Apple is Testing a Sparkly New AI Shopping Assistant

Last month, an update to the privacy policy for the Apple Store app hinted that Apple was about to introduce a virtual shopping assistant into the mix. While the changes didn’t provide too much context on how that would work or when it was coming, the AI bot now appears to be slowly rolling out, with select users reporting its appearance.

The update to Apple’s terms mostly just reflected the type of information that Apple would collect via the virtual shopping assistant and how users could opt out via a new “Chat Improvements” option in the app’s settings. However, neither the virtual assistant nor the new toggle had appeared in the Apple Store app at the time, and as of today they still haven’t — at least for most people.

Nevertheless, some folks are seeing the AI-powered tool appear, as shared by leaker ShrimpAppleProon X:

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The screenshot shows the feature as an “Early Preview,” although it’s not clear if that’s simply the label Apple intends to use for a wider rollout, or if it’s actually limiting it to a more selective test group right now.

It appears the virtual assistant will integrate directly with the Apple Store search, swapping out the magnifying glass at the bottom-right corner for a chat bubble with an AI sparkle. Users will be able to type standard search terms or ask natural language questions, ranging from help with finding and comparing products, figuring out carrier offers, checking order status, and more.

For example, the sample prompts on the screenshot include “Latest Apple products”, “Help me choose a Watch”, “Find my trade-in value”, “iPhone Monthly payments”, “Explain carrier offers”, and “Compare iPad lineup.” However, these are undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg, provided to help users get started. (We’ll have to wait and see how it responds to “Help me spend a really offensive amount of money.”)

There’s no indication the new virtual shopping assistant will be hardware-dependent. The disclaimer mentions it’s “powered by artificial intelligence” — not “Apple Intelligence” — and it likely runs via a direct connection to an AI running on Apple’s back-end servers. This means it should be available even on older iPhone and iPad models, not just the latest AI-capable iPhones.

It’s also notable that there haven’t been any updates to the Apple Store app since July 22 — the same time the new information was discovered in Apple’s privacy policy. This suggests Apple already baked the under-the-hood changes to power the virtual shopping assistant into a previous update, and it’s simply waiting for a flag to be toggled on individual Apple Accounts to unlock it.

We have yet to see it appear for any of our accounts as of this writing, despite having the latest Apple Store app version installed and running the latest iOS 26 releases and iOS 27 betas on iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro models. We’ll have to wait and see if this is just a slow rollout of a limited test group, but either way it probably won’t be more than a few weeks before it rolls out to a wider audience. The bigger question is whether Apple plans to expand it internationally or limit it to the US only for the time being.