Approximately one third of customers already regret buying a product an AI tool suggested to them, but for more than half the bigger worry is being exposed to fraud, according to research published by SmartCustomer.
The Meno Park, Calif.-based reviews platform provider surveyed nearly 1,200 U.S. adults this past August to produce its 2026 SmartCustomer AI Shopping Survey.
The fear about being pointed to scammers reflects an overall lack of trust among 89 per cent of those surveyed that AI will enhance the shopping experience.
This is not just about the technology but those fueling large language models (LLMs). For example, 54 per cent said they believe businesses are feeding AI tools false or misleading information.
This means customers are not passively accepting everything AI suggests but making efforts to verify it: 75 per cent double-check recommendations with reviews or other third-party sources.
That said, 98 per cent of customers also called for greater accountability in what AI services tell them to buy.
“Shoppers are more worried about engaging with a fraudulent seller than data-driven bias,” the report’s authors wrote. “Shoppers don’t think they are completely responsible for evaluating AI recommendations; they expect the AI companies like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Meta to do due diligence on their behalf.”
360 Magazine Insight
The hesitations and fears around AI don’t mean that customers are going to stick with traditional forms of shopping. Three quarters of those surveyed said they were already using AI to make purchases, and half plan to make it an even bigger habit in the coming year.
Part of what could change perceptions and consumer expectations is a rise in branded AI search experiences that are specific to a particular retailer. Gap, for example, launched its own AI shopping assistant this week that allows customers to explain what they’re looking for in natural-language queries. Others will quickly follow.
This may stem worries about fraud given that presumably these AI tools would be trained solely on a retailer’s product catalogue. It doesn’t address those who want to use services like ChatGPT to comparison shop brands, though, so you may see more disclaimers and warnings when lesser-known brands are cited.
SmartCustomer has a vested interest in encouraging reviews, of course, and its research underscores the value of gathering opinions from peers in addition to suggestions from an AI tool that draws upon an algorithm.
Customer experience (CX) professionals probably recognize the important role reviews play today, but this ungated report is good fodder for discussing how they’ll influence the discovery and consideration phases of the journey in the long term.