AI Shopping Tools Already Reach a Significant Share of Consumers

What happened

Shopify cites 2026 research describing consumer use of AI tools to discover and evaluate products.

What changes

AI-assisted shopping is becoming part of the discovery process for a portion of consumers.

Why it matters

Survey findings describe a population and period, not guaranteed behavior among every store's customers.

Implications for businesses

A U.S. merchant should test the relevance of the trend against its own traffic and customer questions.

Un Rino’s take

The response should be better product information and measurement, not an assumption that all shoppers behave alike.