I Shopping Assistants Are Here — But Niche Startups Aren’t Worried (Yet)
As the 2025 holiday shopping season approaches, two of the biggest names in generative AI — OpenAI and Perplexity AI — have quietly begun rolling out AI-powered shopping assistants inside their chat interfaces. On paper, this seems like a direct threat to smaller, startup-driven shopping tools. But some founders of those niche platforms don’t seem particularly concerned.
Here’s why — and what it says about the future of AI commerce.
🛒 What OpenAI and Perplexity Are Rolling Out
- OpenAI now lets users converse with its chatbot (e.g. ask for a “gaming laptop under $1000 with a 15-inch+ screen”) — even allowing them to show photos of expensive items for cheaper alternatives. ([TechCrunch][1])
- Perplexity’s version leans into personalized context: the assistant “remembers” user details (e.g. where they live, their work), leading to more tailored suggestions. ([TechCrunch][1])
- These launches come at a strategic time: forecasting from Adobe predicts a 520% growth in AI-assisted online shopping this holiday season — a surge ripe for disruption. ([TechCrunch][1])
- Importantly, both outfits have structural advantages: vast existing user bases and integrations (e.g. payments, vendor networks), enabling a smooth “search-to-checkout” experience. ([TechCrunch][1])
Why Small, Niche Startups Are Still Confident
Contrast this with early-stage AI-shopping startups — think domain-specialized players focused on fashion, furniture, or other verticals. According to their founders:
- A generic large language model (LLM) paired with broad search indexes (like Google/Bing) can only deliver so much. As one startup CEO put it: “Any model or knowledge graph is only as good as its data sources.” ([TechCrunch][1])
- Niche platforms often build proprietary, cleaner datasets tailored to a specific domain — e.g. furniture, fashion — enabling better matching of products against consumer taste and context. ([TechCrunch][1])
- For emotionally driven or highly aesthetic purchases — like clothing or decor — domain knowledge around silhouettes, materials, style, and user history remains critical, and isn’t easily replaced by general-purpose AI. ([TechCrunch][1])
For example, one furniture-focused startup founder argued that unless a tool invests heavily in vertical-specific data and design logic, it will struggle to compete against giants that rely only on off-the-shelf LLMs. ([TechCrunch][1])
What This Means for AI-Driven E-Commerce
| 📈 Trend | 🔍 Interpretation |
|---|---|
| Explosion in AI-aided holiday shopping (Adobe’s 520% forecast) | Broad adoption potential — but convenience and volume may trump depth. |
| Big AIs embedding shopping directly in chat + checkout flows | Lower friction: users don’t need to open multiple apps or sites. |
| Niche players double down on curated databases and vertical expertise | Specialized tools may survive — or even thrive — in areas requiring nuance. |
| Startups emphasize domain knowledge over general-purpose models | “Vertical AI” remains relevant where taste, style, and curation matter. |
In short: the convenience and scale of OpenAI and Perplexity’s offerings could reshape many aspects of online shopping. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the end for specialized startups. Instead, we might be entering a layered marketplace — where generalist AIs serve broad needs, and niche players deliver depth and personalized value.
Glossary
- Large Language Model (LLM): A type of AI model trained on massive text datasets, enabling it to generate human-like text or answer diverse questions.
- Vertical (or Vertical AI): An AI tool or startup focused on a narrow domain (e.g. fashion, furniture), often using specialized data or rules tailored to that domain.
- Knowledge Graph: A structured representation of entities (like products, people, concepts) and relationships between them — used to enhance search, recommendations, and contextual understanding.
Why This Matters to You
If you’re a consumer: these tools could make shopping more intuitive — skipping between discovery, recommendation, and checkout without leaving chat. If you’re a startup builder or investor: specialized vertical AI platforms still have a shot — especially when they lean heavily on curated data and domain-specific expertise.
As AI reshapes e-commerce, the battle won’t just be about scale — but about specialization, curation, and user trust.
| [1]: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/25/openai-and-perplexity-are-launching-ai-shopping-assistants-but-competing-startups-arent-sweating-it/ “OpenAI and Perplexity are launching AI shopping assistants, but competing startups aren’t sweating it | TechCrunch” |
