AI alone produces the shortest shopping sessions; AI and search together produce twice as many site visits

Channel validation

Average sites visited per session by AI/search tool usage

Average sites visited per session by AI/search tool usage
Tool Used	Avg Sites per Session
AI Only	7.3
Search Only	10.1
AI and Search	14.9

Reader Note:: The figure has three arms, not two: AI only 7.3 sites, search only 10.1, AI and search 14.9. Search alone already beats AI alone, which a two-way comparison hides. These are observed journeys rather than an experiment, and only 11% of AI journeys are AI-only, so the gap may reflect who reaches for both tools — a more deliberate shopper — rather than any effect of combining them.
Evidence:: Observed behaviour
Vendor interest:: Moderate — This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
Sample:: Statista Consumer Insights: two surveys (Global Consumer Survey and Consumer Insights Pulse), ages 18-64, in US/UK/Germany. Respondent counts: US Global=60,356 / Pulse=7,326; UK Global=23,343 / Pulse=7,309; Germany Global=35,911 / Pulse=7,309. Statista Market Insights: bottom-up modelling using historical ARPU adjusted by country/segment-specific drivers (no respondent sample — modelled, not surveyed).

Good for

Comparing yourself against a similar segment, and choosing what to test next.

Not for

Saying that one thing caused another, or predicting what you would get.
This comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
The source never says how this number was measured.
Nobody counted this directly — it's a calculation. The publisher worked it out itself, or took the ad platform's word for what its ads achieved.
The two groups were not split at random — they picked their own side. The difference may have been there before anything was measured.

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).

AI alone produces the shortest shopping sessions; AI and search together produce twice as many site visits

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