Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the shopping process for millions of Americans, but consumers are not ready to hand over complete control just yet.
A new national survey from LDWW found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans now use AI while shopping for products or services. The technology is reportedly helping people discover brands, compare options, research purchases, and, in some cases, complete transactions.
That is an impressive level of adoption, especially considering how recently tools such as ChatGPT entered the mainstream. Still, the headline number deserves some context. Using AI to compare two laptops is not the same thing as allowing an autonomous agent to choose one, enter payment information, and place an order.
According to the survey of 2,000 U.S. adults, nearly two-thirds of respondents said AI influenced a recent purchase decision. About 30 percent said they have already used AI to complete a purchase, while 71 percent expect to use the technology even more for shopping in the future.
In other words, AI is becoming another place where products get discovered. For years, shoppers moved between search engines, retailer websites, YouTube videos, Reddit discussions, and customer reviews. AI assistants are now being added to that mix, often packaging information from several sources into a single conversational answer.
That convenience is easy to understand. Instead of opening 15 browser tabs to compare televisions, a shopper can ask an AI tool to explain the meaningful differences, eliminate models that do not meet certain requirements, and suggest a few finalists.
The problem, of course, is that AI can be confidently wrong.
The survey suggests consumers understand that risk. More than half of respondents said they actively check citations provided by AI, while nearly 60 percent said it matters where the technology gets its information. Only 43 percent said they trust brand information encountered on AI platforms.
Nearly 1 in 5 respondents called AI their most trusted shopping source. That is a meaningful number, but it also means the vast majority still trust something else more.
This “trust but verify” behavior is probably healthy. AI-generated shopping recommendations can be useful, but they may contain outdated prices, incorrect specifications, unavailable products, or information pulled from questionable sources. Recommendations can also become less objective as companies experiment with advertising, affiliate relationships, and sponsored placements inside AI services.
Brands will naturally pay close attention to this shift. If consumers increasingly ask AI tools which laptop, refrigerator, car seat, or smartphone to buy, companies will want their products included in those answers.
LDWW argues that businesses must treat visibility inside AI systems as a new form of search visibility. The company offers AI visibility audits and related services, so it has an obvious commercial interest in promoting that conclusion. That does not invalidate the survey, but it should be considered when interpreting the findings.
There are also unanswered questions about exactly what respondents considered “using AI to shop.” The category could include everything from asking ChatGPT for product advice to reading an AI-generated summary inside a traditional search engine. Without a detailed methodology and a narrow definition, the 7-in-10 figure may sound more dramatic than the underlying behavior really is.
Even with those caveats, the broader direction appears believable. Consumers are using AI to reduce research time and narrow down choices. What they are not doing, at least not yet, is blindly accepting every recommendation that appears on the screen.
That skepticism may be the most encouraging finding in the entire survey. AI can make shopping faster, but buyers should still confirm specifications, read independent reviews, compare prices, and check the return policy before spending money.
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