AI shop assistant that recommends only in-stock items
An online store chatbot sounds great until it recommends a product the shop doesn't have, quotes the wrong price or promises free delivery that doesn't exist. A general language model knows nothing about your shop's range — it knows what's been written on the internet.
When I built the AI shopping assistant for the NUNDINAE platform, the starting point was the opposite: the bot may talk only about what is in this shop's stock right now.
Why "in stock" is harder than it sounds
For the bot to recommend only what's in stock, it has to know the real stock level. If the online store and the stock program are separate applications, the online store only knows what the integration last told it — and the last item sold in the physical shop may stay available online for hours.
In NUNDINAE the online store and inventory management are one application with one stock level. When the last item is sold at the till or written off in the stockroom, the assistant stops recommending it in its very next answer. There aren't two systems, so there's no delay either. I wrote about this at more length in online store and inventory management in one application.
How the assistant works
A button in the corner of the shop opens a chat. The customer describes their problem in their own words — "I'm looking for a gift for a keen gardener" or "my car squeals when I brake" — and the assistant:
- asks one clarifying question at a time, if needed;
- searches the shop's catalogue for suitable products;
- recommends one to four products and briefly says why those ones;
- shows the products as cards with a picture, the price and an "Add to basket" button.
The bot never states prices in its text — they're on the product card and come straight from the database. That way a price can't go wrong in the conversation. For a more complicated problem it suggests booking an appointment; for a health problem, seeing a doctor.
The bot answers in the customer's language (Estonian, English, Russian, Finnish), doesn't ask for personal data, and the customer can see that the answers come from AI.
The assistant is only as good as its instructions
The platform makes no assumptions about what your business does. Everything the AI knows about you is written in text boxes you can change at any time:
- Business description — 4–8 sentences, as you would explain it to a new employee: who you are, what you sell, to whom, and your tone of voice.
- Chatbot rules — how to behave, what to recommend, when to point people towards booking.
- Product search guidance — examples of how a customer's words turn into a search phrase: "I have dry skin" → "moisturising cream", "my car squeals when I brake" → "brake pads". The better the examples, the more accurately the assistant finds products.
In the admin "Conversations" view you see what customers asked, what the bot answered and which products it recommended. It's also the best source for finding out what customers are looking for but can't find in your shop.
Limits and costs
AI has a cost, and it has to be kept under control. NUNDINAE has limits: 20 messages per customer in ten minutes, 30 messages per conversation, and a monthly budget. When the budget runs out, the buttons say so and the rest of the shop carries on working. Conversations are deleted automatically after the retention period (90 days by default).
What AI does in running the online store
The assistant is the visible part of the AI. In day-to-day work, what the customer doesn't see is more useful:
A writing assistant next to the fields. Products, categories, pages and images have an AI button: draft, improve, shorten, lengthen, proofread. You see several versions with their length and choose the one that fits. The AI uses only the facts in the form — it doesn't write prices or stock levels.
A blog post from your voice. You talk through the topic (up to five minutes) and the AI turns the recording into a tidy written draft with SEO text. The recording isn't kept. Links are always real: the AI may link only to existing products in the shop, and any other link is removed before you see the draft.
Bulk jobs. "Fill in the missing meta descriptions for all products", or image alt texts, all at once. The job makes suggestions; you review and approve them.
Content ideas. The AI looks at Google search queries and shop searches that returned no results, and suggests pages and posts with keywords.
The principle: AI suggests, a human decides
The common rule across all these features is that nothing is saved or published without a human. AI is a fast draft writer and a helpful salesperson, but it isn't the owner of the shop. That's why the bot can't promise anything the shop doesn't offer, or change a price.
How the assistant helps a shop that sells the same goods both over the counter and online is covered in online store and stock for a retail shop. If you'd like to see the assistant with your own products, order NUNDINAE or ask for a demo. If you already have an online store and the real question is why nobody finds it, start with why does nobody visit my website or online store.
