Nearly half of U.S. consumers surveyed use at least one AI tool to assist with their shopping, according to consumer intelligence firm Nielsen IQ, suggesting the technology may be having a new impact on U.S. shopping habits.
NIQ said in a recent statement that 42% of consumers indicated they used at least one AI tool for shopping within the past month. This is based on an ongoing study that sampled about 500 U.S. consumers earlier this year.
NIQ said the findings show that AI is influencing the way consumers evaluate and narrow down their options before making a purchase.
Specifically, 17% of respondents used AI for product recommendations. 10% used a voice assistant to purchase or reorder products, and 10% used an AI-powered shopping assistant.
“We are witnessing the early stages of a fundamental industry-wide shift from search to decision-making,” said Liz Buchanan, president of NIQ North America.
“AI will not replace consumers, but it is dramatically changing the way they make choices. The companies that win in this next era will be those that understand how to show up in the moment and deliver both value and trust,” she added.
Despite the apparent openness to AI-powered shopping, the survey also found that “most people are not yet ready to fully delegate decision-making.” In our study, only 5% used fully autonomous AI agents (also known as agent AI) to place orders on their behalf.
Given the power of AI to make shopping recommendations, NIQ said the findings suggest that the challenge now is for brands to respond to AI recommendations. Buchanan said this means the concept of a store shelf is “no longer just a physical or digital thing, it’s an algorithmic thing.”
“It changes how products compete, how performance is measured and how growth is unlocked,” she said.
Other studies have noted the same signs. That means more people are using AI to decide what to buy. For example, digital marketing firm Tinuiti conducted a survey in June of this year to predict the shopping patterns of 1,000 Amazon Prime members in the US ahead of the e-commerce giant’s biggest sale of the year.
Among other findings, we found that a majority of younger generations (76 percent and 72 percent of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, respectively) plan to use AI tools to optimize their Prime Day shopping.
