This is actually a terrible use for AI, since it's going to regurgitate the marketing astroturfing on Reddit without showing you the source so you can see it's all bots.
It's not if you use it correctly. If you say "Find me good brands for X", then yes you'll get bad stuff.
I said something like:
"Identify [category]-making cluster regions in Europe (where I am), research the manufacturers/companies you find and see if they have online stores."
Once I had that list and found stuff I liked, I sent what I liked back to the AI and asked it to find me items of comparable build quality from better-known brands."
I did this latest step so that I could have a benchmark and to see if I was actually getting a better deal or if I could just buy from the big brand.
The trick was to specify the exact process I'd like to have run, but wouldn't take the time to do.
I ended up buying stuff directly from an obscure manufacturer's Shopify store for 1/3 the price I would've paid at a big brand. I think this could work in any product category where quality markers are somewhat objective and standardized.
I said something like:
"Identify [category]-making cluster regions in Europe (where I am), research the manufacturers/companies you find and see if they have online stores."
Once I had that list and found stuff I liked, I sent what I liked back to the AI and asked it to find me items of comparable build quality from better-known brands."
I did this latest step so that I could have a benchmark and to see if I was actually getting a better deal or if I could just buy from the big brand.
The trick was to specify the exact process I'd like to have run, but wouldn't take the time to do.
I ended up buying stuff directly from an obscure manufacturer's Shopify store for 1/3 the price I would've paid at a big brand. I think this could work in any product category where quality markers are somewhat objective and standardized.