From AI platforms for personalized product search to recommendations from AI-generated digital influencers, artificial intelligence is transforming the retail sector. According to recent data from Statista Consumer Insights, around one in five Americans used AI platforms to search for products while shopping in the last twelve months prior to the survey (Jun.-Sept. 2025). Younger adults are significantly more interested: the usage rate was 24 percent among 18-39 year olds, compared to 18 percent among 40-64 year olds.
Additionally, the proportion of consumers who have already followed recommendations from AI-generated digital influencers was 41 percent among 18-39 year olds, about double the rate among those 40 and over (21 percent). In these two age groups, 44 and 30 percent of respondents, respectively, believed that “AI-generated digital influencers can promote as effectively as human influencers”.
Finally, when it comes to satisfaction with the use of AI technologies in retail, 23 percent of adults under 40 said they “like to use AI for shopping,” compared to only 15 percent of those aged 40-64. As our chart shows, these figures are roughly similar (slightly lower) to the reported rates of AI platform users for both groups over the past twelve months (24 and 18 percent, respectively).
