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:
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.
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.
Trust is a constraint. Only 46% fully trusted AI shopping recommendations.
Common friction points where people lost trust were:
These friction points sent people back to search, retailers, reviews, and forums.
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.
Here are concrete steps you can take based on the report’s information:
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
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