A comprehensive survey by Riskified reveals that artificial intelligence has become deeply integrated into consumer shopping practices, with 73% of respondents incorporating AI into their purchasing process. This research demonstrates a fundamental shift in how people evaluate products and make purchasing decisions, moving beyond mere convenience to become standard practice.

Concrete applications and adoption

The survey highlights specific AI applications that shoppers are embracing: using ChatGPT and similar tools for product recommendations, review summaries, and price comparisons. Interestingly, while purchases directly driven by AI remain limited to 13%, consumer acceptance of AI autonomy is substantially higher—70% express comfort with AI assistants independently completing transactions.

Pivotal period: holiday shopping

Holiday shopping represents a pivotal moment for this trend, with 58% of respondents planning to leverage AI tools for gift purchases, potentially establishing November as the first AI-dominated month in commerce. This seasonal shift could accelerate broader adoption patterns across all retail sectors.

Revealing trust dynamics

Trust dynamics present a compelling finding: consumer trust in AI influence on purchasing decisions (36%) nearly matches reliance on human sellers (38%), indicating that AI assistants have achieved near-parity with traditional retail approaches in consumer perception. This convergence challenges historical assumptions about human preference in service encounters.

Emerging challenges and concerns

However, the rise of AI-driven shopping introduces significant challenges requiring attention. Jeff Otto, Chief Marketing Officer at Riskified, highlights the complexity of assigning responsibility when transactions occur through AI intermediaries, noting the ambiguity around who bears liability in disputes—merchants or digital assistants.

Consumer apprehensions center on legitimate issues: payment security, personal data protection, transaction errors, and diminished control over purchasing decisions. These concerns suggest that despite growing adoption, consumers maintain healthy skepticism regarding automation risks.

Future acceleration

The emergence of the Agentic Commerce Protocol—enabling AI-facilitated purchases via system-to-system interactions—signals that this transformation will accelerate, requiring merchants and technology companies to simultaneously embrace innovation while implementing comprehensive security frameworks that maintain consumer protection and trust throughout AI-enabled transactions.

This survey marks a turning point in commerce: AI is no longer a marginal experiment but a central component of modern purchasing behavior, requiring rapid adaptation from the retail industry while preserving security and transparency.