Microsoft is adding extra AI-powered shopping tools to its Bing browser, designed to make finding, shopping for and saving money on products easier for users.
First up is a new “Buying Guide” feature for Bing that uses AI to generate a tailored list of products based on prompts and across different categories. For example, if you’re looking for back to school products, Bing will generate product suggestions and show the specifications of multiple, similar items next to each other in a smart compare table to save users clicking around different sites.
In the back to school instance, a Buying Guide might cover everything from laptops to headphones to backpacks and is accessible in the Edge sidebar or in Bing Chat. Buying Guides in Bing are available now in the US and will be rolling out to other markets over time. Buying Guides in Edge are starting to roll out worldwide.
Bing Chat will also be able to briefly summarise product reviews, making it easier and quicker to find information on products. For instance, summarised headphones reviews can surface information on sound quality, fit and device compatibility. This is starting to roll out today.
Finally, a new Price Match feature can monitor a product’s price in real time in partnership with “top US retailers” and existing price match policies. These are built straight into the Bing browser. Bing Chat will also be able to find coupons and deals for products and Package Tracking also keeps tabs on purchases from the Edge sidebar. Price Match will be rolling out soon in the US. Price History, Price Comparison, Coupons, Cashback, and Package Tracking are already available in select markets and built-in to Edge.
These new shopping features make Bing a more viable rival to Google’s Search and its online retail dominance. However, given that the tools are AI-powered, there might be precious little that retailers and marketers will be able to do to optimise their listings for surfacing within Bing’s system.
