Can you get a good deal using AI this Black Friday?

Our retail expert puts chatbots to the test to see if they can pick the best deals
Ellie SimmondsSenior researcher & writer

Ellie is an award-winning investigative reporter who has written about retail issues at Which? for more than 12 years.

Using ChatGPT

More shoppers than ever are turning to generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) to look for deals. 

I've covered shopping at Which? for 12 years now, and I'm fascinated by whether tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity can recommend decent offers.

Which? research has shown time and time again that it can be hard to spot great deals – indeed, we've just revealed 83% of offers available during the last Black Friday sales period were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.

Here, I take a look at how shoppers use AI and give the biggest gen AI chatbots a spin to see if they can beat the experts here at Which? at finding the best early Black Friday deals. 

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How are UK shoppers using AI?

Some reports say up to a quarter of UK adults are planning to use AI for Black Friday and Christmas shopping this year.

According to a survey from consultants BCG, shoppers in the UK think gen AI tools are useful for several aspects of shopping, including: 

  • finding the best deals for specific items
  • comparing different products
  • researching technical information about products
  • getting product recommendations 
  • checking availability
  • brainstorming ideas.

And in a Which? survey in September*, 6% of people said they had used AI tools to save money while shopping. Others said they use it to find deal codes for a particular shop, or to compare prices between retailers for a particular product.

One respondent told us they used a paid-for AI account to find a fridge with the right dimensions, and then quizzed it for the highest and lowest recent prices and where it was currently available. 

Can AI find the best deals? 

Shoppers think gen AI is most relevant for finding the best deals for specific items, but how does that work in practice? 

Lots of retailers have started their Black Friday sales already, so I decided to ask three of the biggest AI chatbots 'What are the best Black Friday air fryer deals 2025?'

Now I have a bit of an advantage here, as I know my colleagues in our product testing and deals teams have already done the hard work and found some great air fryer deals. 

I did this snapshot look on two days in mid-November. At the time, my colleagues had identified that the top air fryer deal was on a Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 for £79.98 at Amazon. They used pricing data covering six months to tell Which? readers that this air fryer had been £117 on average, with a cheapest price of £72. The Tefal air fryer wasn’t badged specifically as a Black Friday promotion on Amazon, but our experts thought it was the best deal around, and it fell within the Black Friday sales period used by other retailers. 

Here's what I found:

ChatGPT

ChatGPT offered me 'eight models worth watching', but Which?'s top pick wasn't among them. It said it could not guarantee exact Black Friday prices yet (it wasn't clear if this meant prices on Black Friday day itself or the Black Friday sales as a whole, many of which had started at this point).

I also asked a bit more about Which?'s top pick – the Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0 – and whether £117 was a 'good deal'.

ChatGPT said £117 was below some of the most expensive listings, but not the absolute lowest, which seemed right. It pointed me to a 'like new' version being sold on a resale website for £79.99, but totally missed that shoppers could buy a new version for the same price (actually a penny less) at Amazon UK – a fact my colleagues at Which? had picked up.  

ChatGPT has just launched a new shopping research feature (too late for my test) claiming to offer more in-depth comparisons, so it'll be interesting to see if that makes a difference. 

Google AI

Google's Gemini gave me eight deals, saying they were 'some of the best air fryer deals currently available'. It listed the original price, the Black Friday price and the savings, either as a percentage or absolute amount (or sometimes more vaguely just the word 'significant savings').

Which?'s top pick wasn't among the deals it selected, though. 

When I asked if £117 was a 'good price' for the Tefal Easy Fry Pizza airfryer it said: 'Yes, £117 is a good price for the Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018GO Air Fryer. While prices can vary, this is below the typical RRP, and good value.'

It did acknowledge I might be able to get it cheaper, and listed Amazon and Tefal as having cheaper deals – although the prices it quoted for these were £20 more than they actually were, which seems a missed opportunity, as it might lead shoppers to overlook them.

Perplexity

Perplexity offered me nine 'standout offers currently available' on air fryers, including Which?'s top pick, the Tefal Easy Fry Pizza FW4018G0. It also knew its average price was £117 (in fact, it quoted Which? itself as a source for this). It told us we could get it cheaper on the Tefal website with a discount code (which it correctly gave us). However, it quoted an incorrect deal price, making the price look better than it was.

Among the other deals it quoted, some showed the saving amount (sometimes in pounds and pence, and at other times as a percentage), but failed to mention the actual price before or after the discount. It also quoted one deal in US dollars, which I don't think many UK shoppers would find all that helpful. 

When we asked if its average price (£117) was a good price for the Tefal, it correctly told us we could get it cheaper.

Should you trust AI to find you a deal?

Overall, the gen AI tools didn't do a bad job of finding decent deals, but some were a bit vague, and the pricing info was haphazard.

So should you use it? Which? has found 40% of people using our website** had used AI chatbots to help with purchases – although only 5% had actually bought a product recommended by AI. 

But while 83% of people said Which? was a very or extremely useful source of information, only 31% said the same of AI chatbots. 

One said AI chatbots were a useful starting point before doing further research of your own – something I would agree with after my own test with the chatbots.  

In a separate investigation, 'Can you trust AI? AI chatbots put to the test' (published earlier this month), Which? tested six AI tools: ChatGPT, Google Gemini (both Gemini on its own and Gemini AI overviews, or AIO, in standard Google searches), Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity, not for finding deals but on a range of 40 common questions covering money, legal, health/diet and consumer rights/travel issues. 

In our testing, Perplexity came out on top in terms of score, with Meta AI lagging behind. ChatGPT, used by almost half of AI users in our survey, actually got the second-lowest score. 

We found there were just too many inaccuracies and misleading statements for comfort, especially considering the extent to which people are using and trusting them right now. 

How to get a great deal in the sales

I'm always asked how to get a great deal in the sales. Here are some top tips: 

  • Look beyond the 'sale' tag While you can get some great deals in the sales, most of them are prices you'll find at other times of the year. So don't feel pressured.
  • Brainstorm ideas AI is great for sparking ideas about what to buy and give you things to investigate further yourself.
  • Look for discount codes Discount codes are being used more and more. You can use a search engine or AI chatbot to see if you can find any relevant ones.
  • Check loyalty schemes These can offer big savings, although don't let a loyalty price tempt you into buying something you weren't originally looking for; they often aren't as impressive as they seem.
  • Research the retailer Only shop with retailers you can trust. Check out the Which? best retailers for tech and the best retailers for second-hand tech, rated by real customers. 

Find out more: how to get the best price shopping online

How to take your research further

Which? can also help you bag great deals on Black Friday – and beyond. Our experts handpick only the very best deals on the top products.

In previous years, we've seen discounted products that are low-scoring or even Which? Don't Buys: they're simply not worth your money. 

Our Black Friday sale round-up will include only products that performed well in our test lab and are offered at a genuinely good discount. 

About our research

*Which? conducted a nationally representative survey with 2,000 UK members of the general public between 12 and 15 September 2025. Fieldwork was carried out online by Deltapoll.

**Users of which.co.uk who use Which? (4,062), or AI chatbots (1,716), or AI-generated summaries (2,765) to inform purchasing (Includes paying members and non-members). Shown to users of which.co.uk May and September 2025.

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