<\/p>\n
AI-powered shopping is winning over American consumers when it saves time or makes buying decisions easy, but a slew of recent surveys show shoppers are not ready for autonomous purchase agents.<\/p>\n
For example, in January 2026 email platform Omnisend commissioned a survey<\/a> of 4,000 shoppers across the U.S., Canada, and Australia as to their use of AI for shopping in the previous six months.<\/p>\n Of the 1,072 U.S. shoppers surveyed, only 8.29% were \u201cfully comfortable\u201d with AI completing online purchases. Nearly three-quarters of respondents wanted some form of transactional restriction, and 20.28% were \u201cnot comfortable at all\u201d with \u201chanding over transactions to AI tools.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet shoppers are using AI in the buying journey<\/a>. Omnisend\u2019s survey found that 47% of U.S. respondents use AI for product research and comparisons, 40.9% for finding deals or coupons, and 38.6% for summarizing reviews.<\/p>\n Separately, eMarketer, citing a Q3 2025 IBM survey of 18,000 global consumers, reported<\/a> last month that shoppers most often use AI for general help, product research, and reviewing options. And McKinsey\u2019s February 2026 survey of roughly 4,000 U.S. consumers found<\/a> that 68% had used AI tools in the previous three months, mostly to support decision-making.<\/p>\n Collectively, the data indicate that shoppers value AI when it makes the process easier.<\/p>\n In Omnisend\u2019s data, 47.2% of U.S. respondents said AI saves time. Another 40.1% said it simplifies the process, and 38.6% said it helps discover products they might not have found otherwise.<\/p>\n Generally, saving time, simplifying, and identifying all reduce cognitive load or effort. Instead of sorting through dozens of product pages or reviews, shoppers can compress that work into a few prompts or queries.<\/p>\n This distinction is significant. Prompt-based shopping shifts how consumers decide what to buy<\/a>. AI narrows the selection before a shopper reaches an ecommerce product page.<\/p>\n Despite the ease of use, survey respondents are less comfortable giving up purchase control. Again, only 8.29% of Omnisend\u2019s U.S. respondents said they are fully comfortable with AI completing a transaction.<\/p>\n Thus shoppers remain cautious. Some 56.4% of Omnisend respondents said they always or usually double-check AI-generated recommendations before buying.<\/p>\n Moreover, a February 2026 survey of 1,500 U.S. adults from Ipsos, the research firm, found<\/a> that just 27% of Gen Z respondents (born 1997-2012) said they would allow an AI agent to choose and buy a product without approval, while just 4% of Gen X (1965-1980) and younger Boomers (1946-1964) would do the same.<\/p>\n Ipsos found consumers tend to prefer automation over agent autonomy. AI agents could make purchases based on prior behavior, such as selecting familiar brands or working from a predefined list, but not from new, autonomous selections.<\/p>\n In short, survey data suggests consumers use AI for product discovery<\/a>, but not yet for agentic buying. That distinction should inform ecommerce businesses where to prioritize efforts.<\/p>\n For example, ensuring that product data is structured and feed-ready is key. AI chat tools use that structured information to summarize, compare, and surface product recommendations. The mundane task of cleaning data is more important than launching a co-shopping agent.<\/p>\n Similarly, content marketing is a priority over cutting-edge AI widgets. GenAI-optimized<\/a> product comparisons, buying guides, instructions, and even reviews feed discovery.<\/p>\n While merchants should monitor how AI platforms evolve, the shopping journey is the near-term opportunity. AI is helping consumers decide what to buy, but not yet buying for them.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nShopping Effort<\/h3>\n
Purchase Control<\/h3>\n
Ecommerce Implications<\/h3>\n