Customer reviews are the first stop for 36.7% of U.S. shoppers checking an AI answer; 21.9% start with search

Buyer behaviour

First place checked	Share of verifiers (%)
Online customer reviews	36.7%
A search engine	21.9%
The brand's or retailer's own website	14%
Friends or family	13.4%
Another AI assistant	5.7%
YouTube or video reviews	4.7%
An expert publication	1.8%
Somewhere else	1%

First place consumers check to verify AI product advice, by source

Reader Note:: Among 493 U.S. AI shoppers who verify AI recommendations, asked where they looked first the last time they double-checked one. Online customer reviews 36.7%, a search engine 21.9%, the brand's or retailer's website 14.0%, friends or family 13.4%, another AI assistant 5.7%, YouTube or video reviews 4.7%, an expert publication 1.8%, somewhere else 1.0%. Shoppers rely on reviews while rating their accuracy only 4.56 out of 7. Self-reported online survey of U.S. adults (Aug 27 – Sep 1, 2026), unweighted; Product.ai sells verification products for commerce.
Evidence:: Self-reported behaviour
Vendor interest:: High — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Survey of 1,493 U.S. adults who shop for products, online or in stores, from a general-population panel; unweighted with quotas on age, gender, and region. Trend comparisons use 1,247 online shoppers; AI-user findings mostly use 550 respondents who used AI for product research in the past 90 days.

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 was measured in one market. It may not hold where you are.
This is an aggregated or average number that covers very different cases. Real results in a particular segment may differ.
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

60%–90%

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

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%

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