A new IAB and Talk Shoppe study finds AI is accelerating discovery and comparisons, but it’s not the last stop.
Here are the key points before we get into the details:
- AI pushes people to verify details on retailer sites, search, reviews, and forums rather than replacing those steps.
- Only about half fully trust AI recommendations, which creates predictable detours when links are broken or specs and pricing don’t match.
- Retailer traffic rises after AI, with one in three shoppers clicking through directly from an assistant.
About The Report
This report combines more than 450 screen-recorded AI shopping sessions with a U.S. survey of 600 consumers, giving you observed behavior and stated attitudes in one place.
It tracks where AI helps, where trust breaks, and what people do next.
Key Findings
AI speeds up research and makes it more focused, especially for comparing options, but it increases the number of steps as shoppers validate details elsewhere.
In the sessions, people averaged 1.6 steps before AI and 3.8 afterward, and 95% took extra steps to feel confident before ending a session.
Retailer and marketplace sites are the primary destination for validation. Seventy-eight percent of shoppers visited a retailer or marketplace during the journey, and 32% clicked directly from an AI tool.
The share that visited retailer sites rose from 20% before AI to 50% after AI. On those pages, people most often checked prices and deals, variants, reviews, and availability.
Low Trust In AI Recommendations
Trust is a constraint. Only 46% fully trusted AI shopping recommendations.
Common friction points where people lost trust were:
- Missing links or sources
- Mismatched specs or pricing
- Outdated availability
- Recommendations that didn’t fit budget or compatibility needs
These friction points sent people back to search, retailers, reviews, and forums.
Why This Matters
AI chatbots now shape mid-journey research.
If your product data, comparison content, and reviews are inconsistent with retailer listings, shoppers will notice when they verify elsewhere.
This reinforces the need to align details across channels to retain customer trust.
What To Do With This Info
Here are concrete steps you can take based on the report’s information:
- Keep specs, pricing, availability, and variants in sync with retailer feeds.
- Build comparison and “alternatives” pages around the attributes people prompt for.
- Expand structured data for specs, variants, availability, and reviews.
- Create content to answer common objections surfaced in forums and comment threads.
- Monitor the queries and communities where shoppers validate information to close recurring gaps.
Looking Ahead
Respondents said AI made research feel easier, but confidence still depends on clear sources and verified reviews.
Expect assistants to keep influencing discovery while retailer and brand pages confirm the details that matter.
For more insight into how AI influences the shopping journey, see the full report.
Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock
