EXCLUSIVE: Consumer comfort, interest in AI shopping assistants grows
New survey findings exclusively released to Chain Store Age indicate most U.S. consumers have used an artificial intelligence shopping assistant.
The nationwide survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers from online coupon platform CouponFollow indicates that seven-in-10 (69%) respondents have used an AI shopping assistant. Interestingly, a larger percentage of respondents (74%) believe AI can find better deals than they can manually.
Men were more likely than women to have used an AI shopping assistant (73% compared to 66%). Generationally, usage was highest among Gen X (72%) and lowest among baby boomers (63%), but both groups were most likely to have used an Amazon AI shopping assistant. Gen Z and millennials were more likely to have used ChatGPT.
Overall, 45% of respondents said they feel comfortable letting AI make purchases for them. This includes a leading 54% of Gen Z respondents, followed by millennials (46%), baby boomers (45%) and Gen X (38%).
Analysis of Google Trends data by CouponFollow indicates that as a result of leveraging AI shopping assistants, U.S. consumers saved an average of $83 during the past year, with one in 10 saving more than $200. This analysis also shows that interest in AI shopping assistance from U.S. shoppers surged by more than 223% from 2023 to 2025.
[READ MORE: Survey: Consumers interested in AI as shopping assistant tool]
Other findings
- The most common purchases respondents made based on AI recommendations were tech and electronics (47%), household essentials (28%), clothing (27%), beauty and skincare (19%), books and media (18%), holiday gifts (17%) and groceries (16%).
- More than half (54%) of respondents said trusting AI with making purchases saves time, while 48% said they would only allow it for low-risk or routine items. Another 41% felt secure because they set specific preferences or filters for the AI to follow, although 61% of all respondents believe that AI shows bias toward certain brands or products.
- The top ways AI has helped respondents in their buying journey include providing general product information (49%), answering specific product questions (43%), helping compare products (40%), personalized product recommendations (34%), and comparing prices or finding deals (32%).
- One-in-four respondents has ended up spending more than they had planned due to AI recommendations.
- Only 14% of respondents have regretted or returned a purchase based on an AI recommendation.
- When asked which companies they would trust most to offer an AI shopping assistant, Amazon topped the list at 56%. Google (34%), Walmart (30%), Target (25%), Apple (20%) and Microsoft (18%) followed behind.
