At this level, AI is unavoidable in day-to-day life and in response to new knowledge from the cybersecurity agency Kaspersky, 72% of customers have used AI and a 3rd of them depend on it for on a regular basis duties like creating procuring lists and budgeting. You could not even suppose that you simply’ve relied on an AI for procuring however in case you’ve used a digital “try-on” function, or a procuring agent on a web site, you’ve used AI.
As we method Black Friday, loads of buyers are utilizing AI as a deal hunter or for value comparisons. Whereas AI is greater than able to dealing with these duties, loads of individuals use it for extra advanced ones too. If delegated a command, agentic AI can carry out a procuring chore for you from begin to end. As an illustration, you can inform it to look at the costs for a brand new iPad and inform it to buy one for you mechanically when the worth falls into a very good vary.
Companies aren’t missing out on what AI tools have to offer, either. Brands and storefronts use AI tools in order to shape and tailor the shopping experience that they provide to their customers. From personalized product recommendations to AI-powered chat assistants, there are plenty of opportunities for brands to use this tech to give shoppers options – even going so far as allowing them to buy and browse products through chatbots like with ChatGPT Agent.
AI isn’t just for shoppers
Shoppers aren’t the only ones who are taking advantage of AI this year as we approach the holiday shopping season. Cybercriminals also employ AI tools to create online scams and phishing attacks to allow them to trick buyers into giving out their private info like bank card particulars, usernames and passwords and extra.
Risk actors also can use prompt injection techniques to confuse AI fashions into redirecting customers to malicious websites. From there, customers could unknowingly enter their particulars which may result in monetary fraud and even id theft.
Even with out immediate injection and LLMs being concerned, scammers have lengthy been capable of impersonate retailers and ship phishing emails to your inbox. These messages will typically supply “unique reductions” or “restricted prizes,” to entice recipients into clicking by means of. Final yr, Kaspersky reported a 25% surge in retail centered cyberthreats within the days main as much as Black Friday.
How to stay safe when using AI to shop online
Kaspersky’s security researchers have highlighted several examples on how to stay safe while using AI tools to shop, browse and complete purchases ahead of – and during – Black Friday.
One of the top tips is to make prompts to your AI assistant as detailed and well thought out as possible. Avoid general “find me good deals on computers” style prompts, and instead clearly and specifically state what you need.
Here’s an example prompt provided by the firm’s security experts:
“Act as my trusted personal shopping assistant. Find three laptops from major, reputable retailers like Apple, Amazon or Dell with an average customer review of four stars or higher. Exclude any sellers with less than 1,000 reviews. For each, list the product name, key specs, current price and a direct link to the product page on the official retailers site. Ensure that all deals are valid for Black Friday 2025.”
At the same time, you also want to be cautious sharing with an AI: don’t grant your AI access to payment details or browser extensions except it is from a extremely respected and established firm. Be sure that your accounts are protected with two-factor, or multi-factor, authentication, and at all times use a bank card (or trusted fee platform) for the elevated security measures and fraud safety.
From there, you wish to examine URLs to verify they will lead you to the proper firm and to be additional secure, enter them in manually as an alternative of clicking on sponsored outcomes from a search engine. Clearly, it is best to by no means, ever enter any info onto a website that you simply have been taken to from a unsolicited hyperlink that was despatched to you by way of e-mail, textual content or social media advertisements, regardless of how compelling the supply appears. As a substitute, head on to the retailers official web site and attempt to discover the deal there. If you cannot, you simply prevented what was doubtless a rip-off.
With a view to keep protected, you need to be utilizing one of the best antivirus software program and guarantee that it has anti-phishing safety and that you’ve got enabled it. Many antivirus suites even have fee safety or on-line procuring options that may be turned on, too. Remember that many antivirus packages can even use AI-powered instruments, so you should use the identical know-how hackers are utilizing to fend them off and keep away from their assaults.
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