Why Kiwi brands must win over the bot in order to win the shopper

Saturday, 6 December 2025

Black Friday shoppers wait in line to enter Macy's flagship store in New York. The post-Thanksgiving shopping spree has moved to another level in recent years, thanks to the rise of AI shopping assistants, writes Mike O’Donnell.

Mike “MOD” O'Donnell is a US-based commentator with extensive experience as a director and adviser to New Zealand businesses. He is currently NZTE’s regional trade director for North America. This column represents his personal opinions.

OPINION: This week I had my first American Thanksgiving.

The holiday which originates from the first harvest feasts in 17th century New England has evolved into a day when American families and friends gather to express gratitude for the year’s blessings over a big feed. I had mine with an eclectic group of antipodean orphans pulled together by a couple of generous expats with an Argentinian twist.

With that feast now behind us, I found myself looking down the 10 gauge barrels of Black Friday, the merciless onslaught of deep discounts, both in main street USA and across every digital format. And the range of offers is extensive – from house washes to 100 inch TVs and a year’s supply of toilet paper (only $14.99!).

America’s holiday season is not a straight line, it is a cardiac rhythm. First the warm familial heartbeat of Thanksgiving, “I’m grateful for you”, then the sudden tachycardia of Black Friday, “GET OUT OF MY WAY BOZO, THAT AIR FRYER IS MINE”, peaking again on Christmas morning in a frenzy of wrapping paper and small-part choking hazards, before gently tapering off into the New Year’s Day fog of regret and returns. And the realisation you don’t have a date.

For decades, that chaos belonged to humans: parents, retail clerks and the occasional taser-wielding mall cop. Now the machines have joined the party, and they are better organised.

This year, Target, Walmart, Ralph Lauren and just about any retailer with a pulse have unveiled AI shopping assistants. Not the old-school customer service chatbots that only knew how to apologise for the inconvenience. These are conversational stylists. They will source matching family pyjamas. They will summarise 1200 customer reviews into a polite, “yes, Karen, the air-frier basket can be removed and washed”.

A file photo of a Walmart store during a Black Friday promotion. Anyone wanting to sell into the US market must now be geared up to target bots as well as humans, writes Mike O’Donnell.

Meanwhile the AI giants are cutting out the middleman, the browser. OpenAI now lets Americans buy Etsy and Shopify items directly inside ChatGPT. Google’s AI can call a local store to check stock. Amazon’s bot quietly buys the product for you the second the price drops into your pre-set budget. It is like having a PA who cares deeply about getting at least 34% off a barbie-mate.

But the real story, the one that matters, is the adoption rate. ChatGPT barely existed three Christmases ago. And yet 42% of US shoppers today say they are using AI tools for holiday buying.

Forty two percent. Forty two!

That is supermarket queue to social norm in 36 months. Facebook took years to reach that level of shopping influence. Instagram had to wait for the Kardashians. AI got there between turkey and the gravy boat.

More jaw-droppingly, over half of Gen Z and millennials now trust AI to pick a “unique” gift. These are the same people who would not let a stranger choose their coffee order, but they will happily let a machine select undies for their partner. Something has shifted.

Products searching for humans

Psychologists argue that AI is fixing decision fatigue. America has too many choices. Too many products. Too many flavours of pumpkin spice. Instead of humans searching for products, products now search for humans. Santa’s elves have become recommendation engines.

According to the latest Edelman global trust data, trust is the real gatekeeper. People who have actually used AI are dramatically more likely to embrace it than those who have not. One good experience — a smooth checkout inside ChatGPT, a spot-on gift finder — and the attitude flips. Trust, not technology, is what powers adoption. Without confidence and familiarity, the bots will be seen not as helpers, but as hustlers.

Is it perfect? Not yet. Some shoppers complain the bots keep suggesting the same safe brands, like a music app that only knows three Taylor Swift songs. True autonomous gift-orchestration, where the bot actually understands your sister’s hatred of scented candles, is still sleigh-testing.

So what for New Zealand exporters?

If you are a Kiwi food, beverage, or consumer goods brand selling into the States through distributors or retail partners, here is the uncomfortable truth.

AI does not promote what it cannot see, and right now the bot is becoming the buyer.

That means:

1. Product data must be immaculate.

Ingredients, benefits, flavour notes, prices, allergens, sustainability claims — all need to be perfectly tagged and syndicated across every retailer and marketplace. A robot cannot decipher “mystique and provenance”. It needs metadata.

2. Reviews and images are now currency.

AI uses what it can parse. If consumers are not reviewing you online, you might as well not exist when the chatbot is choosing four merlots under $25.

3. SEO is yesterday, this is “generative agent optimisation”.

If ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Amazon’s bots cannot read you, they will not recommend you. And shoppers will not even know you were an option.

4. Distributors must do more than ship pallets.

The digital shelf now matters as much as the physical one, and the algorithm inspects the digital shelf first.

The good news is that many New Zealand companies are already leaning into AI product recommendations and AI-assisted buying. Examples include Xero, No Issue and Serato. Meanwhile, travel technology company Serko is enabling smart search using AI to personalise recommendations in travel bookings.

But that’s still the minority. Most Kiwi brands selling into North America are going to have to move faster. Because the ground is shifting under everyone’s feet.

The US consumer market is changing quicker than a slushbox Mustang on the Pacific Coast Highway, and the old playbook of storytelling and provenance won’t cut it with a machine. The new storyteller isn’t your brand manager; it’s an algorithm. And if your machine can’t talk fluently to your buyer’s machine, you’re invisible.

The turkey hasn’t even cleared the digestive tract, the Black Friday wrapping paper is still on the floor, and the bots are already whispering into America’s ear.

Buy now. Buy better. And buy without ever leaving the chatbot.

So if you’re a Kiwi brand trying to crack retail America in 2026, add one more item to the New Year’s resolution list ‒ right under “sort GST” and “stop putting off the gym”:

Win the bot and you just might win the shopper.