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At Google I/O today Google has been blasting through all kinds of new AI features coming to Android and the company’s suite of apps on the web, mostly powered by Gemini, like the new ability to have Gemini return purchased products for you.
We live in the age of online shopping more than ever before. Our phones are likely the single most used computing tool we own. Google being Google, is continually coming up with new ways to enhance the user experience on phones. Specifically its own Pixel devices like the Pixel 8a, Pixel 8, and Pixel 8 Pro. If you’re someone who shops online often, then you’ve probably had at least a few experiences where the products you bought didn’t work out. Whether that’s because the product was a piece of clothing that didn’t fit, or it was an item that simply didn’t work the way you were hoping.
Either way, buyer’s remorse is a real thing that plenty of us deal with. The downside of shopping online is if you don’t like something you purchased, the return process is often a hassle. Gemini is here to make that process more convenient.
Gemini can essentially handle the entire return process for products
Think about the times you might have gone through processing a return only to get frustrated for any number of reasons related to the return. Gemini is gaining the ability to remove that frustration by taking care of essentially the entire return process. For example, let’s say you purchase a pair of shoes from Converse like in Google’s demonstration, but they don’t fit. You can bring up Gemini then it’ll ask what you want to do. You can then say you want to return the shoes. It’ll begin searching for the receipt and order number in Gmail first. Then move on to connecting with Converse to process the return.
All along the way, the Gemini panel will update with the next step in the return process. This includes telling you when it’s complete and scheduling a pickup for the item. It’s unclear if the feature would only work with specific retailers and whether or not scheduled pickups for the returned item would be available for everything. Google also didn’t say when exactly this feature would be coming to Gemini or if it’s even going to launch. Like many of the demos it held today, however, it’s probably something coming in the near future if it’s released at all.
It’s possible this feature will never actually go beyond a demonstration
As easy as this process would be, it’s worth noting that this is a feature that was essentially just a demonstration of a potential use case. Google doesn’t actually mention that they’re bringing it to Gemini or when that might happen. So like many things Google tests, it may never become a reality.
And even if it does end up being integrated with Gemini, it could still be many months away. It was quite a while between the time Google showed off the Google Assistant-powered Duplex feature that allowed Assistant to make appointments for you on the phone and when users actually had access to it. So the same thing could happen here.
