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A growing number of people use AI to help them shop. In Adobe’s April 2026 report, which included a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. respondents, 39% of consumers said they’ve used AI for online shopping, and 85% of those people said it improved their experience. Some AI tools can now complete the purchase too. This is usually called agentic commerce. Here’s what the 2026 data shows, and what to check on your own store.
How big is AI shopping right now?
According to Salesforce’s 2025 Cyber Week data, AI agents and shopping assistants influenced roughly 20% of all global online orders that week, worth about $67 billion in sales. Adobe Analytics tracked a 693% year-over-year increase in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites during the 2025 holiday season, and a 393% increase in the first quarter of 2026. In March 2026, Adobe found that AI-referred visits converted 42% better than non-AI traffic.
In January 2026, Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart. It’s designed to let shoppers check out from eligible U.S. retailers inside AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app.
Not every attempt has lasted. OpenAI launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT in September 2025, and CNBC reported in March 2026 that OpenAI was ending it and moving toward retailer apps.
Can AI shopping tools read your store?
Not always. AI tools can only use the information they can read. Adobe’s April 2026 data scored U.S. retail pages with its AI Content Visibility Checker, which shows what AI systems can and can’t read on a page. The average homepage scored 75%, so about a quarter of its content can’t be read by machines. Adobe built the checker, so treat the scores as a benchmark, not a verdict.
What does an AI shopping tool need from your store?
- Clear, structured product information. An AI shopping assistant needs clean, consistent, machine-readable information about price, availability, materials, sizing, and shipping, and structured data is one common way to provide it. A beautifully designed page can still hide key details from an agent doing a comparison if they aren’t in a form it can read. Product pages are where the gap is widest: Adobe’s data put the average U.S. retail product page at 66% on its checker, so roughly a third of product-page content can’t be read by AI systems.
- Consistent, current information. Google’s guidance for its AI features includes two practices that matter here: making sure structured data matches the visible text on the page, and keeping Merchant Center and Business Profile information up to date. If a price or spec differs between your site, your product feed, and your listings, AI systems have conflicting facts to choose from.
- Important content in text. The same Google guidance says to make sure important content is available in textual form. For a store, that means product details and reviews, not just images and marketing copy.
How much do shoppers trust AI to buy for them?
Trust is still limited. The IBM and NRF study from January 2026, based on a survey of more than 18,000 consumers in 23 countries, found that 52% are comfortable sharing their data, but 83% have multiple overlapping concerns about privacy, data misuse, and unwanted marketing. In a March 2025 Forrester survey, only 24% of U.S. online adults said they trust AI agents to make routine purchases for them.
Whether shoppers use AI to research or to buy, these tools work from the product information they can read, so clear, current, consistent product data is the common requirement.
Want to know if your store is actually visible to AI shopping tools right now? Get in touch with our team.
