AI news story

Meta tests AI-powered shopping search to compete with ChatGPT and Gemini

Meta is testing a shopping research feature in its Meta AI chatbot designed to compete with similar tools from OpenAI's Chat…

  • LLMs
  • Source: The Decoder
  • Published: 2026-03-03

Editor's take

Meta is integrating AI-driven product discovery into its Meta AI chatbot, aiming to offer a distinct shopping search experience.

This move signals a significant push by Meta to monetize its AI investments beyond social media engagement, directly challenging OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in the lucrative e-commerce search sector. The success of this feature could redefine how consumers research and purchase goods online, potentially diverting ad revenue from traditional search engines to social platforms.

Future developments to monitor include the accuracy and breadth of product recommendations, Meta's ability to translate search intent into actual purchases within its ecosystem, and how competitors like Amazon might respond to this encroaching threat to their established online retail dominance.