How to use AI as a personal shopping assistant to save money

Executive overview

Shopping research is slow, biased, and often ends in overpaying. AI tools — especially Perplexity and Google's AI mode — can replace hours of tab-switching with a single conversation.

Use AI to compare products, find best prices, surface discount codes, and automate price tracking — all without visiting scammy coupon sites.

AI works best as a shopping concierge when you give it context, not just keywords.

Researching and comparing products

• Start with the problem, not the product: "what do people use to solve X?" surfaces options you'd miss
• Use Perplexity to compare two products; it outputs tables of features, versions, and prices
• Add a third option mid-conversation to pressure-test your shortlist
• Ask "why would I buy A over B?" to get actionable reasoning, not just specs
• Particularly valuable for complex categories (TVs, washing machines) where brands use proprietary names for identical features

Perplexity vs Google AI mode

• Perplexity was built for web search first; ChatGPT uses Bing under the hood as an afterthought
• Google AI mode (at google.com, not the address bar) accepts full-sentence context, not just keywords
• Run the same prompt in both and compare — they often return different results
• AI mode example: "I'm an occasional gamer with PS4 discs, can I play them on PS5?" beats "best PlayStation 2025"

Finding the best price

• Ask for current prices, best available price, and historical lows in the same prompt
• Specify location or budget to filter results (e.g. Melbourne retailers, under $X)
• Historical low data helps you judge whether now is a good time to buy
• If the last low was Black Friday, AI can predict the next likely sale window

Automating price tracking

• ChatGPT and Copilot support scheduled prompts — run a search on a set interval
• Example: "every week, check these 8 retailers for this product; email me if the price drops below $X"
• Removes the need to manually recheck prices over weeks or months

Finding discount codes

• Discount code websites are often spammy and outdated
• Perplexity searches live web and social sources, returning fresher results
• Prompt: "find discount codes for [retailer] or any retailer selling [product]"
• Enable social search in Perplexity to catch codes shared on community forums
• Codes may still be expired — but the experience is faster and cleaner than dedicated coupon sites