Adobe: Generative AI becomes mainstream online shopping tool
Online consumers are adopting generative AI at a rapid rate.
New data from Adobe reveals the extent to which U.S. consumers are using generative AI to assist their e-commerce efforts. One of the major trends Adobe observed during the 2024 holiday shopping season was the usage of generative AI-based chat services and browsers.
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Data from Adobe showed a major increase in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites, during the 2024 holiday season. New data tracking U.S. online shopping through July 2025, based on direct transactions online and covering more than 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail sites, shows that generative AI traffic rose 4,700% year-over-year in July 2025.
Growth remained strong in the beginning of the year according to Adobe analysis, with generative AI traffic up 1,100% in January 2025 and up 3,100% in April 2025 as compared to July 2024, with Adobe determining generative AI traffic was too minimal to serve as a baseline before that time.
In an Adobe survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers, 38% reported having used generative AI for online shopping, with 52% planning to do so this year. The shopping tasks consumers are using AI for include conducting research (53% of respondents), receiving product recommendations (40%) to seeking deals (36%), creating shopping lists (30%), getting present ideas (30%), finding unique products (29%), and virtual try-on (26%).
Adobe analysis of digital consumer behavior also shows that shoppers who arrive at a n e-commerce site from generative AI sources are 10% more engaged than consumers from non-AI sources, with 32% longer visits and 10% more pages per visit).
Generative AI-sourced online shoppers are also less likely to leave immediately, with a 27% lower bounce rate. Of surveyed consumers who have used AI for shopping, 85% of respondents note it improved their shopping experience, with 73% citing it as their primary source of product research and 83% saying they are more likely to use AI for larger or more complex purchases.
AI conversion gap
In July 2025, traffic from generative AI sources was 23% less likely to convert, down from 49% in January 2025 and 38% in April 2025. According to Adobe, this indicates AI is being utilized more during the research and consideration stage, in advance of when shoppers are ready to hit the buy button.
However, Adobe advises that the improvements in recent months show that consumers are increasingly comfortable completing a transaction directly after an AI-powered interaction.
As a result of the narrowing conversion gap, Adobe says AI-driven revenue-per-visit has grown in recent months, increasing by 84% from January 2025 to July 2025 (compared to non-AI sources).
This means that in July 2025, an AI-driven visit was worth 27% less than a non-AI visit, a dramatic improvement from 97% less in July 2024. Adobe expects the value of AI-driven visits to increase as consumers use generative AI tools on mobile, where research indicates more impulse shopping tends to happen.
In July 2025, 26% of traffic from generative AI sources came through mobile devices, up from 18% in January 2025.
