Adobe: How consumers really use generative AI
A new study from Adobe sheds light on the ways consumers shop – and want to shop – with generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
According to the study (based on Adobe Analytics data), more than half of surveyed U.S. consumers have used generative AI, and almost six-in-10 (58%) say it has improved their online shopping experience. More than half (52%) of respondents say are likely to use generative AI tools to help with their purchase of clothing.
In addition, 71% of respondents believe that using generative AI to produce images of them wearing a product can boost their confidence when making a purchase, while 66% want brands to utilize their purchase history or other data to make shopping experiences more relevant to their needs.
Top anticipated consumer benefits
According to the survey, respondents are most excited about the potential of generative AI to help enable websites that automatically filter products based on consumers' needs (40% of respondents), designing a custom product (37%), summarizing product reviews (37%), chatbot-based customer service (36%), and virtual personal shoppers to customize options (31%).
Of Gen Z respondents that said they use generative AI every day, half use it most for making shopping and price comparison research faster and easier, and almost half for getting faster and better customer support when they reach out to a company.
Future plans
In the next one to three years, consumers are excited about how generative AI can help them learn a new skill (43%), make price comparison and shopping easier (36%) and access better customer support from companies (33%).
Roughly 77% of respondents express a desire for their brand experiences to be personalized to their needs and almost half of consumers surveyed are more inclined to shop with brands that use generative AI on their website.
In addition, roughly two in three (65%) respondents believe that generative AI can help improve their experiences with faster and better customer service, generate more personalized interactions based on their preferences (48%), make products and services cheaper (44%) and create more exciting and creative experiences (36%).
Two-thirds (66%) of respondents want brands to utilize their purchase history or other data to make shopping experiences more relevant to their needs.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents say that generative AI has already improved their online shopping experience, and most are optimistic about future experiences. Top future experiences inspiring respondents optimism include automatically filtering products on a website based on consumers' needs (90%), summarizing product reviews (90%), designing a custom product (88%), enabling chatbot-based customer service (87%), and having virtual personal shoppers customize options (82%).
In addition, new Adobe Analytics data shows that online traffic to retail sites (304% YoY) from generative AI tools has jumped significantly.
Adobe surveyed 3,000 U.S. consumers Feb. 15-19, 2024 about their usage and consumption of generative AI. Adobe Analytics is part of Adobe Experience Cloud.