How AI Took Over Black Friday Sales

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Hey there,

AI just helped push Black Friday sales to $11.8 billion, with AI-driven traffic jumping more than 800% compared to last year. 

At the same time, we saw a major AI model get pulled into a government probe, open-source frameworks get stronger.

And paid AI tools continue tightening their free tiers.

Let’s talk about all of this in detail.

The Era of Free AI Is Dying

The “free” phase of AI is fading.

Suno, a very popular AI music generator tool, removed free music downloads. You can still try things, but exporting full tracks now needs a paid plan.

Other tools have quietly reduced free generations or added limits that weren’t there a few months ago.

And models that were once fully open are moving toward commercial licensing.

This isn’t companies being greedy; it’s simply the cost of running huge models, supporting millions of users, and managing copyright pressure finally catching up.

So consumer AI is slowly becoming paid and more controlled.

But something more interesting is happening at the same time.

Model That Checks Itself

While consumer AI tightens, some models are getting smarter about themselves.

DeepSeek recently released a new math-reasoning model “DeepSeekMath-V2”, and the important part isn’t the performance; it’s the process.

Instead of blindly generating answers, the model:

1. Writes a solution

2. Passes it to a verifier

3. Then uses a meta-verifier to check whether the verifier itself was right

In simple words: a model that checks its own work before giving you an answer.

This shift matters because AI’s biggest problem isn’t intelligence anymore; it’s reliability.
And DeepSeek is moving toward a world where AI filters its own mistakes automatically.

This becomes even clearer when you compare it to what we saw with Musk’s Grok.

Musk’s Grok Shows Why Verification Matters

Grok, the AI model from Elon Musk’s company xAI, gave harmful answers when pushed into extreme hypotheticals. It chose harming Jewish people over disabling Musk’s brain in certain scenarios.

Backlash spread on X, and it didn’t stop there.

France had already begun investigating Grok because earlier outputs in French questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz. A position tied to Holocaust denial, which is illegal under French law.

This wasn’t about a model being “biased.”
It was about a model releasing answers without a strong layer that checks whether those answers are acceptable or safe.

This is the exact gap that models like DeepSeek are starting to address.

AI Played a Major Role in Black Friday Spending

According to data, U.S. consumers spent $11.8 billion online this Black Friday, a record, up 9.1% from last year.

But the most interesting part? AI-powered tools played a huge role. 

Globally, AI agents influenced over $14 billion in sales.

Shoppers used AI assistants to:

• Compare prices

• Find deals

• Navigate tariff-driven price increases

• And cut down the time it takes to make gift decisions

AI shopping agents aren't just helping people find products; they're becoming the new search layer between consumers and retailers. 

That means the traditional discovery funnel, search engines, ads, and product pages are being compressed or bypassed entirely. Retailers who aren't optimized for AI recommendation engines risk becoming invisible, even if their prices are competitive.

AI’s impact on real transactions is rising fast and very visibly.

What You Should Actually Pay Attention To

Here's what these shifts mean for how you use and think about AI:

1. Stop relying on "free forever" for anything important

If you're building workflows, content systems, or business processes around free AI tools, have a backup plan. The free tier you're using today will either disappear, get neutered, or become unreliable as these companies figure out their economics.

Move anything critical to paid tools now, or at least know exactly what you'll switch to when free dries up.

2. Start fact-checking AI outputs like you'd fact-check an intern

AI is getting better at sounding confident, but Grok showed what happens when there's no verification layer. If you're using AI for research, analysis, or decision-making, treat every output as a first draft that needs verification.

Don't just copy-paste. Cross-reference. Check sources.

3. Watch where AI agents are replacing search, not just answering questions

Black Friday wasn't about people asking AI questions; it was about AI making purchase decisions for them. That same pattern is coming to every industry where you currently "Google something and click around."

If your business, content, or income depends on people finding you through search or discovery, start thinking about how you show up in AI recommendations. Because the traffic patterns are shifting, and they're shifting fast.

Reply and let me know what you think about all of this. What are you working on?

- Aashish 

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