AI WooCommerce Shopping Assistant — Documentation
Plugin name: AI WooCommerce Shopping Assistant Version documented: 0.2.0 Admin location: WordPress Admin → WooCommerce → AI Assistant Text domain: ai-woocommerce-shopping-assistant
This documentation describes production behavior in the current codebase. It does not describe planned work, unused scaffolding, or features that only exist as hooks for developers.
What this plugin does
The plugin adds a storefront shopping assistant to a WooCommerce store. Shoppers can search the catalog, ask product questions, compare products, see upsell and cross-sell suggestions, manage the cart, and look up their own orders — from a floating chat launcher or from a shortcode.
WooCommerce remains the source of truth for products, prices, stock, variations, carts, and orders. The AI model (when configured) chooses among approved tools. It cannot invent catalog facts or change the cart without shopper confirmation.
An AI API key is optional. Without a key, catalog search, product cards, cart actions, recommendations from WooCommerce relationships, and merchant-configured fallback messages still work.
Who should use it
- WooCommerce store owners who want an in-store shopping assistant
- Merchants who want catalog search even when no AI provider is connected
- Stores that need multilingual shopper-facing replies (allow-listed languages)
- Teams that want abandoned-cart reminder emails with optional AI copy
Key features (verified)
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Floating chatbot + shortcode embed | Production |
| Native WooCommerce product search (no AI required) | Production |
| Optional AI query understanding | Production (needs API key) |
| Product Q&A from catalog content | Production (needs AI for natural-language answers) |
| Upsell / cross-sell from WooCommerce relationships + catalog | Production (AI optional) |
| In-chat cart, confirmation, checkout link | Production |
| Order lookup (logged-in + guest verify) | Production |
| Multilingual AI replies (11 languages + Auto Detect) | Production |
| Static fallback messages when AI is unavailable | Production |
| Abandoned cart recovery emails | Production (opt-in) |
| Analytics dashboard | Production (opt-in tracking) |
| Back-in-stock notify-me on product cards | Production |
| Semantic / vector search backend | Not shipped — developer filter only |
| Streaming (SSE) storefront replies | Incomplete — setting exists; widget uses blocking POST |
| Gutenberg block / Elementor widget | Not provided |
Documentation map
Start here
Settings (every admin field)
- General
- AI Provider
- Product Search
- Recommendations
- Product Q&A
- Cart Assistant
- Order Assistant
- Sales Agent
- Quick Actions
- Chatbot
- AI Language
- Appearance
- Access & Privacy
- Usage & Costs
- Logs
- Developer & Debug
- Analytics settings
- Cart Recovery settings
Features
- AI chat
- AI configuration
- Product search
- Product Q&A
- Upsell & cross-sell
- Product comparison
- Sales Agent
- Multilingual AI
- Fallback & offline behavior
- Cart
- Checkout
- Orders
- Stock alerts
- Quick Actions
- Cart recovery
- Analytics
Admin, shortcodes, support
Developers
Coverage
Admin navigation (actual names)
The plugin adds one submenu:
WooCommerce → AI Assistant (admin.php?page=aiwsa-assistant)
Capability required: manage_woocommerce. Provider credentials also require manage_options.
Top navigation:
- Dashboard
- AI Provider
- Product Search
- Recommendations
- Product Q&A
- Cart Assistant
- Cart Recovery
- Analytics
- Order Assistant
- Sales Agent
- Settings
The Settings sidebar repeats those areas plus: General, Quick Actions, Chatbot, AI Language, Appearance, Access & Privacy, Usage & Costs, Logs, Developer & Debug.
Requirements (from the plugin header)
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| WordPress | 6.5 or newer |
| WooCommerce | 8.2 or newer (WC tested up to: 11.0.1) |
| PHP | 8.1 or newer |
| Required plugin | WooCommerce (Requires Plugins: woocommerce) |
| AI | Optional. OpenAI or Google Gemini when conversational AI is wanted |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Note: Files
docs/ARCHITECTURE.mdanddocs/ARCHITECTURE-DRAFT.mdare internal engineering notes. They are not buyer documentation and may be outdated. Use this folder instead.