With the arrival of discount seasons and the first purchases ahead of the year-end holidays, it’s easy to be tempted by promotions, advertisements, and offers that appear on social media. But before pulling out the card, there are a few questions worth asking: do we really need that product? does it fit our budget? is it a good deal or a impulse purchase?
In that scenario, artificial intelligence can become a tool to organize priorities, compare alternatives, and make more mindful consumer decisions. In this column, Sabrina Leila Logullo, holder of a degree in Administration, specialist in marketing and digital business, and AI communicator, proposes five steps to harness this technology and shop smarter, without getting carried away by every offer that appears. Below, she shares her recommendations.
Indulging with Intelligence: 5 Steps to Shop Smarter During This Discount Season with AI
By Sabrina Leila Logullo
Discount periods arrive, along with promotional events and the lead-up to Christmas. And those of us with a long list of things to buy can slip up and end up with our credit cards in the red.
To avoid falling for the lure of every marketing email, digital advertisement, or Instagram recommendation that crosses our path, I propose using artificial intelligence as a filter and a tool to make better purchasing decisions.
For those who aren’t yet accustomed to using AI, this can be a great first step to explore it and incorporate it into daily life. Because you don’t need to do extraordinary things with technology for it to be useful. Sometimes, it’s enough if it helps us solve everyday questions.
As a graduate in Administration and an AI enthusiast, my life is largely guided by dashboards, decision trees, and matrices. For this case, I recommend developing a shopping pattern, a tool that will allow us to visualize and evaluate what we want to buy based on different variables.
And the best part is that we don’t need to know how to build it. We can ask the AI itself to help us. I propose doing it together.
1. Marking our starting point
The first step is to determine which variables matter most to us when buying. Because not everyone prioritizes the same things, nor are we in the same financial situation.
For example, we can consider the savings percentage, the real need for the product, its frequency of use, the available budget, financing options, and even the possibility of getting something similar at a lower price.
With that information, we can ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to build a matrix and help us assign weights to these variables according to our priorities.
2. Differentiating need from impulse
A worn-out bedsheet, a pair of pants for going to work, or replacing chipped dishes can become real needs. The fourth white T-shirt in our wardrobe probably isn’t.
But since I’m not the one who can judge it for you, but each of you, I suggest making a list of everything you feel like buying and giving each product an importance number.
There’s no need to debate this for hours on end. If we have doubts, we can ask AI, explain why we want to buy something, and ask it to help assess whether it truly makes sense to do it now or if it can wait.
Even, we can ask it to pose questions to help us distinguish a need from an impulse.
3. Knowing how much we can spend
Another variable, and not a minor one, is our budget.
We can tell the AI how much money we have allocated for purchases during this period, what financing we are willing to accept, and what other major expenses we have planned.
I don’t recommend sharing banking information, exact income, or sensitive data. For this exercise, it’s enough to work with an available budget and approximate amounts.
Ideally, we can ask for a projection of card payments for the coming months, considering the installments we already have committed and the new purchases we’re evaluating.
Because often a purchase seems affordable when it’s six installments, but the problem arises when we add up all the installments we’ve been accumulating.
4. Understanding what we’ll use and what will stay tucked away in the back of the closet
How wonderful it is when we see a dress we know will make us shine. And even better when we find it at 50% off.
However, if we will only wear it once, perhaps it isn’t as convenient a purchase as it seemed.
That’s why I recommend that, as part of the matrix, we tell the tool what our lifestyle is like.
For example: I’m a woman of a certain age, a mother of young children, work from home, practice yoga, go out once a week with friends, take my kids to their activities, visit the countryside once a month, and take beach vacations once a year.
The more relevant information we give about our routine, the better it can help us evaluate which products make sense for us.
If we’re thinking about renewing our wardrobe, we can also take photos of the garments we already have and ask it to help us mix and match. Perhaps, before buying five new pieces, we’ll discover that one or two can create several different looks.
5. Avoiding the dishonest discounts
A classic trick: price inflation before a sale to make discounts look more substantial. We know that a commercial strategy that might appear during these dates is to raise prices beforehand and then present discounts that, in reality, don’t reflect a meaningful saving.
That’s why it’s essential that our matrix also includes a price research.
We can ask AI to compare different alternatives, analyze product features, and help us evaluate not only the price but also shipping costs and financing terms.
This is especially useful when we buy technology, because many times we find similar products, with essentially unchanged features, but with significant price differences.
That said, it’s important to remember that not all AI tools can fetch real-time prices or access price histories. That’s why I always recommend providing links and double-checking information before placing the order.
How do we put all this into practice?
With all this information, open the AI tool you prefer, whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and tell it what you want to do.
You can write something like:
“I want you to help me organize my purchases to take advantage of this season’s discounts. I need us to build a matrix that accounts for my priorities, budget, real needs, how often I’ll use the products, and financing options. Ask me any questions you think are necessary to help me decide what to buy, what to postpone, and which alternatives I should investigate.”
From there, you can fill in the information and adjust the matrix as new needs or promotions arise.
And one more thing: you don’t have to accept all recommendations the tool makes. The AI can be mistaken, misinterpret our priorities, or suggest alternatives that don’t make sense for us.
The idea isn’t to delegate our decisions, but to have one more tool to help us make them with information.
Taking advantage of discounts doesn’t mean buying more, but learning to choose better. Before finalizing a purchase, it’s worth stopping to check if we truly need that product, how much we can spend, and what other options we have.
In that process, artificial intelligence can become an ally to organize information, compare alternatives, and think through our priorities. But the final decision remains ours: because shopping smart isn’t about missing opportunities, but recognizing when an offer is genuinely worth it.
Sabrina Leila Logullo is a graduate in Administration, a specialist in marketing and digital business, and a promoter of artificial intelligence. @iaconsabrina.
