The 5 Best AI Shopping Assistants for Ecommerce in 2026

TL;DR

• AI shopping assistants are digital sales associates. They answer product questions, recommend products and guide shoppers to checkout, directly on your store.
• Amazon proved the model at scale. Rufus was used by more than 300 million customers in 2025 and drove nearly $12 billion in incremental annualized sales.
• They do more than lift conversion. Every conversation shows you what shoppers really want to know, and the same assistant answers the pre-purchase questions that would otherwise land in your support queue.
• Our top 5, from small stores to enterprise: Shopify Inbox, Rep AI, Dialog, Gorgias and Insider One.

Introduction

At BotRank, we work where AI meets ecommerce. And trust us, this space moves fast!

While putting together a recommendation for one of our clients, we came across a category of tools we hadn't looked at closely before: AI shopping assistants. We're ecommerce nerds at heart, so we kept digging. This article is based on what we found. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the research.

What are AI shopping assistants?

A quick definition of AI shopping assistants

An AI shopping assistant is a conversational agent that sits on an online store and helps visitors before they buy. It reads your catalog, product pages and policies. Then it answers shoppers' questions in plain language, recommends the right products and pushes them toward the cart.

Think of it as the best sales associate in your physical store, available on every product page, 24/7, in every language.

AI shopping assistants are often confused with three other kinds of tools:

• Support chatbots like Tidio. These handle post-purchase requests like "Where is my order?" or "How do I return this?" A shopping assistant is built to sell, not to close tickets. Some tools do both, but the goal is different.
• AI shopping agents like ChatGPT Shopping or Perplexity. These live on the shopper's side. They search across many stores and sometimes buy on the shopper's behalf. A shopping assistant lives on the merchant's side and speaks for one brand only.
• Recommendation widgets and product quizzes like Octane AI. "You may also like" carousels and fixed decision-tree quizzes recommend products, but they can't hold a conversation or answer a follow-up question.

A short history of AI shopping assistants

Amazon set the bar with Rufus. Rufus launched in beta in February 2024 and opened to all US customers in July 2024. In May 2026, Amazon retired the Rufus name and folded the assistant into Alexa for Shopping. The results got everyone's attention:

• More than 300 million customers used Rufus in 2025 (source).
• Customers who use Rufus during a shopping trip are 60% more likely to complete a purchase, according to Andy Jassy on the Amazon Q3 2025 earnings call.

Walmart followed with Sparky. In June 2025, Walmart added an "Ask Sparky" button to its app and website. Sparky summarizes reviews, compares products and suggests items for an occasion.

The startups brought it to every other store. Most brands can't build their own Rufus, so a wave of startups packaged the idea as a plug-in product. Rep AI was founded in 2021 and Dialog in 2022. Established platforms soon joined in: Insider launched its Agent One suite, which includes a Shopping Agent, in March 2025. Gorgias added a Shopping Assistant to its helpdesk in 2025. Shopify then put an AI sales associate inside Shopify Inbox, its free chat app.

In just two years, the AI sales associate has gone from an Amazon experiment to a feature any Shopify merchant can switch on for free.

What are the main benefits of AI shopping assistants?

A simple way to improve both the customer experience and the conversion rate

Online stores still rely on filters, categories and search bars. That works when shoppers know exactly what they want. It doesn't work when they're comparing two serums, wondering which suitcase size fits in an overhead bin, or buying a gift.

A way to learn what your customers ask about your products

Every conversation with an AI shopping assistant is a piece of customer research you didn't have to pay for. The smartest brands feed those questions back into their content: product descriptions, FAQs, buying guides and blog posts.

You can use these conversations to find out:

• which questions come up again and again on a product page,
• which objections stop people from buying (sizing, ingredients, compatibility, delivery times),
• which words shoppers use, which are rarely the words in your product descriptions.

This matters even more now that people search through AI. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity answer questions, and they favor pages that answer those exact questions clearly. That traffic is worth having: in the 2025 holiday season, visitors referred by AI converted 31% better than other traffic sources, according to Adobe. Your shopping assistant's chat logs are effectively a list of the questions your content needs to answer.

A way to deflect top-of-funnel support questions

A lot of support tickets aren't really support. "Does this ship to Canada?", "Is this jacket waterproof?" and "What's your return policy?" are pre-purchase questions. When nobody answers them fast, they turn into an email, a ticket, or a lost sale.

An AI shopping assistant answers them instantly, on the page, while the shopper still wants to buy. Your support team can spend its time on the conversations that need a human.

The top AI shopping assistant providers

Ready to test the waters on your store? We picked five tools based on two criteria: strong reviews on G2 and/or the Shopify App Store, and existing stores that already adopted the solution.

Tool	Starting price	G2 score	Best for
Shopify Inbox (AI sales associate)	Free	Not listed on G2	Small Shopify stores trying AI for the first time
Rep AI	Free to install (100 visitors/mo), paid plans from $104/mo	4.9/5 (62 reviews)	Small and mid-size Shopify stores that want a proactive sales chat
Dialog	Free plan, paid from $249/mo	5/5 (10 reviews)	Mid-market and enterprise brands with complex or high-consideration products
Gorgias	From $10/mo (50 tickets), AI billed per resolution	4.6/5 (562 reviews)	Shopify brands that want support and sales in one helpdesk
Insider One	Custom pricing	4.8/5 (1,395 reviews)	Enterprise retailers running omnichannel marketing

1. Shopify Inbox AI Sales Associate

What is Shopify Inbox?

Shopify Inbox is Shopify's free, native chat app. It now includes an AI sales associate that answers shoppers' questions and helps them find the right products in your catalog. It connects automatically to your products, inventory, policies and store content. If a shopper is signed in with Shop, the agent can tailor its answers to their preferences and purchase history across Shopify.

Who are Shopify Inbox's top clients?

Shopify Inbox is available to every Shopify merchant, and it mainly appeals to small and very small stores. We couldn't find any well-known brand that publicly says it uses the AI sales associate yet. That's not surprising for a recent, free feature, but it means there are no public case studies to learn from.

What scope does Shopify Inbox cover?

• Sales associate: yes. It handles product questions and recommendations on the storefront.
• Support automation: basic. It answers questions about policies and orders from your store content, but it isn't a full helpdesk.

Shopify Inbox reviews

• G2: not listed.
• Shopify App Store: 4.6/5 from 5,815 reviews (this score is biased though, because it covers the whole app, not just the AI sales associate).

Pros: It's free, setup takes minutes, and it uses your Shopify data natively. You set the agent's tone and rules, and rating its chats helps train it.

Cons: Most reviews are about the chat app in general, not the AI agent specifically. Some merchants say the agent makes mistakes, and a few disabled it after wrong answers.

2. Rep AI

What is Rep AI?

Rep AI is an AI sales and support agent for ecommerce, founded in 2021. Its signature feature is behavioral AI: it watches signals like product comparisons, repeat browsing or exit intent, and starts a conversation when a shopper hesitates. It then recommends products, answers questions and suggests upsells inside the chat.

Who are Rep AI's top clients?

According to StoreLeads data, Rep AI runs on more than 1,000 stores, mostly in the US. Customers include AMIRI, 7 For All Mankind, OLLY, Harney & Sons Fine Teas, Goal Zero and Aroma360. Its strongest verticals are fashion, health, outdoor, and food and beverage.

What scope does Rep AI cover?

• Sales associate: yes, and it's built around proactive engagement.
• Support automation: yes. A separate AI support agent handles order status, returns, cancellations and FAQs, with handoff to Gorgias, Zendesk or Help Scout.

Rep AI reviews

• G2: 4.9/5 from 62 reviews.
• Shopify App Store: 4.6/5 from 119 reviews.

Pros: Reviewers often praise the customer success team and dedicated account managers. Many say they saw higher conversion rates, higher average order value and more sales after installing it. They also like the 24/7 answers to support questions and the relevant upsell and cross-sell suggestions.

Cons: Several reviewers say the AI's answers need fine-tuning and are sometimes wrong. Some find the back end technical and building flows hard. Pricing is based on visitor volume (plans from $104/mo for 10,000 visitors, then $12 per additional 1,000 visitors), so the bill grows during sales peaks. It can take about a month of setup and training before it works at its best.

3. Dialog

What is Dialog?

Dialog is an AI sales agent built for ecommerce brands, founded in Paris in 2022. Its starting point: ecommerce sites still rely on categories and filters designed for the limits of early-2000s technology, not for how people actually shop. Dialog puts the expertise of a brand's best in-store advisor directly on the product page and across the site.

The product covers several surfaces:

• an AI product page assistant that answers technical questions and handles objections where the decision is made,
• a Personal Shopper for guided selling ("find your perfect product", gift finder, skin diagnostic). It accepts text and photos, so a shopper can upload a photo of their skin or living room and get matching products,
• Smart Search that understands intent, not just keywords,
• Smart Reengagement, which follows up with hesitant shoppers by email or SMS through tools like Klaviyo, Braze or HubSpot.

Who are Dialog's top clients?

Dialog works with more than 300 brands, including Shiseido, Oh My Cream, Delsey Paris, MG Motor and Manucurist.

What scope does Dialog cover?

• Sales associate: yes. This is Dialog's core focus, with product page, guided selling, search and re-engagement features.
• Support automation: limited to pre-purchase questions. Dialog isn't a helpdesk.

Dialog reviews

• G2: 5/5 from 10 reviews.
• Shopify App Store: 5.0/5 from 38 reviews.

Pros: Merchants highlight a quick setup (about 30 minutes on Shopify), a lightweight widget that doesn't slow the site down, and that they can buy it without signing up for a whole suite. Reviewers also like that it learns from the catalog, internal documents and blog content, and its analytics on the questions shoppers ask, which brands reuse to improve their content.

Cons: It's a younger product than the established platforms, and it has fewer reviews. Because it isn't part of a suite, brands that want one tool for support, marketing and sales will need to combine it with others. Paid plans start at $249/mo, which is a step up for small stores.

4. Gorgias

What is Gorgias?

Gorgias is the leading helpdesk for Shopify brands, founded in Paris in 2015. It brings email, chat, social media, SMS and voice into one inbox, with order data built in, so agents can refund or edit an order without leaving the ticket. In 2025, Gorgias added a Shopping Assistant to its AI Agent. It talks to shoppers before they buy, recommends products from the catalog and can offer a discount when it detects hesitation.

Who are Gorgias's top clients?

Gorgias serves more than 16,000 brands. Customers include Steve Madden, Glossier, BruMate, Princess Polly, Fashion Nova, Reebok and Timex, although only a fraction of them have activated Gorgias' AI sales assistant.

What scope does Gorgias cover?

• Sales associate: yes, through the Shopping Assistant. Gorgias reports that brands using its shopping assistant capabilities converted 20% to 50% better than brands using the AI Agent for support only (Gorgias).
• Support automation: yes. This is what Gorgias is built for.

Gorgias reviews

• G2: 4.6/5 from 562 reviews.
• Shopify App Store: 4.3/5 from 706 reviews.

Important note: most reviews are about Gorgias' flagship product, the helpdesk, not its AI shopping assistant.

Pros: Reviewers say the AI Agent resolves a large share of tickets on its own, with several reporting between 40% and 80%. The Shopify integration is often called the best on the market. Small teams say it lets them handle high volumes, and agents find the interface easy to learn.

Cons: Pricing comes up often. Plans are based on ticket volume (from $10/mo for 50 tickets to $900/mo for 5,000), and AI resolutions are billed on top, so the bill is hard to predict during peaks like Black Friday. Some users report AI misfires (wrong answers, conversations closed too early) and say the AI needs a lot of training. Gorgias is a support tool first, and its Shopping Assistant is a recent addition.

5. Insider One

What is Insider One?

Insider One (formerly Insider) is a customer engagement platform founded in 2012. It brings behavior data from your website, app, email and messaging channels into one customer profile. It then uses that data to segment audiences, trigger personalized campaigns and power product recommendations.

Its AI layer, Agent One, launched in March 2025, bundles three agents: a Shopping Agent that turns site search into a conversational answer engine and recommends products, a Support Agent, and an Insights Agent.

Who are Insider One's top clients?

Insider One works with large global brands, including Samsung, Estée Lauder, Gap, Toyota, Hyundai and Havaianas.

What scope does Insider One cover?

• Sales associate: yes, through the Shopping Agent.
• Support automation: yes, through the Support Agent.

The Shopping Agent is bundled with the platform and can't be bought on its own. It works on Shopify, VTEX and other platforms.

Insider One reviews

• G2: 4.8/5 from 1,395 reviews (most of them covering the entire suite, not just the AI assistant).
• Shopify App Store: 4.6/5 from 20 reviews.

Pros: G2 reviewers praise an interface that is easy to use for such a powerful platform, and responsive, local customer success teams. They like the "Architect" journey builder, which lets marketers automate campaigns without engineering help. Omnichannel reach (email, push, SMS, WhatsApp, in-app) and strong segmentation also come up often.

Cons: Reviewers mention a steep learning curve and long onboarding, because the platform covers so much. Some note gaps in native integrations and some modules. Pricing is described as expensive and inflexible for smaller brands.

FAQ

What are AI shopping assistants?

AI shopping assistants are conversational AI agents that sit on an online store and help shoppers before they buy. They answer product questions, recommend the right products and guide visitors to checkout, much like a sales associate in a physical store. They differ from support chatbots, which handle post-purchase requests, and from consumer AI agents like ChatGPT Shopping, which work for the shopper across many stores.

Why are AI shopping assistants so popular?

Because they work at scale. Amazon's Rufus was used by more than 300 million customers in 2025 and drove nearly $12 billion in incremental annualized sales. Shoppers are also getting used to asking AI for advice in ChatGPT and Gemini, and they now expect the same experience on brand websites. On top of the conversion lift, brands get a steady feed of real customer questions to improve their content, and fewer pre-purchase tickets for their support team.

What are the best AI shopping assistants?

It depends on your store's size and needs:

• Shopify Inbox: best free option for small Shopify stores.
• Rep AI: best for small and mid-size US Shopify stores that want proactive sales chat.
• Dialog: best for mid-market and enterprise brands with complex or high-consideration products.
• Gorgias: best for Shopify brands that want support and sales in one helpdesk.
• Insider One: best for enterprise retailers that want an AI agent inside a full marketing platform.