92% of AI-Assisted Shoppers Say AI Shapes What They Buy. Is Your Content Keeping Up?

During the 2025 holiday season, generative AI and AI agents drove an estimated $262 billion in global retail revenue, accounting for roughly 20% of total sales. Traffic from AI search channels like ChatGPT and Perplexity doubled year over year. Shoppers referred from AI-powered search converted at nine times the rate of social media referrals.

What does this mean for how brands reach consumers? I see it playing out on three fronts:

●      An evolution of existing channels

●      The emergence of new agentic channels

●      And the need for new marketing operational models

To gauge how far these shifts have actually reached consumers, Skai surveyed 1,000 U.S. shoppers about how they’re using GenAI throughout their shopping journey.

The implication for marketers is clear: the consumer journey is being rewritten in real time.

The habit gap is your window of opportunity

Consumers know AI can help them shop. 86% are aware they can use ChatGPT for shopping. 55% have knowingly used a retailer AI assistant like Amazon Rufus or Walmart Sparky. Nearly half (48%) used AI for product research in the last 30 days.

But 30% say they simply haven’t considered using AI for shopping. The barrier isn’t skepticism or distrust. It’s just not part of their routine yet.

The advertiser side tells a similar story. Skai and Stratably’s 2026 State of Retail Media survey found that 63% of advertisers are already using GenAI, but only 3% are seeing meaningful impact. Consumer behavior is moving, but advertiser readiness isn’t keeping pace.

That gap between awareness and habit represents an early-adoption window. As AI gets more embedded in shopping platforms and the experience gets smoother, that 30% will decline. Brands need to start building presence, test what increases visibility, and figure out who owns AI discoverability.

92% say AI research influenced their purchase.

When consumers use AI for shopping, they’re using it to get smarter before they buy. The top tasks cluster around information gathering: comparing products or brands (37%), finding deals and discounts (32%), checking reviews and pros/cons (30%), and finding product recommendations (28%).

And it’s working: 92% of those who used AI for product research say it influenced their purchase decision. Nearly three-quarters (73%) take further action after an AI recommendation, whether that’s asking follow-up questions, clicking links, or visiting retailer sites. AI is actively shaping what consumers consider and what they ultimately buy.

With this level of AI influence on purchasing decisions, optimizing for AI-readable content can’t stay a side project. Your product feeds, structured data, and brand information need to be built for machines as well as humans. That’s a workflow change, and potentially a new role. Someone needs to own the intersection of content, data, and AI discoverability.

Two-thirds of consumers click through. 29% of Gen Z buy directly.

The influence goes beyond research. Two-thirds of consumers (65%) have clicked from an AI tool directly to a retailer site. This isn’t passive browsing. Consumers are following AI recommendations to the point of purchase.

Gen Z leads here. They use AI for comparison shopping at 1.5x the rate of Boomers (44% vs. 30%). And 29% of Gen Z have made a purchase directly through ChatGPT’s shopping feature, compared to just 5% of Boomers. Shopping queries on AI platforms are growing faster than any other category, and referral traffic is converting at rates retailers cannot ignore.

In performance terms, AI is behaving like a high-intent referral channel layered above existing retail infrastructure.

That has implications for measurement. Most brands can track paid search, paid social and retail media performance with precision. Far fewer can measure how they appear within AI-generated results, or which product attributes and data signals influence recommendations.

That’s not a media gap. It’s a capability gap.

Replenishment-Heavy Categories Lead, Especially Among Gen Z.

When consumers show openness to AI-driven purchasing, it’s concentrated in predictable categories. Groceries and household essentials lead at 25% comfort with AI auto-purchase, followed by entertainment and media (23%), beauty (20%), and electronics (20%). Replenishment beats consideration. Categories with predictable repeat purchases see higher AI acceptance than those requiring personal judgment.

Gen Z accelerates the timeline. 67% are comfortable with AI auto-buying within set rules, compared to just 19% of Boomers. A majority of Gen Z say they would buy through AI instead of going to a retailer site directly.

Replenishment-heavy categories like grocery and household essentials will see AI-driven purchasing integrated into existing retail platforms first. If you’re in those categories, treat AI optimization with the same urgency you bring to search and retail media today. Start building your agentic playbook in these categories: test formats, learn what influences recommendations, and establish benchmarks.

Conclusion: As the consumer journey is being rewritten in real time, what can advertisers do?

The latest holiday season proved that AI is a present reality contributing hundreds of billions in revenue. Our survey reveals the nuance beneath the headlines: consumers are embracing AI as a research tool while remaining cautious about handing over purchase decisions. But that caution is evaporating fastest among Gen Z, which is a preview of where mainstream behavior is heading over the next three to five years.

The consumer data confirms what the broader market signals have been pointing to. Existing advertising channels are evolving as AI reshapes discovery and research. A new agentic channel is emerging with real, measurable activity. The marketing organizations that will win aren’t the ones bolting AI tools onto existing workflows. They’re the ones rethinking how their teams, data, and media strategies work together across all three fronts.