifts for all the people in my life. So this is where I was thinking AI could come in. What if you could use this new technology to input a few things about the person you want to buy a gift for? So let's say their favorite food, a hobby they love, their favorite author, or even their shirt size, and get a list of potential items to sort through. AI is really good at brainstorming.

So if you're struggling with what to buy for your mother-in-law, for example, you can use this as a tool. Maybe you have a few vague ideas of what somebody likes, but want a few more specific options. Or maybe you want something that falls in a specific price range, and AI can help narrow down your options a bit. Here's what we propose. Rather than sort of spin your wheels, trying to think of the perfect gift, only to settle on something that's just okay because you felt rushed or stumped. I've been there lots of times. You don't feel great about the gift, but at least you had one, right? Let's stop that. Let's stop on our tracks and let's get some of

that time back by using AI and get something that really fits the person that you're looking to buy the gift for. I'm all for anything that stops the spinning of the wheels. This might be some folks' first time experimenting with AI of really any kind. So where do you suggest people go to get started? We recommend OpenAI's ChatGPT, and it has a good free version that's easy to use. And frankly, it's what we use here at NerdWallet. But there are others such as Claude and Google's Gemini that folks can explore. I think the easiest way to get started with ChatGPT is on its website. So you'll first need to create a username and a login. And once you're logged in,

it looks sort of just like a messaging app that you're used to or a chatbot. You can just start your query right in that message box. You can also access ChatGPT by downloading the app if you'd rather use your phone or your tablet. And there's also a desktop app if you're a laptop girl. You can find those apps through the Apple Store or through Google Play. Just remember that this is a rapidly changing technology with new versions being released constantly. So if you downloaded it two weeks ago, you might have to install updates next time you log in. So here's what I don't understand as a newbie to this world. If you have to enter a query anyway,

why use ChatGPT rather than Google or Reddit or a review site? So if you Google something and you don't like those top few links that you get on the results page, you're probably just going to start your search right over again with a different set of words. But with artificial intelligence, that one-off search is replaced by something that feels a bit more like a conversation. So you can drill down into what you're after. And sometimes that means telling ChatGPT more about what you want. And sometimes it means telling ChatGPT

why you didn't like the answer it gave you. And all that feedback gets fed back into it. And then a new, hopefully better result comes back to you. Something that's also a bit different between ChatGPT and Google is your tone. This is something I've had to like kind of tell myself as I've been using it more. I'm like, okay, Amanda, don't be afraid to tell chatGBt what to do. Like you can

be a little bit bossy and a little firm. Fun. Yeah, right? So here's an example of what that might sound like from my own life. I opened Google and I might type something like best toys for five-year-old girls. But with ChatGPT, I'd start with something like create a list of the top 10 toys for five-year-old girls that cost $50 or less. Don't include anything that makes sound. Parents, if you know, you know. It would be awesome if each toy had an educational element. Every toy on the list should have a minimum average rating of four stars on sites like Amazon or Target. In this example, not only is my starting point more of a command with Google, what are the best toys versus create a list and don't include. So your starting point is more of a command than a question. But it's also got a lot more hoops for chat GPT to jump

through. It's really a lot more specific. Exactly. Can we work through an example of finding a holiday gift together? Yes. And this is exactly why I called Kurt because you are so good at this. Let's walk through what an example of this might look like. Let's think first about someone who has no idea what to get someone on their list. Let's say a child in their life.

Likely, we will all be buying a toy of some kind this holiday season. Let's start by using ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner. Okay, so we're actually going to go to ChatGPT now. Yes. Okay. Here's the first prompt I'm giving to ChatGPT. I need to buy a gift for a six-year-old. They like world-building toys like train sets, Legos, and blocks. Can you help me think of ideas? Make a list of toys up to $50 and another list of toys between $50 and $100 and put five toys on each list. I know we got to give it a little bit of time here. You mean it's not instantaneous? Okay, maybe there's enough time now for the robots. Kurt, has it responded?

What did you get? Yeah, I just got exactly what I asked for. I have two lists of five toys, and there's even a 10-word summary for each toy that it gave me. Wow. Are any of the ideas good? I like about three of them. Just three?

None of these are bad, or none of these are out of left field, but only three really caught my attention. And that's just me. That could obviously be different for anybody. Is three out of 10 a good result? After this stage, after this first query, it doesn't matter too much. Why do you say that? Because I wasn't planning to go shopping right after this first question. I almost assume the first question is going to lead to a second

and third. So I think of this step, the first question or the first prompt you give ChatGPT as a way for ChatGPT to give me something to react to. Now that I have the results, I told ChatGPT which of those three toys I liked. And then I asked it to make a new list with new toys, all of which resemble these three toys that stood out to me. So you've kind of narrowed it down. Is this new list getting closer to what you're looking for? Yeah, now I actually like about half of the toys it suggested to me. And a few came off as just a little young for the person I'm thinking of. So I told ChatGPT that and asked it to build me another list. Okay, so what happens next? Well, let me ask

you, if you Google something and see a lot of interesting results, what do you do? I'd probably go open a bunch of new tabs to search for them. Yeah, that's everybody. Me too, right? So I want to start comparing prices, reader reviews, stuff like that. And it's going to mean me opening up everything and reading. I'm comparing. But with ChatGPT, instead of clicking between all of those windows, I'm just going to essentially ask ChatGPT to do all of that. You can even ask it to dump all that info into a table so you can kind of compare things more easily. Tell us how do you do that? Kind of like you said, Amanda, just be direct. I just said, create a table for these toys. And I'm going to also ask ChatGPT to

add the lowest price it can find. I also want a link to a website where it's finding that price. Also, I'm going to ask it for each of these toys, how many pieces come with it? Because sometimes a toy with a lot of pieces can make a really big impression on a kid. But if you're the one who's going to be tripping over the pieces, maybe you want to find a toy with fewer pieces. Legos, ouch. Exactly. What do these feel like? What am I going to expect with this toy? So I did that. And then I'm also actually going to ask if there's a recommended age or age range for each toy, because I want this toy to last. I don't want this just to be a one year toy. I like this. You're really getting into the weeds. I'm curious. Okay, now we've given it a little bit of time. I'm wondering, did that work? Yes and no. Definitely got a table and it

filled it out. But it only included one of those two lists. Remember, I gave it two different price ranges and only included one. And I'm clicking on some of the links here and not all of them go to the product page. Some of them just go to the homepage like amazon.com. The prices are close, but sometimes they don't match exactly what ChatGPT said in the table. Kurt, is that a deal breaker for you? I mean, if I see one price advertised, but then it's a different price when I actually get to the website, I might not be too happy. Yeah, me too.

I try to keep in mind that this company, ChatGPT, it's not selling me anything or acting as an advertiser. Well, not just yet. Right. Who knows how these technologies and the business models are going to evolve in the years ahead. But for now, I'm fine if they make a few mistakes. They're not promising me these prices. They're just trying to find them for me. The toys, right, it suggested actually exist. The prices, even if they were a little wrong, were generally in line with what I'm seeing here online. And I remind myself that the goal of this exercise isn't to see if AI is sentient yet. It's really just to find a cool toy.

So in less than five minutes, I have a list of 10 solid ideas I didn't have before. And I can go and make that final decision on my own. And you didn't have to click through 15 tabs, which is a small holiday miracle. Exactly. Let's think about this, right? We are NerdWallet. We are trying to help people save time, but also money this holiday season. So is there any way to save money by using AI? You know, I've tried using this to check for coupon codes or maybe preview Black Friday deals, but I didn't get too far with that. That's kind of a bummer. Maybe next year

we'll be recording an episode about how we can do that. Maybe next year. That kind of sounds like the next frontier, the next maybe obvious step when it comes to this kind of thing. Yeah, keep an eye out, right? It's always being updated. I did get some promising alternatives when I said I liked a certain toy, but it was above my budget. I also asked for ideas to make gifts more personal, right? Making a homemade element or something. And I got a few good ideas that way, too. I was gonna say, are they good? Because we've all seen the website Pinterest fails. And like, you know, crafting this is maybe not all of our strong suits. They were hit and miss.

But with gifts, you usually only need one good idea. Kurt and Amanda, is there anything people should watch out for when it comes to using AI? Just keep your expectations in check, I'd say. It's not going to find you the perfect gift every time. Maybe think about ChatGPT or another AI as a friend who's a really great gift giver. And you have a conversation with them, they might not know everything about your friends and your family. Maybe they're really thoughtful and knowledgeable about different types of gifts. And the more you share with it, the more helpful

it can be. The other tip I think I have is don't trust every result. AI is known for having ingrained biases, errors, and using stereotypes in its results. So this is something that's fairly low stakes, gift giving, but you're still going to need to assess and likely do some additional investigating before making a final decision. One last thing I think people should know is that the questions that you type into ChatGPT are used to train the models. If you're nervous about privacy and how your questions will be used or shared, you can use what's called the temporary chat, which is found in the drop down menu, and your content won't be recorded or used to train the models.

All good advice. And you know, honestly, I mean, we can't get upset with ChatGPT for not giving us the perfect idea because isn't some of that supposed to be up to us? Exactly. Right. Kurt Wook and Amanda Barroso, thank you so much for helping us out today. It's been fun. And happy Thanksgiving. Oh, you too, Tess. Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving. Up next, a few money headlines from the last few days. Well, Anna, if folks end up using AI to do their holiday shopping on Amazon,

they'll be doing it in the midst of a labor action against the company. Yeah, Amazon employees in 20 countries are planning to protest or even strike against the company on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Yeah, it's part of a campaign called Make Amazon Pay, launched by a coalition of international workers' rights groups. They say the protests are an effort to focus attention on wages and employee treatment, as well as Amazon's environmental sustainability record and corporate tax breaks. It's the fourth year of the Make Amazon Pay campaign that coincides with

one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Thousands of workers are expected to take part in the job actions. If you're wondering how that might affect your Amazon orders, it's highly unlikely to have an impact. As of the second quarter of this year, Amazon had more than 1.5 million full and part-time global employees. All right, Ana, this is the one time of year I'll do this. Gobble, gobble. Yes, Turkey Day is upon us. Tomorrow, in fact, if you haven't thought out your bird yet, well, maybe just do a sidesgiving. With or without the bird, the dinner on average will cost less this year than it did last year. Well, that's just gravy, isn't it?

The American Farm, sorry folks, the American Farm Bureau Federation issued its yearly Thanksgiving dinner cost analysis and the average this year to serve 10 people is $58.08. That's down from $61.71 last year and $64.05 in 2022. But it's still 19% higher than the pre-pandemic feast in 2019. And here's what goes into that average dinner. Turkey, cranberries, sweet potato, carrots and celery, green peas, pie shells, cube stuffing, dinner rolls, pumpkin pie mix, whole milk, and whipping cream. I have indigestion just from that list. There is more if you want it.

The Farm Bureau has an add-on menu that includes ham, potatoes, and frozen green beans, which would add $19.26 to the bill for 10 people. Wait, since when are mashed potatoes not part of the dinner and an add-on? Or green bean casserole, for that matter. We protest. And Anna, on our way over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house, we might pass some areas where folks have new neighbors. Yeah, the latest figures from the National Association of Realtors show sales of existing homes rose 3.4% from September to October.

And sales were up 2.9% from a year ago, likely due to a drop in mortgage rates. But folks are still paying more than they were at this time last year. The median price for those existing homes was $407,200, up 4% from October of last year. One final note here, you may have heard about President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to slap a 25% tariff on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico and 10% on goods from China. We'll have an explainer on what tariffs are and what that potentially means for your finances for this week's money news. We always welcome your money questions and comments. Turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or send us a voice memo at podcast at nerdwallet.com. And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.

Today's episode was produced by Tess and edited by Rick VanderKnecht. And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances. And Anna, happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving, Tess. And with that said, until until next time turn to the nerds