🛍️ ChatGPT Adds Smarter Shopping

Also: Meta Introduces AI App

Author

Evolving AI
April 30, 2025

Welcome, AI enthusiasts

OpenAI just made shopping smarter and easier! Now, when you search in ChatGPT for products like clothes, gadgets, beauty must-haves, or home essentials, you’ll get personalized tips and direct links to buy. Finding the perfect item has never been this fast and simple. Let’s dive in! 

In today’s insights:

  • ChatGPT Adds Smarter Shopping

  • Meta Introduces AI App

  • Duolingo Transitions to AI-first Model

  • Anthropic Launches Economic Advisory Council

Read time: 5 minutes

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Evolving AI: ChatGPT now enhances shopping searches with personalized product insights and direct buying links.

Key Points:

  • ChatGPT provides tailored product recommendations, complete with images, reviews, and direct purchasing links.

  • The update covers product categories like fashion, electronics, beauty, and home goods.

  • Integration with user memory for personalized shopping suggestions is planned for Pro and Plus subscribers.

Details:

OpenAI has introduced a new ChatGPT search feature focused on improving shopping by recommending products, showing images and reviews, and linking directly to purchase pages. This feature targets categories such as fashion, electronics, beauty, and home items. Ads do not influence results, with recommendations driven by structured third-party metadata. Future updates will integrate user memory to enhance personalized suggestions for subscribers.

Source: OpenAI

Why It Matters:

In 2023, Google earned $175 billion from search and related ads. ChatGPT stepping into that space isn’t just about better recommendations. It’s a shot at how we discover and buy things online. And while OpenAI says these aren’t ads, personalized shopping results could quietly shift toward monetization. If AI becomes the storefront, who controls the shelf?

Evolving AI: Meta introduces its standalone AI assistant app powered by Llama 4 for personal conversations.

Key Points:

  • Meta AI now available as a standalone app focused on voice interactions, powered by the Llama 4 model.

  • Features include personalized responses, image generation/editing, and a Discover feed to share AI prompts.

  • Integration across Meta platforms and devices, from apps like WhatsApp and Instagram to Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Details:

The new Meta AI app provides users with a personal assistant that interacts naturally through voice, supported by full-duplex speech technology for realistic conversations. It integrates seamlessly across Meta’s ecosystem, including social apps and hardware like Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Users in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can explore voice features now, with the app offering personalized AI experiences based on shared interests and social connections.

The Meta AI app is available on iOS (link →) and Android (link →).

Meta’s App will also be available for Web at https://www.meta.ai/

Why It Matters:

Meta doesn’t just want to build a better assistant — it wants to own how we interface with AI. This app is the missing link between its platforms and its hardware, especially the Ray-Ban glasses. Meta’s endgame isn’t a chatbot — it’s a world where you talk to AI, hands-free, all day, without pulling out your phone. This is the start of that vision.

Source: Duolingo

Evolving AI: Duolingo plans to phase out contractors as AI handles more content tasks.

Key Points:

  • Duolingo announces shift to an AI-first approach.

  • Contractors' roles will gradually be replaced by AI solutions.

  • AI will increasingly manage content creation and administrative processes.

Details:

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn announced the company's strategic pivot to becoming "AI-first," signaling significant operational changes. Duolingo intends to phase out the use of contract workers for tasks that AI systems can manage, applying AI to hiring processes, performance reviews, and content creation. This shift aims to eliminate repetitive tasks, enabling employees to focus on creative and complex issues, and to rapidly scale educational content to reach more learners.

Why It Matters:

This follows Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke's directive requiring teams to justify new hires by proving AI can't perform the tasks — a policy that has sparked both interest and concern across the industry.​ While such shifts may face criticism, they're indicative of a broader reality: many companies are quietly integrating AI to streamline operations and reduce costs. As AI becomes more embedded in workflows, professionals across sectors need to adapt, acquiring AI competencies to remain relevant in an evolving job market.

Evolving AI: Anthropic forms council to guide AI's economic impact.

Key Points:

  • Anthropic introduces an Economic Advisory Council of leading economists.

  • The council will assess AI's impact on labor markets and economic growth.

  • Insights from the council will shape the Anthropic Economic Index research.

Details:

Anthropic has assembled the Economic Advisory Council, composed of distinguished economists from top research institutions and governmental organizations. The Council’s primary role will be to offer expert analysis on how artificial intelligence is reshaping labor markets, influencing economic growth, and affecting global socioeconomic systems. Their insights will directly influence the Anthropic Economic Index, a critical resource for policymakers and businesses worldwide.

Why It Matters:

This isn’t just another AI ethics panel. Anthropic is putting economists — people who study systems, incentives, and power — at the center of its strategy. That’s a shift. AI is no longer just a tech problem; it’s a macroeconomic force. By launching an Economic Index and convening this council, Anthropic is trying to get ahead of the narrative. Who wins, who loses, and how policy should respond. That’s what’s on the table.

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