AI & Commerce

Half of Shoppers Now Use AI to Shop — Only a Third Trust It

Nearly half of shoppers have turned to AI to research a purchase in the past year — but only about a third fully trust what it tells them. New survey data puts hard numbers on the gap between how fast consumers adopted AI shopping assistants and how much they actually believe them, and that gap is the story retailers need to read in 2026.

Over the past few years, AI has quietly reshaped the retail journey whether shoppers notice it or not. AI-powered recommendations now steer much of the online shopping experience, visual search lets a customer find an exact product from a single screenshot, and generative summaries sit atop review pages and search results, compressing hundreds or thousands of opinions into a single paragraph. Most of that runs in the background — but increasingly, consumers are consulting third-party assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini directly when they shop, typing a question, reading an answer, then deciding how much to believe and what to do next. That behavior makes conversational AI one of the clearest windows into how much shoppers actually trust AI recommendations.

The figures come from Alchemer's 2026 Retail Report, a survey of 1,002 U.S. shoppers.

Adoption Raced Ahead of Trust

The headline numbers capture both sides of the story at once: how many shoppers reach for AI, and how few of them believe what it hands back.

• 48.5% of shoppers have used an AI tool to research a retail purchase in the past 12 months, and 21.8% do it often enough to call it a habit.
• 22.9% use an LLM when researching a purchase — close behind social media at 24.7% and review sites at 30.7%.
• Only 35.4% say they trust AI recommendations completely; almost two-thirds have doubts, and 22.2% don't trust recommendations from conversational assistants at all.

The gap widens the closer shoppers get to buying. Asked which source they trust most when deciding what to purchase, they rank online reviews first at 36% and friends and family second at 31%. Around 15% trust AI recommendations at the decision point, with expert review sites and influencers at 9% each.

That ranking is more encouraging than a blunt "shoppers don't trust AI" reading would suggest. AI recommendations actually beat third-party review sites and influencers, despite those channels' long track records. For a research channel most shoppers only picked up in the last 24 months, 15% signals real traction.

For a research channel that most shoppers only started using in the last 24 months, 15% indicates strong traction among consumers. — Brian Henley, Vice President of Research Services, Alchemer

Shoppers are also specific about what holds them back. Privacy tops the list of concerns at 35.1%, driven by uncertainty over what happens to their data behind a personalized recommendation. Skepticism about fake and AI-generated reviews follows at 21.4%, and biased recommendations land at 16.5%. Taken together, these point to a clear opening: retailer transparency around privacy and reviews could go a long way toward building trust.

Discovery Went Multichannel — and AI Muscled In

Skepticism hasn't slowed adoption, and nowhere is that clearer than in how shoppers find what they buy.

• Search engines led product discovery at 33.7%, the retailer's own site or app at 32.0%, and marketplaces at 30.2%.
• 17.4% found their most recent purchase through an LLM or AI tool — ahead of in-store browsing at 14.4% and recommendations from friends and family at 10.6%.

A channel that barely existed three years ago is climbing fast. But when it's time to actually buy, the deciding factors stay stubbornly practical: price at 67.3%, product quality at 56.7%, and total cost including fees at 35.2%. In 2026, AI gets shoppers to the item — and value closes the deal.

Reviews Still Rule, but 42% Now Doubt They're Real

One research channel still outranks everything, AI included — and it's under pressure from the very technology reshaping the rest of the journey.

Reviews remain shoppers' preferred and most trusted source in a purchase decision. In the report, 70.2% of shoppers said they read reviews before buying, and nearly half called reviews extremely influential. Google reviews carry the most weight, cited as the preferred review source by 51.6% of shoppers, followed by Amazon at 40.9% and reviews on the retailer's own site at 37.1%. Generative AI review summaries already hold 13.6% influence, ahead of YouTube product videos at 12.1% and third-party sites like Trustpilot and Yelp at 11.9%.

The catch: 42% of shoppers worry the reviews they read are fake or AI-biased. Another 40.6% suspect they're paid or incentivized, and 32.5% believe brands manipulate them. When nearly half of shoppers question review legitimacy, a review presence that holds up to scrutiny stops being table stakes and becomes a genuine differentiator.

How Retailers Can Close the Trust Gap

The report points to two moves. First, win AI-assisted research with accurate listings and product information. Nearly a quarter of shoppers use LLMs to research what to buy, yet only 0.3% plan to do most of their holiday shopping through them — the behavior lives in the research phase, so the budget belongs there. Generative tools build their answers from structured product data, reviews, listings and third-party coverage, so retailers whose product information isn't organized to answer natural-language questions will vanish from a growing share of research. Audit how AI tools currently describe your products, listings and local pages, and correct any misinformation in the sources they pull from.

Second, prioritize a strong review presence to quiet legitimacy concerns. A program built on volume and recency is critical to earning trust and standing out. Always ask shoppers for feedback after a purchase so the review base keeps refreshing, and respond publicly to reviews — including negative ones. Closing the loop wins repeat business and earns new business from prospective shoppers.

Why Marketers Should Pay Attention

The signal here isn't that shoppers reject AI — it's that they've already let it into their journey while withholding full trust, and that trust gap is now a competitive battleground. With 48.5% researching through AI but only 35.4% trusting it completely, the retailers who win won't be the ones shouting about AI; they'll be the ones feeding clean, structured product data into the tools consumers already consult and backing it with a review presence that survives scrutiny. Whether shoppers believe what AI tells them depends less on the model and more on how disciplined a brand is about accuracy and reviews.

---

About the Research

The data comes from Alchemer's 2026 Retail Report, based on a survey of 1,002 U.S. shoppers examining how consumers use, trust and act on AI throughout the retail journey — from discovery and research to the final purchase decision.

Background: Alchemer

Alchemer helps organizations do more with feedback. From a single survey to a full-scale feedback program, the company gives customer-obsessed teams the clarity to move from asking to action — turning shopper and customer input into decisions that push the business forward. This article was authored by Brian Henley, Vice President of Research Services at Alchemer.