Minty's free Prompt to Save tool makes AI shopping easier, and early data shows how shoppers use AI to find deals, compare products, and decide what's worth buying.
Online shopping has never offered more choices, or more tabs to juggle. Between flash sales, promo codes, and competing offers, finding the best deal can feel like a job in itself, especially during the holidays.
That's why more shoppers are turning to AI. Minty's 2026 Holiday Smart Shopper Study found that 54% of consumers plan to use AI for holiday shopping, and 44% are using it to shop more than they did last year. But getting useful answers from AI starts with knowing what to ask.
That's why Minty created Prompt to Save™.
Better questions. Better shopping.
Prompt to Save™ is Minty's free library of hundreds of ready-to-use shopping prompts across more than 250 retailers. Shoppers browse by retailer or shopping goal, customize a prompt, and paste it into Minty Chat, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, or another AI platform.
For example, instead of simply searching for Amazon deals, a shopper could ask:
"Compare this Amazon deal with the Amazon Basics version on materials, reviews, and warranty, and tell me what I'd lose."
As Minty CMO Rodney Mason shared, “AI can be a powerful shopping tool, but the quality of the answer depends on the question.” Prompt to Save takes the guesswork out of writing that question.
What Minty is learning from Prompt to Save shoppers
Minty's first-party data from October 5–11, 2026, points to three early trends as the holiday season gets underway.
The dupe hunt is going strong. Dupes were the most popular shopping theme, with 37% of theme-page views, more than Gifts and Trips combined. With AI, a good dupe isn't about settling for less. It's about comparing features, materials, reviews, and price to see what a shopper is really getting for the money.
Everyday shopping is getting an AI value check. Everyday-value retailers accounted for 50% of shoppers opening retailer-specific prompts, led by Amazon, Walmart, and Costco. Amazon alone drew 23% of all retailer prompts. AI isn't just for big-ticket decisions. Sometimes it's simply making sure a shopper is getting a good deal on something they already planned to buy.
Shoppers are planning ahead, not just hunting for discounts. Gifts and Trips were the second- and third-most-popular themes, at 15% and 11% of theme-page views. Instead of starting with a product or retailer, these shoppers start with what they're trying to accomplish, like a gift that fits someone's interests and budget, or a trip that balances dates, destinations, and cost.
The best deal isn't always the lowest price
A traditional search starts with a few keywords, like "best laptop deals." AI lets shoppers get specific. They can compare laptops by battery life, performance, weight, and price; share which features matter most; and ask whether it's worth waiting for a sale.
And the savings don't stop there. Shoppers who use Minty can also access available Cashback and coupons on eligible purchases, on top of the deals they discover through AI.
What this means for brands
Before shoppers buy, they are asking AI to check the value. Whether it's finding a dupe, comparing retailers, choosing a gift, or deciding if a sale is actually a good deal, shoppers are using AI to filter their options and make purchase decisions.
For brands, that means the comparison can happen before a shopper ever reaches a website. What shoppers ask AI about price, alternatives, and whether a deal is worth it now shapes which brands they consider. Minty is tracking these shifts week by week.
From AI shopping to Proactive Commerce
AI is changing more than how people search. It's changing how they discover brands. Shopping used to start with a search and a site visit. Now it can start with a conversation, well before a shopper reaches a retailer's website.
Minty's research with Northwestern University's Retail Analytics Council shows how big this shift could be: in the Proactive Commerce Leadership Index, 79% of surveyed senior leaders expect their primary customer to be AI-assisted by 2027.
That's the idea behind Proactive Commerce: reaching high-intent shoppers with relevant value earlier in their journey, rather than waiting for a search, site visit, or abandoned cart. Prompt to Save is one way Minty is bringing that vision to life.
Before you buy it, prompt it.
From dupes and everyday purchases to gifts and trips, AI is giving shoppers new ways to find what they want. Sometimes, all it takes is a better question.
Explore Minty's free Prompt to Save library at minty.com/prompt and discover a smarter way to shop with AI.
Brands that want to reach shoppers while they're still deciding can learn more about Minty at business.minty.com.
Methodology
Minty's Top Shopped Prompts findings are based on first-party website analytics from October 5–11, 2026, tracking how shoppers engaged with Prompt to Save's shopping themes and retailer-specific prompts. Theme rankings reflect share of theme-page views. Retailer rankings reflect the share of shoppers opening retailer-specific prompts.
About Minty
Minty is the AI shopping companion proactively unleashing savings that matter most for smart shoppers, creating more loyalty for the brands they shop.
As the pioneer of Proactive Commerce, Minty has hundreds of millions of shoppers and is ranked by G2 as a top 5 commerce solution that generates incremental revenue for eCommerce brands from high-intent shoppers without disrupting existing marketing channels.