Generative AI goes mainstream in shopping
When ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022, almost no one used generative AI to shop. Three years later it has become a normal part of how people research and buy online. Across large consumer surveys, awareness of generative AI in shopping has become near-universal, and the share of people who actually use it has climbed every year. In 2025, roughly half of consumers said they had used generative AI for at least part of their online shopping, a level of adoption that took the smartphone far longer to reach.
The numbers vary from survey to survey because researchers ask the question in different ways and cover different countries, but the direction is the same everywhere: sharply up. This report draws on several of the largest studies, including the worldwide Statista Consumer Insights survey of about 12,000 people across twelve countries, along with tracking work from Adobe, Capgemini and Capital One Shopping. Read together, they show a clear story of rising awareness, rising use and rising trust between 2023 and 2025. These tools sit on top of the same wider wave covered in our report on generative AI users worldwide, now applied directly to the checkout.
Awareness and openness since 2023
The first thing to change was attitude. Even before most people had used generative AI to buy anything, they became aware of it and open to the idea. The chart shows how two measures of that openness moved between 2023 and 2025.
A fast shift in mindset: by 2025 most shoppers were open to AI recommendations, and a majority had swapped search engines for AI tools.
Two changes stand out. Openness to letting generative AI suggest products rose from 63 percent of consumers in 2023 to about three-quarters in 2025, meaning resistance to AI advice has faded quickly. More dramatic still, the share of people who use generative AI tools instead of a traditional search engine to find products more than doubled, from 25 percent in 2023 to 58 percent in 2025. That single shift is reshaping how shoppers begin their journey, moving the starting point away from a search box and toward a conversation with an assistant. Awareness now runs even higher than these figures suggest: around 92 percent of consumers say they have encountered AI in some form while shopping, so the open question is no longer whether people know about it, but how often they choose to use it.
From awareness to everyday use
Attitudes have now turned into habits. The clearest single measure is the share of consumers who say they have actually used generative AI for online shopping, and it is rising fast, as the chart shows.
Half of all shoppers: reported use of generative AI for online shopping climbed from 38 percent in 2024 to 51 percent in 2025.
In 2024, about 38 percent of consumers said they had used generative AI for online shopping. A year later that had risen to 51 percent, an increase of roughly 34 percent in twelve months. To put that pace in context, generative AI is being adopted faster than the personal computer or the early internet were at the same stage after launch, a reflection of how quickly free tools such as ChatGPT reached a mass audience. The momentum has not stopped there: separate tracking found that shopping-related generative AI use grew by another 35 percent between February and November of 2025 alone, and around 80 percent of consumers say they plan to use these tools for shopping in 2026. On current trends, using AI to help shop is on its way to becoming the default rather than the exception.
What shoppers actually do with generative AI
Awareness and use only matter if people are doing something useful with the technology. In practice, shoppers lean on generative AI across the whole journey, from first idea to final choice. The chart shows the most common ways consumers engage with it.
From discovery to decision: most shoppers have met AI while browsing, and a majority want it built into how they buy.
The most common uses cluster around finding and choosing products. Nearly everyone, about 92 percent, has encountered AI while shopping, whether as a recommendation, a chatbot or a search result. A clear majority, some 63 percent, actively want to shop with generative AI help, and 58 percent already use it in place of a traditional search engine to find what they need. Around 39 percent have used dedicated AI assistants for shopping tasks, and 36 percent have turned to general tools such as ChatGPT to research a purchase. Beyond these headline uses, shoppers rely on generative AI to compare options side by side, summarize reviews, hunt for discounts and codes, and narrow a long list down to a few strong candidates, tasks that used to mean opening many tabs and reading for hours.
The generation gap in AI shopping
Adoption is not spread evenly. Younger, higher-income shoppers are well ahead, and crucially they are also the most satisfied, which tends to predict where the wider market is heading. The chart shows how the share who say AI improves their shopping experience jumped in a single year.
Young and convinced: almost all Gen Z and millennial AI shoppers now say the technology makes shopping better.
Gen Z and millennials are the clear leaders. Around 53 percent of Gen Z and 48 percent of millennials say they have used AI to shop, with higher-income millennials, those earning above the median, adopting at even higher rates. What matters most for the future is satisfaction. Among Gen Z who use AI, the share saying it improves their shopping experience rose from 70 percent in 2024 to 90 percent in 2025, and among millennials it climbed from 79 percent to 95 percent. When the heaviest users are also the happiest, adoption tends to spread outward to older groups over time. Older shoppers remain more cautious, and some are uncomfortable with AI-driven personalization, but the generational pattern points to steadily rising use as younger cohorts make up more of the market.
Trust is rising, but limits remain
For all the enthusiasm, shoppers have not handed everything over to AI. The pattern across surveys is one of growing comfort with advice and research, paired with continued caution about money. Reluctance to let AI handle purchases has fallen sharply: in one US survey the share of people unwilling to let AI handle transactions dropped from about 66 percent early in 2025 to around 32 percent later in the year, a striking swing in a matter of months.
Yet a firm limit remains around payments and personal data. Roughly 30 percent of consumers say they would never let AI handle their shopping or access their payment information, and satisfaction with the technology is not universal, having dipped in some 2024 surveys even as use rose. Shoppers also tell researchers they check AI results carefully, with many verifying recommendations before buying. The takeaway for retailers is that trust must be earned step by step: people are happy to let AI help them decide, but they still want to stay in control of the final click and their financial details.
Retailers race to keep up
On the business side, the response has been rapid and near-universal. Retailers know that if shoppers begin their journeys inside an AI assistant, being visible and useful there is essential. The chart shows how far retailer adoption of AI has already gone.
Widely adopted, rarely mastered: most retailers use AI, but only a small share have scaled it across the business.
Around 89 percent of retailers are now using or assessing AI, and roughly 80 percent have built it into day-to-day operations, from product recommendations to customer service and pricing. The gap is in maturity: about 62 percent remain stuck in experimentation, and only around 7 percent say they have fully scaled AI across the business, which means early movers still hold an advantage. The payoff can be large. Amazon attributes about 35 percent of its revenue to AI-driven product recommendations, and its shopping assistant Rufus, alongside rivals such as Walmart Sparky and Alibaba Wenwen, has pushed conversational shopping into the mainstream. Retailers are also rewriting product data so their items surface well inside large language models, a new form of search optimization aimed at AI rather than at Google. The competitive backdrop, and who is winning it, is set out in our ranking of the top online stores worldwide by net sales.
Where AI shopping goes next
Every indicator points the same way. With about 80 percent of consumers planning to use generative AI to shop in 2026, referral traffic from AI tools to retail sites growing explosively, and satisfaction rising among the heaviest users, the technology is set to move from a helpful add-on to a core part of the buying process. Analysts increasingly describe a shift toward zero-click shopping, where an assistant researches, compares and even completes a purchase on the shoppers behalf, collapsing several steps into one conversation.
The commercial stakes are growing to match. The generative AI in e-commerce market is forecast to expand from roughly $1 billion in 2025 to nearly $4 billion by 2035 as retailers invest in assistants, personalization and AI-ready product data. That is still small next to the trillions spent online each year, but it sits at the point where every purchase now begins. For a sense of that larger prize, see our overview of e-commerce worldwide statistics and facts and the wider revenue of the e-commerce industry worldwide. The clear message from 2023 to 2025 is that consumer awareness and use of generative AI in shopping have crossed from early adoption into the mainstream, and the pace shows no sign of slowing.
Gen AI shopping in numbers
A handful of figures capture how far and how fast consumer awareness and use of generative AI in online shopping moved between 2023 and 2025.
Together they mark the moment generative AI became a standard shopping tool rather than a novelty.
Frequently Asked Questions
About 51 percent of consumers reported using generative AI for online shopping in 2025, up from 38 percent in 2024, a rise of roughly 34 percent in a single year. Surveys suggest around 80 percent plan to use it for shopping in 2026.
Awareness is now very high. Around 92 percent of consumers say they have encountered AI while shopping online, and most are familiar with tools such as ChatGPT and retailer assistants. Awareness has climbed steadily since 2023, when the technology was still new.
Shoppers use generative AI mainly to research products, compare options, get recommendations and find deals. About 58 percent now use Gen AI tools instead of traditional search engines to find products, up from 25 percent in 2023.
Younger shoppers lead. Around 53 percent of Gen Z and 48 percent of millennials say they have used AI to shop, with higher-income millennials the most active adopters. The vast majority of young users say AI improves their shopping experience.
Trust is rising but not complete. Reluctance to let AI handle purchases has fallen sharply, and most users say AI improves their experience, but around 30 percent still say they would never let AI handle payments or access their financial information.
Yes, sharply. The share of consumers replacing traditional search with Gen AI rose from 25 percent in 2023 to 58 percent in 2025, openness to AI recommendations rose from 63 percent to about 75 percent, and reported use for shopping climbed from 38 percent in 2024 to 51 percent in 2025.
ChatGPT is the most widely used, followed by tools such as Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity. Retailers have also built their own assistants, including Amazon Rufus, Walmart Sparky and Alibaba Wenwen, which shoppers use directly on store sites.
Most are moving fast. Around 89 percent of retailers are using or assessing AI and 80 percent have integrated it into operations, though only a small share have fully scaled it. Amazon attributes about 35 percent of its revenue to AI-driven product recommendations.
Growth is expected to continue quickly. Roughly 80 percent of consumers plan to use generative AI to shop in 2026, referral traffic from AI tools is surging, and the generative AI in e-commerce market is forecast to grow from about $1 billion in 2025 to nearly $4 billion by 2035.
Statista Consumer Insights - consumer awareness and use of generative AI in online shopping.
Capgemini Research Institute - openness to and use of Gen AI in shopping, 2023 to 2025.
Capital One Shopping - AI shopping adoption, engagement and demographics.
Adobe - use of generative AI for online shopping and AI referral traffic.