AI Shopping Tool Adoption Passes 50% Milestone Among US Consumers, NIQ Finds

More than half of U.S. consumers used at least one artificial intelligence tool to assist with shopping over the past month, according to survey data from market research firm NIQ. The finding marks the first time adoption has surpassed 50 percent in the firm's monthly Agentic Commerce Tracker, as reported by The Next Web (https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-shopping-51-percent-us-consumers-niq).

NIQ reported steady growth in consumer adoption over the past two quarters, with AI tools now assisting across every stage of the purchase cycle, from product discovery to final purchase decisions. Product recommendations represented the most common use case, cited by 20 percent of consumers, followed by AI personal shopping assistants at 16 percent.

Rather than replacing the shopping process entirely, consumers primarily use AI tools to compare options, evaluate product value, and narrow their selections—a dynamic NIQ characterizes as compressing decision-making. "Just months ago, AI-assisted shopping was viewed as an emerging behavior among early adopters. Today, it is now mainstream," said Liz Buchanan, NIQ's president for North America.

For brands and merchants, the transition means that structured product data, item content quality, and discoverability across AI models now carry equal importance to traditional search engine rankings and retail shelf placement. "The path to purchase is rapidly evolving from search-driven to AI-driven, and that change is happening faster than many organizations realize," Buchanan said.

The data is drawn from NIQ's monthly Quick Question research survey, which polls approximately 500 U.S. consumers each month. While the Agentic Commerce Tracker also monitors consumer behavior in Canada, NIQ published only its U.S. figures for this release.

NIQ is also commercializing measurement tools around the shift. On Sept. 2, the company announced a partnership with Similarweb to launch an analytics product that tracks brand visibility across AI platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Claude. The joint tool, scheduled for a fourth-quarter 2026 rollout across select categories and markets, aims to measure referral traffic and direct sales generated by AI assistants.

The broader ecosystem around automated commerce continues to develop alongside consumer uptake. Similarweb data indicates AI search traffic is fragmenting across multiple conversational platforms, while payment networks Visa, Mastercard, and Ant International have formed partnerships to establish identity verification protocols for autonomous buying agents.