I’m a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out.

Could I just prompt ChatGPT to pick a personalised gift for my cousin Johnny and have it shipped in time to reach him? Alas, the cheerful chatbot couldn’t help, telling me it “can’t make purchases or handle shipping directly”.

In the two years since ChatGPT launched, we have seen wave after wave of AI products and features promising to save us from mundane tasks. Yet so far, gift shopping is beyond them – apart from the odd built-in chatbot on a shopping site or app.

However, things may be different by next Christmas. One thing many experts expect in 2025 is the rise of AI agents: bots that can take actions on your behalf in the real world.

An AI agent can do more than just suggest where you can get a Santa suit. It can buy it for you and have it delivered to your door.

And the vision for “agentic AI” is that teams of AI agents will work together. You would give your team of agents a prompt:

I’m cooking Christmas dinner this year. Find my closest Facebook friends, send them invites, make sure one of them is a chef and tell them to bring the turkey.

The agents would sort it all, without you ever having to lift a finger. Crucially, AI agents should have the ability to coordinate........

© The Conversation