Microsoft Joins AI Shopping War, Brings New Features to Copilot in Edge Browser

Microsoft has now entered the artificial intelligence (AI) shopping war, joining other major players such as Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity. The Redmond-based tech giant has added new AI-led shopping-focused features to Copilot in the Edge browser. Now, users can not only use the AI chatbot's existing shopping features in the browser, but they also get a new and exclusive tool. The company says the AI chatbot can now tell users if a product they're looking to buy is available at a lower price elsewhere or has offers such as cashback.

Microsoft Introduces AI Shopping Features in Edge Browser

In a blog post, Roger Capriotti, General Manager, Product Management and Growth for Microsoft Edge, Search, and Mobile at Microsoft, announced and detailed the new features for the Edge browser. This makes it the fourth AI company, after Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity, that is targeting the upcoming holiday season to drive engagement on its platform.

Capriotti said Edge users will now be able to experience existing Copilot features, such as Cashback, Price comparison, Price history, Product insights, and Price tracking, while using the browser via the Copilot Mode. The feature is currently only available in the US, similar to Google and Perplexity's offering. Notably, only OpenAI's Shopping Research feature is currently available globally.

To see these new options, users will first have to navigate to a supported retailer page and click on the Copilot icon. Then, users can use any of these features to either see details about the product, compare it with other products, or even set price alerts for the items they want. Edge browser users will also be able to access these capabilities, or add nuances to them, via natural language prompts.

Additionally, Microsoft is also releasing a new feature in the browser. When users have multiple tabs open with different e-commerce websites, and the user tries to make a purchase on one of the websites, Copilot will proactively notify the user about the available cashback or lower price on another retailer. This feature, too, is available only in the US.

Notably, it appears that all AI players are targeting the holiday season, which is not a surprise. AI-led commerce (using AI tools for discovery, recommendation, and checkout) has become a topic of interest among companies. Not only does it offer them a new way to engage users, but it also paves the way to turn the capability into a revenue stream once they command a large enough user base.

Further, when users are searching for and making purchases on an AI platform, the companies also become familiar with their purchasing behaviour, which can further be an important dataset to curate more personalised and engaging experiences (and generate revenue from them, eventually).