TL;DR
- A new shopping channel: AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode increasingly suggest gifts, compare offers and shortlist stores.
- Fast growth: according to Adobe, traffic from AI assistants to US websites rose 693% in the 2025 holiday season, and those visitors converted 31% more often. Adobe expects another 130% growth in 2026.
- Agents go further: AI and agents influenced 20% of global online orders during Cyber Week 2025, according to Salesforce, and in-chat checkout is already live in the US.
- The funnel is shifting: AI summaries reduce clicks on Google results, while the average cost per click in Google Ads keeps rising.
- What retailers can do: open their sites to AI crawlers, publish machine-readable product data, answer real gift questions, earn third-party reviews and measure AI traffic.
Contents
- The numbers behind AI shopping
- How the buying journey is changing
- What AI shopping agents can do
- Adoption in Europe
- Fewer clicks, pricier ads
- How retailers can prepare
- FAQ
- Vyara’s take
A shopper types a request into an AI assistant: a gift for a father who loves cooking, under €80, delivered before Christmas. Within seconds the assistant returns a shortlist of products, stores, prices and reasons. For retailers, the question this holiday season is no longer only whether customers see their ads, but whether AI assistants put them on that shortlist.
The numbers behind AI shopping
| Source | Period | Finding |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe | Holiday season 2025, US | AI referral traffic up 693% year over year; AI visitors converted 31% more than other traffic |
| Salesforce | Cyber Week 2025, global | AI and agents influenced 20% of online orders, worth $67 billion |
| Salesforce | Holiday season 2025, global | AI and agents drove $262 billion, or 20% of retail sales |
| Adobe | Forecast, holiday season 2026, US | AI traffic to retail sites expected to grow 130% |
| Salesforce | State of Commerce, 2026 | Purchase journeys starting in AI chats up 200% year over year |
Salesforce’s figures include product recommendations and customer service agents inside stores, not only external assistants such as ChatGPT.
How the buying journey is changing
| Traditional digital journey | AI-assisted journey | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | An ad or video on social media | A question to an AI assistant |
| Research | Visits to several stores and reviews | The assistant reads and compares for the shopper |
| Persuasion | Weeks of remarketing and cart-abandonment emails | Arguments tailored to the shopper’s stated needs |
| Decision | On the retailer’s website | Often inside the conversation |
| Time to purchase | Days to weeks | Sometimes minutes |
The long traditional window is one reason Black Friday sits weeks before Christmas, leaving time for remarketing. In an AI-assisted journey, the shortlist is formed early, and a retailer that is not on it may never be considered.
What AI shopping agents can do
| Capability | Status |
|---|---|
| Recommend and compare products, prices and delivery terms | Widely available across major assistants |
| Browse a store, add items to a cart and summarize the total | Available through agent and browser features |
| Check out inside the chat | Instant Checkout in ChatGPT launched in the US in September 2025, built on the Agentic Commerce Protocol |
| Pay with limits | Card networks and payment providers are piloting agent payments with spending limits and single-use credentials |
Shoppers remain in control: they can let an agent prepare an order and pay themselves, or limit what an agent may spend.
Adoption in Europe
| Indicator, Eurostat 2025 | Value |
|---|---|
| EU population aged 16 to 74 using generative AI | 32.7% |
| Bulgaria, aged 16 to 74 | 22.5%, third lowest after Romania and Italy |
| EU, aged 16 to 24 | 63.8% |
| Bulgaria, aged 16 to 24 | 50% |
Adoption among young people is far higher than the population average, even in countries with lower overall use. Google’s AI Mode is available in more than 200 countries and territories, including smaller EU markets such as Bulgaria.
Fewer clicks, pricier ads
- Fewer organic clicks. A Pew Research Center study found that users clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary.
- Most cited sources. In the same study, Wikipedia, YouTube and Reddit were among the most frequently cited sources in Google’s AI summaries.
- More expensive ads. According to WordStream data, the average Google Ads cost per click rose from $4.66 to more than $5 in a year, with increases in 87% of industries.
How retailers can prepare
| Step | Practice |
|---|---|
| 1. Test real prompts | Ask 15 to 20 realistic gift questions with budget, recipient and delivery date in several assistants; record which stores appear |
| 2. Allow AI crawlers | Check robots.txt and CDN or firewall rules so AI assistants are not blocked by mistake |
| 3. Machine-readable product data | Show price, availability, delivery time, return terms, sizes and materials as text, with Product and Offer structured data; many AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript |
| 4. Product feeds | Keep a Google Merchant Center feed up to date, since Google uses it for shopping features |
| 5. Holiday information | State clearly the last order date for delivery before Christmas |
| 6. Answer situations, not keywords | Publish gift guides by budget and profile, comparisons and buying guides |
| 7. Third-party proof | Collect reviews and earn mentions in articles, forums and video reviews |
| 8. Honest pricing | In the EU, a price reduction announcement must show the lowest price of the previous 30 days |
| 9. Measurement | Use the AI Assistant channel GA4 added in May 2026 and the generative AI reports in Search Console |
Some effects can appear within a season, because assistants search the web in real time. Brand trust in AI answers, however, builds over months and years.
FAQ
Do AI assistants replace advertising?
No. Advertising still works, but a growing share of product research happens in AI conversations before shoppers see ads. AI visibility complements paid campaigns.
Can AI assistants buy products for users?
Some can. Agents can browse stores and fill carts, and ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout lets US users buy from participating merchants inside the chat. Users can keep payment approval for themselves.
Why do AI assistants miss some product prices?
Many AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript. If price or availability loads only through scripts, the assistant may see a product without a price.
What is the EU rule on discount announcements?
Under the EU Omnibus Directive, a retailer announcing a price reduction must indicate the lowest price applied in the previous 30 days.
Can a business pay to be recommended in ChatGPT’s organic answers?
No. Organic recommendations are based on publicly available information. Claims of a guaranteed place in AI answers should be treated with caution.
How can retailers measure AI shopping traffic?
GA4 added an AI Assistant channel to its default channel group in May 2026, and Search Console is rolling out generative AI performance reports. Both undercount AI’s real influence, so manual prompt tests remain useful.
Vyara’s take
“This Christmas, many people will ask an AI what to buy for the first time, and most won’t even notice anything changed. Businesses will notice. Some will get more orders without knowing why; others will raise ad budgets and wonder why it stopped working. The difference will be whether they were on the short list when the customer asked. That makes this a chance, not a threat, especially in markets where competitors haven’t started yet.”
Further reading: Black Friday Is Moving Into AI Chats: A 7-Step Checklist – Vyara Stefcheva’s practical guide on stefcheva.com.
Sources: Digital Commerce 360 on Adobe holiday data · Business Wire on Salesforce Cyber Week · Search Engine Watch on the Adobe forecast · Sofia Globe on Eurostat data · PPC Land on the Pew study · Search Engine Land on Google Ads costs
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