Vendor reportGWI, 2026

86% of both Gen Z and Millennials say a smartphone is their most important device

Buyer behaviour

Share of each generation calling smartphone their most important device

Share of each generation calling smartphone their most important device
Generation	Share saying smartphone is most important device (%)
Gen Z	86%
Millennials	86%
Gen X	82%
Baby Boomers	58%

Reader Note:: Share of each generation who name the smartphone as their most important device; Gen X is at 82%, and the drop comes with Boomers at 58%. It measures perceived importance, not time spent on the device. Source: GWI Core, GWI’s continuous online survey of 1M+ people a year aged 16-64 in 53 markets. Answers are self-reported; no sample size or fieldwork dates given.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Continuous online survey research among individuals aged 16-64 (or 16+) in 53 markets worldwide; over 1 million respondents annually, with some additional topic-specific GWI studies and a US weekly study used where relevant.

Good for

A rough sense of size and direction, and deciding what to look at first.

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
The source never says when this data was collected. It could be considerably older than the publication date suggests.
The source never says how this number was measured.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.

Gemini and ChatGPT lead AI shopping research in the U.S.; 64.0% of AI shoppers use two or more assistants

Share of AI shoppers using each AI assistant in the past 90 days
Assistant used in the past 90 days	Share of AI users (%)
Google Gemini	63.5%
ChatGPT	60%
Amazon's shopping assistant	27.5%
Walmart's shopping assistant	22.5%
Microsoft Copilot	22.4%

89.9%

of AI users on the online-shopper trend base said they verified the assistant’s recommendation before buying

AI made people 11.7 points more confident even though about half its answers were faulty

Our Substack turns the data behind these cards into full breakdowns: what changed, why, and what to do about it.

38%

adoption increase in older populations after Dubai Smart ID used a calming tone and simpler biometric explanations in 2021

Only 36% of Gen Z call themselves price-conscious, vs 40% of Millennials, 45% of Gen X and 55% of Boomers

Share of each generation who describe themselves as price-conscious
Generation	Share who describe themselves as price-conscious (%)
Gen Z	36%
Millennials	40%
Gen X	45%
Baby Boomers	55%

60%–90%

of consumers’ value perception was explained by price perception across multiple subsectors in Deloitte’s regression analysis