I would guess that most companies will not want to provide APIs that an agent could use to make that kind of query. So, the agent is going to have to use the app just like you would, which looks like it will definitely become possible, but again, Lowes wants the human to see the ads. So they're going to try to break the automation.
It's going to take customers demanding (w/$) this kind of functionality and it will probably still take a long time as the companies will probably do whatever they can to maintain (or extend) control.
At some level, isn’t “connecting you effortlessly with the product you explicitly told me you were here to find” the best kind of ad? To the extent that Lowe’s hires armies of friendly floor staff specifically to answer that kind of question face to face, help my dumb self figure out what the right filter size and type is, learn the kind of particulars about my house that the LLM will just know, and build my confidence that my intentions are correct in my case?
Google has always made it hard to avoid clicking the “ad” immediately above the organic result for a highly specific named entity, but where it’s really struck me is as Amazon has started extracting “sponsorship” payments from its merchants. The “sponsored” product matching my search is immediately above the unpaid organic result, identical in appearance.
That kind of convergence suggests to me that the Lowe’s of the world don’t need to “show the ad” in the conventional sense, they just need to reduce the friction of the sale—and they stand to gain more from my trust and loyalty over time than from a one-off upsell.
I’m reminded of Autozone figuring out, on their dusty old text consoles, how to just ask me my make/model/year, and how much value and patronage that added relative to my local mom-n-pop parts store since I just knew all the parts were going to be right.
That's kinda what I meant with customers demanding it with their money. But, avoiding upselling is not really what I see stores doing. I don't want the cashier (or payment terminal) to push me to open new credit accounts or buy warranties. I don't want them to arrange their stores so I have to walk past more ads and products that I'm not interested in today. They still do it, and they work hard at doing it.
I’m on Lowes website right now. Can you point out an ad? Because I don’t see any. And why do you think that companies can’t inject advertising into their LLMs? It’s easy to do and with a long enough customer relationship, it gets very powerful. It’s like a sales clerk who remembers everything you have ever bought and appears like it understands your timing.
As for data, I can name several major retailers who expose the stock/aisle number via a public api. That information is highly available and involved in big dollar tasks like inventory management.
When I go to the Lowe's website, the homepage itself is covered in ads. "Spring Into Deals", "Lowe's and Messi are assisting you with 100 points! Join Our Loyalty Program". "Get up to 35% off select major appliances"... the more I scroll, the more ads come up.
Companies can inject ads into their own LLMs, sure. But ChatGPT is somebody else's LLM.
Your point about retailers exposing stock/aisle number via a public API surprises me. What do you mean by public? What's the EULA look like? Exposing stock/aisle number via API for the purpose of inventory management is not a use case that would require making API access public.
If they want to sell more products to more people they will need to provide those APIs. If an AI assistant can make home maintenance more accessible then that will translate to more people shopping at Lowes more often but only if their inventory and its location are accessible by the assistant helping the customer decide which store to go to for the right part. If your store blocks the assistant then it’s going to suggest the competitor who provides access. It would be even better if the assistant can place an order for curbside pickup.
Or we could overcome this with a distributed system where the devices of individuals who have been to the store recently record data about the current location of products and upload it somewhere for the rest of the users to query if needed.
More likely future LLMs will mix ads into their responses. ("Your air filters are in stock in aisle A6. Have you heard about the new membership plan from Lowes...?")
If it was a real Personal Assistant I would just have to say: "I want to pick up my home air filter at Lowes today." and it would 1. know what brand/model air filter I needed, 2. know which Lowes is my local one, 3. place the order for me, and 4. let me know when it will be available to pick up.
Do they want a better ad than what the GP was describing? There isn't one they can buy.
(But yeah, I guess they will want it, and break any reasonable utility from their stores on the process. That's what everybody does today, I'm not holding my breath for management to grow some competence out of nowhere in the future.)
I would guess that most companies will not want to provide APIs that an agent could use to make that kind of query. So, the agent is going to have to use the app just like you would, which looks like it will definitely become possible, but again, Lowes wants the human to see the ads. So they're going to try to break the automation.
It's going to take customers demanding (w/$) this kind of functionality and it will probably still take a long time as the companies will probably do whatever they can to maintain (or extend) control.