Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website • Hacker News Board

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#201

Post by mooreds » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:41 PM UTC

acedTrex wrote: post #196

foobiekr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the AI companies visibly suffer from the engineer's disease. It's kind of interesting to look at them through that lens, and of course, the claims they make about the future.

I think the most telling example of this is ilya himself being confused about why the "economic impact" of these ultra smart models is lagging where he thought it would be. All the silicon valley pie in the sky elites seemingly completely missed the innately HUMAN nature of our systems. The system was never predicated primarily on raw logic or intelligence. Its always been primarily about people.

If you're interested in an economist's take on AI, I enjoyed this podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-ai-gets-hired-ameri...

It takes a long time for technology to diffuse through businesses. A long time.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#202

Post by bilekas » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:42 PM UTC

hattmall wrote: post #167

dylan604 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you're not the target audience doesn't mean there's not a real target audience. There a people today learning to use an LLM instead of an actual search engine. For these types of people whatever happens outside of the LLM app is invisible to them. The social media apps did similar where they started letting people purchase directly within the app. People started looking at these shops rather than doing s…

Social media apps generally opened up new markets though of their existing user bases as sellers. Perhaps chatgpt could know everything in your house, if you don't actually use it, and pair you with a neighbor that needs it!

What a distopian hellscape you've painted into my brain. I work long and hard to not interact with my neighbors.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#203

Post by DANmode » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:45 PM UTC

dpoloncsak wrote: post #189

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand what you are saying but nonetheless struggle to view the possibility of maybe getting caught and then maybe getting punished, as "work". It (the abstract concept of something possibly happening) fits into none of the definitions of "work" I have heard. Moreover, many crimes are committed without the perpetrator even thinking of the consequences. Consider an alternative viewpoint: rather than contorting t…

Oh, I'm with you mate, I'm not trying to die on a hill over here re-defining 'work'. I was just looking from a more esoteric view, "Do you count the risk of consequences as potential effort" I think is at least more proper phrasing.

“Effort” is a great wordchoice.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#204

Post by jimt1234 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:47 PM UTC

bilekas wrote: post #95

ChatGPT Checkout, a solution looking for a problem. Why would anyone have an extra layer of friction too where things could go wrong, where handing over payment details in another chain. Just let me buy my stuff in peace. Shopping is not the 'killer app' for GenAI.

I'm not promoting "ChatGPT Checkout", however, just because something sucks now doesn't mean it will suck forever. I'm confident they'll iterate and improve. I say this because my 14-year-old niece's entire world seems to be ChatGPT; it's pretty much the only way she interacts with the internet. I don't think she's alone - all her young peers are like this, too. Retailers know this, so they've got no choice but to improve the experience of purchasing crap through an AI chat system.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#205

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

acedTrex wrote: post #196

foobiekr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the AI companies visibly suffer from the engineer's disease. It's kind of interesting to look at them through that lens, and of course, the claims they make about the future.

I think the most telling example of this is ilya himself being confused about why the "economic impact" of these ultra smart models is lagging where he thought it would be. All the silicon valley pie in the sky elites seemingly completely missed the innately HUMAN nature of our systems. The system was never predicated primarily on raw logic or intelligence. Its always been primarily about people.

[deleted]

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#206

Post by irishcoffee » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

Auracle wrote: post #199

TitaRusell wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell would AI even bring to the table here? Already your favourite e commerce site has all your data. You can switch on the "buy this automatically" feature.

If I can tell ChatGPT to order me what I need to replace the bottom element on my water heater, and here’s a picture of the ridiculously long model number, that saves me quite a bit of time. I used that as an example because I did that last week, apart from me just going to the store to get the links that it brought up.

Conversely, I did something similar, but I took a picture of the model number, copy/pasted the text from the image into a search engine, and that was that. Either way you're taking a picture and performing a manual step (query an LLM, query a search engine)

I would never trust an LLM to accurately identify and purchase something for me based on a picture, a prompt, and a prayer.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#207

Post by layer8 » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #107

_heimdall wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a more narrow version of my belief that general AI tools like LLMs fundamentally don't fit as additions to products, but rather subsume products That seems reasonable, its just yet to be seen if LLMs are a form of artificial intelligence in any meaningful sense of the word. They're impressive ML for sure, but that is in fact different from AI despite how companies building them have tried to merge the terms…

What I'm saying is not (directly) related to whether or not LLMs are "true AI" or not. It's sufficient that they are fully general problem solvers. A software product (whether bought or rented as a service) is defined by its boundaries - there's a narrow set of specific problems, and specific ways it can be used to solve those problems, and beyond those, it's not capable (or not allowed ) to be used for anything else…

> and it doesn't take "true AI" - the LLMs as we have today are enough already.

I believe that relatively few people would agree with you on that point. LLMs aren’t good enough (yet?), and very obviously so, IMO, to be autonomous problem solvers for the vast majority of problems being solved by software companies today.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#208

Post by charcircuit » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:00 PM UTC

LoganDark wrote: post #8

charcircuit wrote: post #3

What if they made instant checkout actually instant? You ask ChatGPT to setup a website and it instantly purchases web hosting and sets up the website there. You can't beat a 100% conversion rate by actually checking out instantly. If you didn't like that host you can ask it to find it alternative and ChatGPT would automatically attempt a refund and then purchase from someone else.

I'd become afraid to ask that bot anything, not knowing what it would automatically try to purchase for me. Paying for the bot itself is already a lot: $20/mo to $200/mo or more.

That's why it would be important for the partners to support refunding.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#209

Post by kenjackson » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

wavemode wrote: post #180

kenjackson wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all valid (except probably the last sentence), but it also describes so many attempted changes right until they become darn near the default. This sounds like why I heard Redfin wouldn’t work, or Netflix, or Amazon, or Uber, or PayPal, etc…. There are always these business complexities that make it seem like these spaces have too much friction, but if there’s enough money - if it can be done then people will…

tbh this sounds revisionist... I don't recall anyone saying that any of those services "wouldn't work". Uber I suppose is one where people thought they might run into regulatory problems, and with some of those companies people were concerned about profitability. But none those companies have I ever heard that the product itself was not going to work or be useful. (Nor, indeed, that the product was tested at large sc…

Not revisionist at all.

or Netflix, or Amazon, or Uber, or PayPal, etc… Netflix and Amazon both were competing against brick and morter that were everywhere. Blockbuster was in every town, usually in every major neighborhood. The thought was that on Friday night people wanted to get a movie they wanted, not just happen to have the movie that was shipped to them. And then with streaming it was "the content on Netflix is old and dated, who would want this?" They slowly ate from below. Blockbuster scrambled with their own mailed disc offering. And died before it even had a chance to confront streaming.

Repeat this story with B&N where people said that you had to browse the books physically. You couldn't just blindly order online and wait two weeks to get the book (remember they got big before "2 Day Prime").

With PayPal it was about "they don't understand banking or payment -- and it wants to be both?!".

For this OpenAI experience, it doesn't sound great. I have accounts with these places I buy things from. I want to make sure I get my Prime shipping and digital discount via using the Amazon app. But if you could find a way to integrate my accounts all into ChatGPT things might be different. In the same way I used to never use Apple Wallet, but now it really is my go to place for everything I have a card for. I don't have to worry about having my grocery loyalty card or my football season tickets with me or my car insurance card. It's all in wallet. The Apple Wallet sucked until it was suddenly great.

Re: Walmart: ChatGPT checkout converted 3x worse than website

#210

Post by CryptoBanker » Mon, Mar 23, 2026, 5:20 PM UTC

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #131

darthoctopus wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't want to put in the human time and effort to do so In most circles, that is "not that interested in getting good at it".

Maybe in yours? Someone can want a thing, even very badly, without wanting to put in the work for it. Conversely, someone can work very hard for something they do not want. The linkage between wanting a thing and wanting to do the work to get it is not absolute, or necessary there at all.

There’s a difference between being interested in getting good at something and being good at something