AI Takes a Bigger Role in Back-to-School Buying as Google and Amazon Build Checkout Paths

AI shopping tools are taking on more of the back-to-school buying process, from finding deals to making recommendations. A National Retail Federation survey cited by CNBC found that 61% of shoppers used generative AI or other AI-powered shopping tools during the 2026 season for prices, discounts or shopping ideas. Trevant executive Kristina Coughlin said nearly 70% are asking AI to find deals, compare products and summarize reviews.

The shift moves assistants beyond product search and toward actions that shape what gets bought and when. Google and Amazon are pursuing that opportunity from different starting points: Google is linking its services to retailers, while Amazon is adding shopping actions to Alexa for Shopping.

Google’s cart reaches toward a multi-retailer checkout

In May, Google described Universal Cart as a cart that could collect products across Search, Gemini, YouTube and Gmail. But its stated U.S. rollout covered Search and the Gemini app during summer 2026; YouTube and Gmail were to follow. Google also said the cart could find deals and price drops, show price history and alert shoppers when products return to stock.

Google said select checkout features with named merchants would be available soon. The planned options include paying with Google Pay in a few taps or sending items to a merchant’s site to finish the purchase; the brand remains the merchant of record. That leaves the checkout experience dependent on participating retailers and Google’s rollout schedule.

The underlying Universal Commerce Protocol, an open-source standard for agentic commerce, launched in January. CNBC reported Target and Walmart were live on the platform, and Walmart and Google separately announced plans to surface Walmart and Sam’s Club products in Gemini through the protocol.

61%Back-to-school shoppers using AI tools

The NRF survey cited by CNBC measured use for prices, discounts and recommendations during the 2026 back-to-school season.

57%Alexa AI users who found an unfamiliar product

Evercore ISI’s survey of Alexa AI users, published August 17, found that share bought a product they had not previously known about.

Amazon ties recommendations to purchase triggers

Alexa for Shopping can turn a school-supply list into a sequence of purchase-related tasks. Shoppers can submit a photo of a list, set a total budget for recommendations, establish price alerts and, for certain items, automatically buy when a target price is reached.

• The Evercore ISI result suggests Alexa can expose shoppers to items they did not already know about, rather than only help them narrow an existing list.
• Envive CEO Aniket Deosthali told CNBC that shoppers using AI spend 30% to 40% more per order. That is the estimate of an agentic-commerce executive, not a result from the NRF or Evercore surveys.

For retailers, the prize is not simply helping customers research goods. It is becoming the system that recommends products, watches prices and carries a shopper closer to the transaction. Google’s merchant-dependent cart and Amazon’s shopping assistant show two competing ways to claim that position.