The holidays are sneaking up, and suddenly every store’s throwing “deals” at you like it’s their job—because it is. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, random “one-day-only!” popups—it’s a lot. And honestly? I got tired of guessing what’s actually a good deal and what’s just dressed up to look like one. So I started poking around with some AI tools (yes, actual robot helpers) to see if they could make holiday shopping less of a headache. Turns out, they’re kind of amazing. Here’s how to let AI do some of the heavy lifting.

1. Use AI for Price Comparisons and Deal Hunting

I found a few super handy AI tools that basically do the digging for you—checking prices across a bunch of sites in real time so you don’t have to bounce around from tab to tab losing your mind.

AI-Powered Price Comparison Tools

Honey

Honey is one of those tools I wish I started using sooner. It’s a free browser extension that finds and tries a bunch of coupon codes for you at checkout—no digging around for promo codes that don’t work.

It works on over 30,000 sites, which is wild. But what really makes it shine during the holidays is the price-tracking. You’ll get a heads-up when something you’ve been eyeing finally drops in price.

And their “Droplist” feature is super cool. You just save the stuff you’re interested in, and Honey will shoot you an alert when the price dips.

Capital One Shopping (formerly Wikibuy)

Capital One Shopping is another AI-driven tool for price comparison.

When browsing, it shows if a product is available at a lower price elsewhere and automatically applies discounts and coupons.

I really like Capital One Shopping’s ability to compare prices on Amazon with other retailers, this feature will be particularly helpful during the holiday season.

PRO TIP: ADD ITEMS TO CART, THEN ABANDON IT

When using the Capital One Shopping app (iOS, Android) always add items to your cart that you want to buy, then close out the app. Wait about 24 hours, open the app back, and they’ll typically bump up your cashback amount by up to 20%. Also, I’ve noticed that if you look at products on the app, but don’t buy them, their AI system will often email you a discount on those items in the 20% to 30% savings range.

Example above: I set up a little test using a Ralph Lauren shirt at Macys.com. I added the shirt to my cart and then closed the app on my iPhone, at the time Macy’s was offering me 2.5% cashback on the purchase. The next morning I had an email from Capital One telling me to come back and complete the purchase and get a whooping 18% cashback on the purchase. And before you ask, I know it says “Up to 18% Rewards” – specifically it was 7% rewards on Furniture, Mattresses, and Rugs – 7% on Macy’s Marketplace (shipped and sold by third party sellers) and 18% on Everything Else.

Try it, it works! It’s time to outsmart AI and use this hack to save some money on your Christmas shopping.

See Also: Black Friday Hacks to Maximize Your Savings

ShopSavvy App and Browser Extension

ShopSavvy is seriously underrated. It uses AI to compare prices both online and in-store, which is clutch during the holiday chaos.

You can check for price drops, get alerts when something’s back in stock (looking at you, sold-out holiday toys), and see if you’re actually getting a deal or just falling for fancy sale signs.

My favorite part? You can scan a barcode right in the store, and ShopSavvy will pull up prices from a bunch of online retailers instantly.

PRO TIP: GO STRAIGHT TO CHATGPT

A great way to start your Black Friday research is to hit up ChatGPT and start asking about products you’re interested in buying. In the example above, I simply asked “what are the best black Friday deals at Walmart on HDTVs?”. I was given a handy little breakdown of some of the best deals that are already released. You can then ask for more details on particular brands, sizes, and retailers and really start to narrow down the deals that you might be interested in.

Dynamic Price Monitoring Tools

CamelCamelCamel

CamelCamelCamel is a site that I’ve talked about before, in short, it specializes in tracking prices on Amazon.

Its AI algorithms analyze Amazon’s historical price data to alert users when a product’s price drops.

This tool is handy for scoring Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on Amazon, as it reveals trends that indicate the best time to buy.

Earny

Earny monitors price drops on your past purchases and helps you get refunds if a price goes down after you buy.

Earny connects to your email to analyze receipts, then alerts you if a product you purchased decreases in price.

It also assists with getting refunds or credits if the price changes within a retailer’s price protection period.

Slickdeals

Slickdeals is kinda like that one friend who’s always sending you random links like “DUDE THIS IS 80% OFF.”

It rounds up a bunch of deals from all over the place—tech, clothes, kitchen junk, whatever—and you can set alerts for stuff you actually care about.

So if that air fryer or PS5 game finally goes on sale, you’ll hear about it.

The best part? It’s all user-driven, so people vote on deals and the good ones float to the top. Super helpful during Black Friday when everything looks like a deal but half of it’s trash.aggregates deals and promotions across multiple categories.

2. Leveraging AI-Driven Shopping Bots

The following AI shopping bots are low-key the MVPs of holiday shopping.

They do all the digital legwork so you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of turning into a caffeinated deal-zombie at 2 a.m.

Dealspotr

Dealspotr’s AI aggregates thousands of deals from across the web and analyzes them based on user engagement to surface the best offers.

Dealspotr’s platform also offers a community where users share discount codes and exclusive sales.

HustleGotReal

HustleGotReal is another one of those sneaky little AI bots, but this one’s all about eBay, Amazon, and Shopify.

It’s perfect if you’re trying to keep tabs on price drops for hot gift items—especially when stuff’s flying off the shelves during Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

It basically snoops around and shows you where the deal actually is, so you’re not stuck overpaying just because something looked like a steal.

3. Shop Smarter with Personalized AI Recommendations

AI recommendation engines basically stalk your taste and budget, then throw deals at you you didn’t even know you needed. Kinda creepy. Kinda awesome.

Google Shopping

Google Shopping just shows you stuff after you search once.

Like, “Here’s the cheapest one,” and then suddenly ten more pop up. It’s kind of weird how it knows, but also it finds deals way faster than I can. So I just let it do its thing.

See Also: Smart Tips To Avoid Black Friday and Still Score a Great Deal

Amazon’s Alexa

If you’ve got Alexa, you can totally make her do the holiday deal hunting for you. Just ask her to find sales or keep an eye on stuff you’re watching. She’ll even remind you when prices drop or when something in your cart goes on sale.

Kinda like having a lazy little shopping assistant who talks back. Bonus: she’s actually decent at gift ideas too, especially the trendy ones everyone’s buying.

4. Use AI for Cashback and Rewards

Several AI-powered tools offer cashback rewards, making it possible to save even more on holiday purchases.

Cashback can stack with discounts and coupons, creating even greater savings.

Rakuten

Rakuten (formerly Ebates) uses AI to give you cash back just for shopping through their site.

They’ve got deals with a ton of stores—especially the big ones for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The cashback changes all the time depending on the store and season, but during the holidays, it usually gets pretty sweet. Just click through their site before you shop and boom—money back. It’s stupid easy.

Ibotta

Ibotta is another cashback app that basically watches how you shop and throws deals at you based on what you usually buy.

You can get money back on groceries, regular shopping, and holiday stuff too. Around Christmas, they usually run extra promos, so the savings add up quick.

Just tap a few offers, shop like normal, and boom—cash back shows up later. It’s like getting paid for buying stuff you were gonna get anyway.

See Also: Check Out My Review of iBotta To See If It’s Right For You

RetailMeNot

RetailMeNot has been around forever, and it still comes through. It grabs coupon codes for you and sometimes even gives you cash back at like 3,000 stores.

The AI does its thing—checks what’s in your cart and tries every code it can find until something sticks

No more Googling “promo code that actually works.” Around the holidays, they usually have extra discounts and cashback deals too, so it’s worth checking before you check out.

5. Subscription and Loyalty Programs Use AI Too

If you’re always shopping at the same place, you might as well sign up for their rewards thing or whatever subscription they push—it actually helps.

Target Circle

Target Circle is free and honestly kinda great if you shop there a lot. It uses AI (aka it watches what you buy) and then throws you deals on stuff you actually want.

You’ll get a bunch of personalized offers, plus early access to some of the good holiday promos. Around Christmas, it can really come in clutch with extra discounts that regular folks don’t get.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime members get access to exclusive discounts and early access to Lightning Deals.

Amazon’s AI-powered recommendation engine also suggests Prime-exclusive offers based on your shopping habits.

For holiday shopping, Amazon Prime offers early access to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, allowing you to beat the rush.

See Also: The Grocery Stores That Drastically Lower Prices Near Best-By Dates

6. Find Unique Gifts with AI Curators

Finding gifts for people is actually super hard, especially when you have no idea what they like. But now there’s these AI gift finder things that help a lot. You just answer a few questions and it gives you ideas based on their hobbies or whatever.

Uncommon Goods Gift Finder

Uncommon Goods has this gift finder thing that’s actually kinda cool.

You type in some stuff about the person (like what they’re into), and it gives you gift ideas that aren’t boring. It’s super helpful for people who are impossible to shop for, like my dad or my friend’s weird uncle. The stuff it recommends is usually different, like not the same stuff you see everywhere.

GiftAdvisor

GiftAdvisor is this site that helps you figure out what to buy when you’re totally stuck.

You just put in some stuff about the person, and it uses AI or whatever to match you with gift ideas based on what’s trending. It’s actually pretty helpful if you have no clue what to get someone and don’t wanna just grab a gift card again.

7. Optimize Travel and Shipping Costs with AI

For those traveling or shipping gifts during the holiday season, AI can also be a helpful tool for saving on travel and shipping expenses.

Hopper

Hopper is an app that watches flight and hotel prices and tells you when to book so you don’t get ripped off.

It uses AI to guess when prices will drop or go up. If you’re flying somewhere for the holidays, it’s actually super helpful. You just set what you’re looking for, and it’ll ping you when it finds a deal. Way better than refreshing flight pages 24/7.

PRO TIP: USE CHATGPT TO SAVE AND PLAN HOLIDAY TRAVEL

I recently planned a trip from Denver, CO to Monterey, CA and was very impressed with how ChatGPT helped me find the best deals and gave me great budget friendly recommendations on not only the travel side of the equation, but also the food and entertainment side.

Here are the prompts I used and I recommend you try the same the next time you’re planning a family vacation.

• Cheapest flight options from Denver, CO to Monterey, CA (San Jose, CA) on December 23 – December 29.
• Best rental car deals in San Jose, CA for December 23 – December 29.
• Hotel deals near Monterey for family of 4 with 2 teenagers.
• Budget friendly things to do around Monterey.
• Budget friendly golf courses near Monterey.
• Best budget friendly places to eat in Monterey.

Takeaway: ChatGPT is not there yet on helping you find and book the cheapest airfare and rental car, but it’s excellent at helping you find budget friendly activities, restaurants, and even hotels.

ParcelTrack

ParcelTrack is an app that keeps track of all your packages in one place, so you’re not digging through a million emails.

It tells you when stuff’s arriving or if there’s a delay. The AI part just kinda pulls all the tracking info together for you.

It’s actually super useful during the holidays when you’ve got like five things shipping at once. Also helps you avoid paying extra for rush shipping if you know what’s coming when.

See Also: Save By Knowing The Store-Brands That Make Name-Brands

8. Stay Organized with AI-Powered Shopping Lists

Keeping track of what you need to buy during the holidays is kinda important—otherwise, you forget stuff or just spend way too much. There’s some AI tools that can help you make a list and stick to it.

AnyList

AnyList is this app that helps you keep your shopping list together without totally losing it.

It uses AI to sort your stuff into categories so it’s not just one big mess. You can set a budget, check things off as you go, and even share the list if you’re splitting gifts with someone. Makes holiday shopping a lot less chaotic.

Google Keep

Google Keep is actually super handy for staying on top of holiday shopping. You can make a gift list, set little budgets for each person, and check stuff off as you buy it.

Plus, you can set reminders so you don’t forget things (which I always do). If you’ve got Google Assistant, you can just tell it to add stuff to your list or remind you later. It’s kinda like having a brain that actually remembers stuff for you.

Ask the Reader: Do you have any “How to use AI to save money” ideas to add? Let me know in the comments as I’d love to add more tips to this article.

By Kyle James

Kyle James( Owner/Founder )

I started Rather-Be-Shopping.com in 2000 and have become a consumer expert and advocate writing about out-of-the-box ways to save at stores like Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco to name a few. I’ve been featured on FOX News, Good Morning America, and the NY Times talking about my savings tips. (Learn more)