- 42% of U.S. shoppers are aware of retailers using AI in their buying journeys
- Over a quarter of consumers (28%) say AI-powered pricing and promotions deliver the most value when shopping
- 61% don’t mind retailers using AI as long as it is transparent
- 52% felt as long as they had a good shopping experience, they didn’t mind if it involved AI or not
Chicago, IL – January 24, 2024 – With rapidly increasing use and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in their day-to-day lives, U.S. shoppers are increasingly expecting retailers to leverage AI to improve their buying journeys, the latest research from Intellias, the leading global retail technology partner, reveals.
Original research of over 1,000 U.S. shoppers by Intellias revealed that a third (33%) already use Generative AI (GenAI) tools, such as ChatGTP, in their day-to-day lives, rising to 60% of Millennials and 49% of Gen Z.
And this widespread and fast-growing adoption of GenAI is prompting consumers to recognize where they encounter AI within their buying journeys – with 41% of consumers are currently aware of retailers using AI in shopping experiences – and where they expect retailers to leverage AI capabilities to improve customer experiences.
Top 3 areas where AI delivers the most value to UK consumers
1. Pricing and promotions – 28%
2. = Loyalty – generating real-time personal offers / rewards that are individual to me – 23%
= Product discovery – when I am searching for a product online – 23%
3. = Product validation – 19%
= Product recommendations – 19%
With ongoing cost-of-living pressures continuing to encourage pricing- and promotions-sensitive shopping behaviors, AI applications in pricing and promotions topped where U.S. consumers felt AI added the most value in their online buying journeys.
Over a quarter (28%) of shoppers said AI-powered automated pricing and real-time promotions would enhance their customer experience, followed by AI use within loyalty schemes to deliver real-time personalized offers and rewards and within product discovery when searching for an item online (23% each).
While 12% of U.S. consumers said AI-powered chatbots added value to their buying journeys, 19% said AI chatbots and virtual assistants (also 19%) proved the most disruptive AI applications in their shopping experiences, while a further 20% said interaction with AI chatbots was where they were most likely to abandon a purchase when shopping online.
With the speed at which GenAI has been adopted by retailers and consumers in 2023, perhaps it is inevitable that the pace has led to some wariness among shoppers, with 44% of those polled saying that they are mistrustful of brands and retailers using AI in their shopping experiences. However, 57% said they didn’t mind retailers using AI in their buying journeys so long as they were transparent about it, rising to 66% of Millennials, and a further 46% felt that, as long as they had a good experience with a retailer or brand, they didn’t mind if it involved AI or not.
There’s little doubt that the hype curve surrounding GenAI will continue to accelerate in 2024. And this will be driven both by the consumer, who will become even more used to AI interfaces in their day-to-day lives, and by the retailers innovating and exploring different use cases that drive efficiencies and enhance customer experience across the value chain.
Looking ahead, the key to delivering AI-powered value to the shopper will rely on transparency of use, and seamless and intuitive integration as part of the omnichannel shopping experience, as well as building out robust and secure compliance procedures in the back-end,” Goncharuk concluded.
To find out more about Intellias’ latest ‘GenAI in Retail’ report, which outlines a best-practice blueprint for retailers looking to strategize, pilot and launch successful GenAI programmes, download the report here: GenAI in Retail.
Research methodology
Original research of over 1,000 US shoppers, conducted by Savanta on behalf of Intellias via online polling in December 2023.
