Goody Launches AI Gifting: The AI Tool That Picks Presents Because Humans Can’t Anymore
Goody just launched AI Gifting—an AI tool that picks presents because humans keep messing it up. Personalized gifts, zero panic.
In the most predictable plot twist of the 2025 holiday season—just slightly ahead of OpenAI announcing an LLM that wraps presents—Goody, America’s self-proclaimed fastest-growing gifting company, has debuted AI Gifting, an artificially intelligent assistant that helps you select presents for people you apparently do not know well enough to shop for.
This marks a major technological breakthrough in the world of consumer sentiment: humanity has now outsourced thoughtfulness. Somewhere, Hallmark is crying into its unsent cards.
Goody insists this isn’t about replacing the human element of gift-giving…which is exactly what every startup says moments before replacing the human element of gift-giving.
But to their credit, they’ve built a tool that taps into millions of real gift transactions, a.k.a. the data trail of “I have no idea what to buy my boss,” “my cousin likes coffee I think,” and “this digital card will emotionally absolve me, right?”
And because this is 2025, all of it is, of course, powered by a chat interface. Finally, a gift advisor that can respond instantly at 2 a.m. when you panic about what to send your Gen Z coworker who “loves vibes,” “rarely emails,” and “might be named Savannah but you’re not 100% sure.”
The AI Gifting Revolution Nobody Asked For (But Absolutely Everyone Will Use)
Goody’s pitch is simple: humans are overwhelmed, overworked, and—let’s be honest—bad at knowing what other humans want. Their new AI assistant promises to fix the problem of gift paralysis with natural language prompts like:
- “Holiday gifts for my team who claim they don’t want gifts but absolutely will judge me if I get it wrong.”
- “Housewarming present for a Gen Z colleague who lives alone but somehow has nine houseplants.”
- “$50 gift for someone who loves coffee, artisanal culture, and pretending they don’t read TikTok comment threads.”
From there, the AI chooses gift options, selects a digital card, and even drafts your heartfelt message, ensuring the recipient believes you were thinking of them—not that a GPU in a warehouse was.
Goody CEO Katy Carrigan puts it diplomatically:
“We have so much data on what gifts people actually want and where they get stuck.”
Translated: “We watched years of gifting failures and built a model to save you from yourself.”
And honestly? Fair.
Solving the World’s Least Urgent Problem with Enterprise-Grade Rigor
Gifting, Goody insists, is a deeply complex emotional challenge—one traditionally reserved for personal assistants, frazzled HR departments, and exhausted parents who’ve stopped pretending they understand what their children like.
The press release describes gift selection as time-consuming and emotionally fraught. This is correct. Nothing triggers existential dread quite like trying to choose a present under $75 that says “I value you as a colleague” without accidentally implying “I Googled your personality type and hope this is correct.”
So Goody’s AI isn’t just recommending products—it’s applying taste modeling, pattern recognition, and tone-aware message drafting to ensure every gift feels personal, not generic.
Which is honestly a relief. Because nothing says “authentic connection” like a meticulously optimized message written by an algorithm trained on 20,000 corporate gifting campaigns.
Behind the Scenes: How Goody’s AI Gifting Actually Works
The process is intentionally simple:
- You tell the AI what you’re trying to do (“Help, I need a thoughtful gift for my millennial colleague who only communicates with me through emojis.”)
- The model analyzes millions of anonymized gift transactions
(Yes, every “cute tea sampler” you’ve ever sent will now help train future gifting recommendations.) - It recommends options, picks a digital card, and drafts a message
(“Hi Rebecca! Saw this and thought of you—because the AI said I should.”) - You refine Budget, vibe, tone. Because if your card message accidentally sounds like a wedding toast, that’s on you.
According to CTO Mark Bao,
“AI gifting is a totally new way to use Goody, but it’s not magic.”
Sure, Mark. But we’ve seen what happens when you tell people technology isn’t magic. Next thing you know, someone will try to use AI Gifting to mend an estranged sibling relationship or to apologize for accidentally replying-all.
Why AI Gifting Might Actually Be the Future (Unfortunately or Fortunately)
While Silicon Valley has definitely hit the “AI everything” phase—AI calendars, AI nutritionists, AI breakup coaches—this one actually makes sense.
Corporate gifting alone is a $242 billion market, which is astonishing given how many of those gifts are:
- Branded water bottles nobody asked for
- Snack boxes that contain exactly one good snack
- A succulent that will die in three weeks
Companies want personalization. Employees want gifts that don’t feel mass-produced. Executives want something thoughtful without spending more than 45 seconds thinking about it. Enter AI.
And according to early beta testers, it’s working. Hundreds of businesses have already adopted it, requesting gifts for everything from new hires to milestone celebrations to extremely cryptic scenarios like “congrats on surviving Q4.”
Bao says:
“We’re seeing moments that feel genuinely magical.”
Which begs the question: will the AI remember everyone’s preferences better than their friends do? Yes. Absolutely. Immediately.
A Future of Hyperpersonalized Presents—Because Why Not
Goody believes AI Gifting is just the beginning. Eventually, they envision 1:1 fully personalized gifts at global scale, which sounds both delightful and vaguely dystopian.
Picture a future where your coffee mug greets you by name because the AI knew you needed comfort that morning. Or where your annual “Congrats on another year!” corporate gift is so accurate it sparks a mild identity crisis.
But for now, Goody is focused on helping you send something thoughtful without sweating through your sweater in the candle aisle at Target.
Final Thoughts: AI Didn’t Kill the Spirit of Giving. It Just Made It Easier to Fake.
Goody’s AI Gifting is now available across all plans, including the free tier—meaning thoughtful gifting at scale is accessible to everyone, from enterprise HR directors to the cousin who always forgets your birthday.
Is this the moment humanity fully offloads emotional labor to machines?
Possibly.
Will people still claim their gift message “totally came from the heart”?
Absolutely yes.
But here’s the truth: if AI can reduce gifting stress, prevent awkward present misfires, and keep people from panic-buying scented candles…this might be the rare tech feature that actually improves holiday morale rather than destroying it.
Until, of course, the AI starts suggesting gifts for itself. Stay tuned.
