TAMPA, Fla. — For roughly 20 years, the Monday after Thanksgiving has always been the day to find the best online deals for your holiday shopping.

But this year, Artificial Intelligence or AI, is impacting the annual shopping day for both consumers and companies in a big way.

Dipayan Biswas, a marketing professor at USF and expert in AI, says this is the first holiday shopping season that generative AI is being used on a wide scale.

For online retailers, that means using AI to better manage their inventory, which could affect what the sale price is and for how long it lasts.

AI is also being used to understand consumer behavior, as many companies are using the technology to learn about their customer and tailor ads directly to them.

“On Cyber Monday you’re going to see more targeted ad campaigns rather than blanket ads. So if you’re seeing ads on the website you’re visiting or on your social media platforms, it’s not by accident,” Biswas said. “When you see those ads, chances are the ads you’re seeing are by design and they have a feeling it’s a good fit for you.”

This is also the first year that customers can lean into Chat GPT in order to help them select a holiday gift.

Searches like ‘what should I buy my 6-year-old nephew’ and ‘what should I buy my wife’ yield dozens of options based on different categories and demographics.

“That takes out problems related to people not liking their gifts and my prediction is there will be fewer returns this year,” Biswas said. “People usually go back to the store to return items because the fit isn’t there and they don’t like what they got. I’m not saying it will be zero, but it will be less than what we had in the past.”

Biswas says that the idea of deep deals just for one day is also likely a thing of the past. Now, with AI, online retailers are beginning their sales weeks ahead in order to generate more revenue.

“There might still be some online shopping but that will be a little less crazy than pervious years where Cyber Monday was more special,” he said. “Right now, most companies will advertise Cyber Monday, but it’s a little less special now because we’re having the informal Cyber Monday for 2 to 3 weeks.”