How GenAI and Agentic Commerce Are Transforming the Way Consumers Shop

Download the full infographic: How AI is transforming how consumers shop

During the 2025 holiday season, GenAI and AI agents drove $262 billion in global holiday revenue through personalized recommendations and deeper customer engagement, accounting for 20% of all retail 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? We see it playing out on three fronts:

How is AI is changing how brands reach shoppers?

1. The evolution of existing channels. The channels you already invest in are changing underneath you, and your strategies need to keep pace. Search, social, and retail media platforms are embedding AI into their core ad and discovery experiences.

2. The emergence of a new agentic channel. Platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming shopping destinations, creating an entirely new channel. Like any new channel, that means testing what works, setting goals, and figuring out where to invest.

3. A new marketing operating model. AI isn’t just changing where you advertise. It’s also changing how marketing gets done, from team structures and planning processes to measurement frameworks and skill sets.

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 findings, captured in our new infographic, “How AI Is Transforming How Consumers Shop,” highlight where adoption is accelerating, where gaps remain, how trust changes at the point of purchase, and how Gen Z’s behavior signals future trends.

Here are the key takeaways and what they mean across each area.

Why is the gap between AI awareness and adoption an opportunity for brands?

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.

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 quickly decline. The key question is whether your brand will be visible as AI-driven discovery increases.

Implications for advertisers:

• The evolution of existing channels: The platforms where you already invest (Google, Amazon, Walmart) are the ones embedding AI into discovery. That 55% who use retailer AI assistants are encountering AI inside the channels they already shop in. Start optimizing your product feeds, structured data, and content for these AI layers now, because the way your existing channels surface your brand is already changing.
• The emergence of a new agentic channel: 86% awareness of ChatGPT for shopping indicates strong early interest. Awareness today will translate into habitual use. Treat this like the early days of any new channel: start building presence, test what increases visibility, and establish your baseline before the land grab begins.
• A new marketing operating model: Most brands don’t have a way to monitor how they appear in AI-powered discovery, let alone optimize for it. This reflects a capability gap, not a media gap. Figure out who on your team owns AI visibility and what tools and processes they need to track it.

How should advertisers optimize for AI-driven product research by consumers?

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.

Implications for advertisers:

• The evolution of existing channels. Google, Amazon, and Walmart aren’t replacing their ad experiences with AI. They’re layering AI into the discovery and research phases that feed into those experiences. Google AI Overviews, Amazon Rufus, and Walmart Sparky are changing how consumers navigate the platforms you already invest in. Making sure your products show up accurately in AI-powered comparisons, reviews, and recommendations is now table stakes for the channels that you’re already running.
• The emergence of a new agentic channel. That 73% taking action after an AI recommendation is the early conversion funnel for a channel that barely existed two years ago. AI informs decisions and directs traffic.. Start treating AI interfaces as a measurable media touchpoint. Set up tracking, define what success looks like, and begin testing what content and signals produce measurable results.
• A new marketing operating model. When 92% say AI research influenced their purchase, 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.

Are consumers actually buying products through AI platforms?

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.

Implications for advertisers:

• The evolution of existing channels: AI recommendations are feeding traffic back into retailer sites. That 65% click-through rate means AI is becoming a discovery layer that sits on top of your existing retail and advertising infrastructure. Start analyzing which content and data signals lead to favorable AI recommendations for your products. This is the new top-of-funnel for the channels you already manage.
• The emergence of a new agentic channel: When 29% of Gen Z have purchased directly through ChatGPT, this reflects a channel with real transaction volume, not just research activity. Start treating agentic like any other emerging channel: define your KPIs, allocate test budgets, and start learning what increases conversion in this environment.
• A new marketing operating model: The consideration phase is fragmenting across AI and traditional touchpoints. You can’t optimize for this with siloed channel teams. Start building cross-channel coordination into how your marketing org plans, executes, and measures, because the consumer journey now cuts across all of them.

Do consumers trust AI to make purchase decisions?

Consumer comfort drops sharply at the point of purchase. 85% are comfortable with AI researching options. 82% are fine with AI generating a shortlist. 70% will let AI choose the best option from a set. But only 47% are comfortable with AI auto-buying within set rules.

Generational data reveals where this threshold is heading. Gen Z shows 3x higher comfort with AI making final purchase decisions compared to Boomers (34% vs. 7% “very comfortable” with auto-buy). 28% of Gen Z would let AI purchase without any approval, versus 0% of Boomers. The trust cliff is real today, but the ground is rising fast.

Implications for advertisers:

• The evolution of existing channels: The trust data confirms where the immediate value is within your current channels. Consumers want AI to help them research and decide within the platforms they already use. Double down on AI-optimized content at the consideration stage (product comparisons, reviews, specs) because that’s where AI is influencing outcomes in channels you already run.
• The emergence of a new agentic channel: The trust cliff tells you the sequencing for this new channel. It will mature first as a research and recommendation engine, then as a transaction layer. Invest in agentic visibility now. Learn how recommendations are generated. Don’t wait for autonomous purchasing to scale before you start. The brands that learn the channel now will have the advantage when transactions follow.
• A new marketing operating model: When 53% of consumers aren’t comfortable with AI auto-buying, over-indexing on automation risks alienating your customers. Plan your roadmap in phases: focus current resources on AI-assisted discovery and consideration, and build the measurement and operational infrastructure to scale into autonomous purchasing as consumer comfort shifts.

What does Gen Z behavior reveal about the future of AI commerce?

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.

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.

Implications for advertisers:

• The evolution of existing channels: 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. Your channels are about to change faster than everyone else’s. If you’re not in those categories, your runway is longer, but still shorter than you think.
• The emergence of a new agentic channel: When a majority of Gen Z would rather buy through AI than visit a retailer site, that’s more than an early signal – that’s the beginning of a channel shift. Start building your agentic playbook in replenishment categories first. Test formats, learn what influences recommendations, establish benchmarks. That playbook will extend to higher-consideration categories next.
• A new marketing operating model. The 63% adoption / 3% impact gap is a failure of organization, not technology. When 67% of the next generation of primary consumers is comfortable with AI-driven purchasing, today’s team structures, measurement frameworks, and planning processes won’t be sufficient. Start restructuring before consumer behavior forces your hand, not after.

Conclusion: What should advertisers do as AI reshapes the consumer shopping journey?

The 2025 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.

Skai is the AI-driven commerce media platform for performance advertising. For nearly two decades, the world’s top brands and agencies have trusted our award-winning technology to bring retail media, paid search, and paid social together into a single, strategic commerce media program. With embedded AI, connected data, and automation throughout, Skai helps marketers move faster, make smarter decisions, and drive more meaningful growth.

Ready to see how it all comes together? Schedule a quick demo to learn how Skai can help you stay ahead as AI reshapes how consumers shop and how brands reach them.

Download the full infographic: How AI Is Transforming How Consumers Shop

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