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Holiday shopping is rarely a picnic. Let’s say you’re playing Santa Claus this year, tasked with picking presents for everyone in the family. Not only do you have to find gifts that match each person’s age, preferences, and interests, but you also have to make sure everything arrives on time. If they’re late, your kids might start questioning Santa’s existence—and you’ll have some explaining to do.
Now imagine a personal assistant steps in to handle it all: scouring the internet for the perfect gift for each person, staying within your budget, placing the orders, and tracking deliveries to ensure they arrive on time. Your kids will believe in the bearded man for at least one more year. All you have to do is share your needs and constraints. That’s what today’s AI agents are poised to do.
AI-powered agents are increasingly taking on the heavy lifting for online shoppers. According to McKinsey, the U.S. business-to-consumer retail market could see up to $1 trillion in revenue from agentic commerce by 2030. Last year saw a massive surge in generative AI traffic to retail sites—between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, traffic from generative AI sources jumped 1,300% compared to 2023. It’s safe to assume that in 2025, the trend will only continue. Retailers are already redesigning their sites to accommodate AI agent–powered shopping.
If you’re gearing up for the holiday season, consider taking advantage of what these AI agents can do. Outsourcing the most tedious part of the holidays will free up time for what really matters: enjoying the season with your loved ones. Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your own AI shopping agent.
Step 1: Spell Out Your Agent’s Mission
One of the beauties of today’s AI tools is their natural language capabilities. You don’t have to know how to code to build an agent or to define what you want it to do.
Before you get started, grab a pen or open your preferred notetaking app, and spell out your agent’s main purpose. So, for example, you might want your agent to:
- Help find gift ideas for the following people, with a budget of $250.
- Compare prices across stores for Labubus
- Recommend gifts for my 45-year-old sister-in-law, who has recently developed an interest in mountain biking.
The purpose can be as general or specific as you want. The more information and criteria you offer an agent, the more pointed its results will be.
Step 2: Choose An Agent-Builder Platform
Once you have an idea of your agent’s missions, the next step is choosing an agent-builder platform. Again, you don’t need to know how to code. Many of today’s platforms enable you to build your personal AI agent with guided prompts or drag-and-drop tools.
Some companies have ready-to-use shopping assistant templates—like Tars Shopping Assistant AI Agent or Lindy AI Shopping Assistant. Or you can build your own smart agent with a platform like ChatGPT (custom GPTs) or Agent X.
I’d recommend getting started with any of the above. Or, you can fairly quickly test them out and choose whichever feels right for you.
Step 3: Add Relevant Shopping Links And Info
Next, it’s time to build the guardrails for your AI-powered shopping experience. Feed your agent its mission(s) and then provide some basic data it can use, such as store URLs, product categories, and gift list ideas, plus any relevant filters, such as budget and brands, stores, or products to avoid.
You might be surprised at how quickly your “AI shopping elf” gets to work.
Step 4: Test And Tweak
AI personal shopping agents are still an emerging category, and like any intelligent assistant, they improve with experience. Before you dive fully into your online shopping adventures, start small. Give your agent a few simple test tasks to see how it performs.
For example, you might ask it to find a good tennis racquet for beginners and see what kind of results it produces. Does it understand your prompt? Does it deliver options that fit your needs? Note how well it interprets your instructions and how effectively it completes the task.
From there, you can adjust your prompts, filters, and data as needed. This early testing phase helps you fine-tune your agent’s behavior and uncover any quirks or glitches before you entrust it with more significant (and likely more expensive) purchases. A few rounds of careful testing will save you both time and frustration once your agent starts shopping for real.
Step 5: Deploy And Reap The Benefits
Once you’re happy with your shopping agent’s performance, it’s time to put it to work and enjoy the benefits. You’ll save time by skipping store trips and endless browsing sessions—and avoid getting lost down online rabbit holes. You’ll probably save money too, by sidestepping impulse buys and “suggested” items you never planned to purchase.
As with anything, shopping is most effective when approached strategically. A well-tuned AI agent helps you do exactly that, making your shopping experience more focused, efficient, and saving time for the stuff that matters.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/aytekintank/2025/11/18/how-to-build-an-ai-shopping-agent-for-your-holiday-shopping/
