Vendor reportProduct.ai, 14 Oct 2026

41.5% of U.S. online shoppers used AI to research a purchase in the past 90 days, flat vs 42.6% in June 2026

Channel validation

41.5%

of U.S. online shoppers used an AI assistant to research a purchase in the past 90 days

Reader Note:: Based on 1,247 U.S. adults who shop online at least some of the time (517 used AI), the base that keeps this edition comparable with the June 2026 edition (n=1,463). The 1.1-point dip is below the report's pre-registered 4-point change threshold, so adoption is treated as unchanged. Including 246 store-only shoppers, the figure is 36.8% (550 of 1,493). 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.

Not for

Exact numbers, or saying that one thing caused another.
This was measured in one market. It may not hold where you are.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.

4.4x

How much better an AI search visitor converts compared to an organic search visitor, on average

of Google searches that showed an AI summary ended with a click on a link inside that summary (US, March 2025)

20% of Gen Z and 17% of Millennials discover new brands through influencer endorsements, vs 12% of Gen X and 5% of Boomers

Share of each generation who discover new brands via influencer endorsements
Generation	Share who discover brands through influencers (%)
Gen Z	20%
Millennials	17%
Gen X	12%
Baby Boomers	5%

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11.4%

of shopper sessions in the US involved an AI tool as of June 2026, up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier

is the short-term ROI index for influencer campaigns in the UK, right on the market average with 4.5% of short-term sales (excluding campaigns that produced no result)

21–26%

of consumers in the US, UK, and Germany report using AI tools to research products online, per Statista's 2026 Global Survey (Jul 2025–Jun 2026).

41.5% of U.S. online shoppers used AI to research a purchase in the past 90 days, flat vs 42.6% in June 2026

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