NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Santa’s New Helper: How AI Can Help You Wrap Up Your Holiday Shopping
Wed, 27 Nov
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Learn how AI tools can help you brainstorm personalized gift ideas, compare options, and simplify your holiday shopping. How can AI help you save time and money? Should you trust AI for gift-giving advice? Hosts Tess Vigeland and Anna Helhoski explore how artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT can streamline holiday shopping. Joined by NerdWallet experts Amanda Barroso and Kurt Woock, they offer actionable tips for integrating AI into your shopping routine while staying cautious about its limitations. They discuss how AI can generate gift ideas tailored to your budget and preferences, provide practical starting points for decision-making, and even organize comparisons in easy-to-read formats. In addition to the AI discussion, Tess and Anna recap the latest financial headlines, including the upcoming Black Friday Amazon worker strikes, the surprising drop in Thanksgiving dinner costs this year, and a rise in existing home sales as mortgage rates decline. In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: holiday shopping, AI shopping tools, Black Friday shopping, shopping with ChatGPT, using ChatGPT for holiday gift ideas, AI gift recommendations, online shopping, Christmas shopping, holiday sales, AI-generated gift ideas, personalized gift ideas, AI holiday planning, smart shopping with AI, time-saving holiday tips, and AI-driven gift ideas. To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email [email protected]. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. I'm Tess Vigeland in for Sean Piles.
And I'm Anna Hilhoski.
And this is our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money. We'll go deep into a single topic, then leave you with the latest money headlines. And today we're talking about AI. And shopping. And AI. I think you and I can maybe just sleep for the rest of today's episode and, you know, let the robot overlords take over.
Yeah, I have a better idea. Let's bring on some nerds to talk about how we can use AI to help us with our holiday shopping.
Oh, yeah, I like that. That's much better. So for today's very special pre-Black Friday episode, we welcome not one, but two fellow nerds to the microphone. Amanda Barroso covers consumer credit for us here at NerdWallet, and Kurt Wook covers mortgages. But more to the point is NerdWallet's chat GPT experimenter-in-chief. Hey there to both of you. Hey, Tess. Hi.
So have either or both of you been just waiting for Black Friday to do your holiday shopping, or are you maybe done already with the help of artificial intelligence?
I still have a few things to get, but I mostly know what those things are going to be at this point.
I'm also one of those weirdos who starts making gift lists like at the end of summer and starts buying gifts really slowly over the next few months. But, you know, things do ramp up for me during Black Friday, and there are some things on my list for sure.
waiting for the sales.
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Chapter 2: How can AI assist with holiday shopping?
Because I wasn't planning to go shopping right after this first question. I almost assume the first question is going to lead to a second and third. So I think of this step, the first question or the first prompt you give ChatGPT as a way for ChatGPT to give me something to react to. Now that I have the results, I told ChatGPT which of those three toys I liked.
And then I asked it to make a new list with new toys, all of which resemble these three toys that stood out to me.
So you've kind of narrowed it down. Is this new list getting closer to what you're looking for?
Yeah, now I actually like about half of the toys it suggested to me. And a few came off as just a little young for the person I'm thinking of. So I told ChatGPT that and asked it to build me another list.
Okay, so what happens next?
Well, let me ask you, if you Google something and see a lot of interesting results, what do you do?
I probably go open a bunch of new tabs to search for them.
Yeah, that's everybody. Me too, right? So I want to start comparing prices, read reviews.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What are some practical AI tools for gift ideas?
Or green bean casserole, for that matter. We protest. And Anna, on our way over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house, we might pass some areas where folks have new neighbors.
Yeah, the latest figures from the National Association of Realtors show sales of existing homes rose 3.4% from September to October.
And sales were up 2.9% from a year ago, likely due to a drop in mortgage rates.
But folks are still paying more than they were at this time last year. The median price for those existing homes was $407,200, up 4% from October of last year.
One final note here. You may have heard about President-elect Donald Trump's proposal to slap a 25% tariff on all goods imported from Canada and Mexico and 10% on goods from China. We'll have an explainer on what tariffs are and what that potentially means for your finances in next week's show. All right, that's it for this week's money news. We always welcome your money questions and comments.
Turn to the nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD. Or send us a voice memo at podcast at nerdwallet.com. And remember, you can follow the show on your favorite podcast app, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio to automatically download new episodes.
Today's episode was produced by Tess and edited by Rick Vanderkenyde.
And here's our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances. And Anna, happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, Tess. And with that said, until next time, turn to the nerds.
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