AI is becoming an increasingly important layer in how consumers discover and evaluate products, but new research from Attentive suggests retailers and brands have not lost control of the customer relationship. Its 2026 State of AI in Retail study found that 68% of more than 3,000 U.S. consumers surveyed had used a general AI chatbot for shopping, while 93% of AI-assisted shoppers still sought information or proof outside the chatbot before purchasing.

The findings point to a more complicated change in ecommerce than the idea that AI will simply replace search engines, retailer websites or brand experiences.

AI is increasingly influencing the front end of the purchase journey, particularly discovery and product evaluation. But shoppers continue to move between AI conversations, search, reviews, retailer websites and brand properties before completing a transaction.

Attentive surveyed 3,054 U.S. adults between August 12 and 14, 2026. The company defines “AI-assisted shoppers” as respondents who had used a general-purpose chatbot for at least one of nine shopping activities during the preceding three months.

Among those shoppers, 71% said AI meaningfully affected the products or brands they considered or chose at least half the time they used it for shopping. Meanwhile, 62% said they had purchased a different product or brand instead of their usual choice because of an AI chatbot.

That makes AI visibility an increasingly important part of retail discovery. A brand does not necessarily need to persuade a shopper directly if its products are being surfaced, compared or recommended during an AI conversation.

But the research also challenges the assumption that shoppers blindly follow AI recommendations.

Ninety-three percent of AI-assisted shoppers sought information or proof outside AI during a recent shopping experience. Customer reviews were cited by 37%, price comparisons across retailers by 36%, and detailed product information by 33%. Sixty-four percent of shoppers seeking outside proof visited a seller's website, app or physical store.

This creates a new role for the brand website. Rather than serving only as the initial discovery destination, the product detail page can become a validation layer after an AI recommendation.

The purchase itself also remains largely outside conversational AI. Among shoppers describing a recent AI-assisted purchase, 59% bought from a retailer or marketplace selling multiple brands, 31% purchased directly from the company making the product, and only 10% completed the purchase inside an AI chatbot. Looking forward, 60% said they would prefer to complete a future purchase through the seller's website or app.

For marketers, that creates a two-stage optimization problem.

The first is AI discovery: ensuring product information is detailed and structured enough for large language models to understand what a product does, who it serves and how it differs from alternatives.

The second is conversion and retention: giving shoppers enough evidence to validate the recommendation and then creating a personalized relationship after purchase.

Attentive's findings suggest the second stage may become more important as AI compresses the traditional research journey. Among AI-assisted purchasers, 44% had already purchased again from the same brand or retailer, while another 28% had browsed again without purchasing. Sixty-nine percent had taken at least one action to remain connected with the brand or retailer.

The personalization expectations are also higher. Seventy-two percent of AI-assisted shoppers agreed with at least five of seven statements measuring expectations around personalization, compared with 41% of shoppers who did not use AI for shopping.

That has direct implications for CRM, customer data platforms, marketing automation and conversational commerce. If consumers become accustomed to highly contextual recommendations from AI assistants, generic post-purchase email and promotional messaging may increasingly feel inadequate.

Attentive also found that 24% of AI-assisted shoppers said a brand or retailer message had prompted them to ask a chatbot about a product, brand or category. That suggests the relationship between brand marketing and AI discovery can work in both directions: AI can influence the customer, but brand messaging can also influence what customers subsequently ask AI.

The emerging model is therefore less about AI replacing the brand and more about AI becoming another decision layer between marketing exposure and purchase.

Market Landscape

The research arrives as AI referral traffic becomes a measurable part of ecommerce discovery. Attentive cites Adobe data showing that AI-referred traffic to U.S. retail websites increased 62% year over year in July 2026. Adobe also found that visitors arriving from AI spent 59% more time on retail sites, viewed 22% more pages per visit and converted at a 60% higher rate than non-AI traffic.

Those figures suggest AI-referred visitors can be commercially valuable, but the implications go beyond traffic acquisition. Brands increasingly need product information that works for both conventional search and answer-engine discovery.

This makes structured product data, detailed product descriptions, reviews, pricing, availability and third-party references increasingly important components of an AI-era ecommerce stack.

Strategic Outlook

The strategic lesson for brands is not to abandon traditional digital channels in favor of AI.

Instead, marketers need to build a connected journey in which AI discovery, search, product pages, reviews, first-party data, CRM and post-purchase engagement reinforce one another.

The Attentive research suggests that shoppers often arrive at a brand after an AI system has already influenced their shortlist. That means the website has less time to establish relevance but an important role in establishing trust.

For MarTech teams, the opportunity is to connect AI visibility with downstream customer data. Brands should be able to understand not only whether they appear in AI recommendations, but whether those recommendations lead to qualified visits, purchases, repeat transactions and long-term customer value.

AI may be changing where the shopping journey starts. The competitive advantage will come from what brands do once the shopper arrives.

Top Insights

• AI is becoming a product-discovery layer, with 71% of AI-assisted shoppers saying chatbots meaningfully influenced products or brands they considered or chose.
• Brands still control much of the validation journey, as 93% of AI-assisted shoppers sought information or proof beyond the chatbot before purchasing.
• Direct ecommerce remains important, with 60% preferring to complete future AI-assisted purchases on the seller's website or app.
• AI-assisted shoppers expect stronger personalization, with 72% meeting Attentive's high-personalization threshold versus 41% of non-AI shoppers.
• Brand marketing can influence AI discovery, with 24% saying a brand or retailer message prompted them to ask a chatbot about a product, brand or category.

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