JD Sports said it plans to allow customers to purchase products directly through the AI platform without leaving the app.
The British trainer and sportswear company will enable “one-click buying” through platforms such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot as major retailers look to embrace AI-powered shopping.
The technology will launch in the U.S. in the coming months, with potential expansion to other regions, the company said.
Jetan Chowk, chief technology officer at JD Sports, told PA Media that AI is “the future of how people shop”.
“What we’re seeing now is that customers are regularly using AI apps to research and find the products they want to buy,” he said. “We already recognize that and want to be able to act early to meet our customers and their needs in that space.”
He said AI usage is rapidly increasing among shoppers aged 18 to 24, the retailer’s core target demographic.
A study by advisory firm KPMG last year found that 30% of people aged 25 to 34 use an AI-enabled chatbot to find deals online.
These large-scale language models enable users to ask questions in conversational language. The platform can provide specific product suggestions after collecting relevant information from the internet and built-in datasets. Some sources are given a more trustworthy status than others.
Several UK retailers have told the Guardian that they are working on generative engine optimization, the latest version of search engine optimization, to boost their companies to the top of AI chatbot search results.
Tactics include ensuring visibility on Reddit forums, responding to reviews on Google and Trustpilot, and ensuring AI models have access to the correct product data.
This poses new challenges for retailers competing for online business, while also eroding Google’s dominance in traditional search traffic for shopping.
Google has been developing its own AI capabilities, and on Sunday announced it had partnered with several major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, to enable shopping within its Gemini AI chatbot. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said customers “will soon be able to experience everything they love about Walmart right in the Gemini app.”
Consumers are also increasingly using AI agents (autonomous digital secretaries) to assist them with online shopping. Last year, OpenAI, Perplexity, Google, and Microsoft launched AI capabilities that allow users to search for products through chatbots, using agents who can complete orders on behalf of consumers.
JD is scheduled to report fourth quarter trading after the important Christmas period on January 21st. The company announced late last year that youth unemployment in the UK was hitting sales and profits.
