Our newsletterVendor reportSimilarweb (co-written with Statista), 2026
Roughly a quarter of US, UK, and German consumers use AI tools to research shopping products
Channel validation
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).
- Reader Note:
- The range is the spread across the three markets surveyed rather than a margin of error: shopping research sits at 21% in the US, 26% in the UK and 21% in Germany. In the same question general online research leads AI use in all three at 33-38%, so shopping is a secondary use rather than the main one. This is self-reported use from Statista's consumer surveys of 18 to 64 year-olds, with no check against what anyone actually did.
- 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:
- 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).
Reader Note:
Evidence:
Vendor interest:
Sample: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 comes from a company with a commercial interest in this market, so it is not a neutral source.
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