58% of consumers think retailers should use AI to improve the shopping experience
The proportion of shoppers advocating for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in retail environments has jumped by eight per cent since 2023, showing an increased interest in the technology to offer ease and convenience, according to research from CI&T.
Based in New York, where it provides technology and consulting around areas like customer experience (CX), CI&T conducted a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. shoppers to produce its Reality Reality Check report.
CI&T found consumers see AI as a help in several years. These include saving time, which was cited by 60 per cent of those surveyed, followed by making it easier to find items at 56 per cent. Personalization was also a potential draw, with 46 per cent believing AI could tailor experiences to their unique needs.
At the moment, 40 per cent of consumers use AI at least occasionally on their path to purchase, and 10 per cent reported starting their shopping journey with an AI assistant.
Though data privacy concerns continues to rank highest among AI risk factors, CI&T noted that it has dropped by nine per cent since its last report in 2024.
“AI is changing the way consumers shop: they’re starting their purchase journey in research mode, more often on search engines than they were
previously,” the report’s authors wrote. “Consumers are most receptive to agentic AI for habitual purchases. Consumers’ main concern with AI is that it will derail their shopping outcomes.”
360 Magazine Insight
That last comment in the quote above is telling. It was articulated even better in the report itself, suggesting that consumers worry about AI tools having an “agenda” when they are supposed to be offering suggestions or acting on their behalf. Given the pressure on retailers to move inventory and manage their costs, it’s a realistic fear.
One of the more helpful stats in this research was the 58 per cent of shoppers who had never heard of agentic AI before. CX professionals need to keep this in mind as they consider using the technology to dramatically reshape experiences.
CI&T followed up by explaining the term and found 64 per cent would be interested in agentic AI, but that could mean a lot of things. Right now the top AI usage was voice assistants at 34 per cent, which most vendors would probably not see as groundbreaking or transformative. More than a quarter said they hadn’t used any AI features at all.
The report also argued that AI is leading customers to broaden their shopping journeys beyond marketplaces like Amazon. This is still the go-to method for 29 per cent, but search engines (which have now been augmented with AI overviews) have risen to 26 per cent.
There’s a lot more in CI&T’s ungated 42-page report beyond AI. It’s well worth looking through for the latest data on social media, channel preferences, payments and pricing.
