Holiday Shoppers Embrace AI Assistants While Prioritizing Value and Trust, Cordial Research Finds

New research reveals consumers turn to AI for product discovery and deal hunting, and brands must deliver personalized experiences that drive value to win holiday shoppers

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cordial, the only agentic messaging platform with an embedded CDP, releases new research, Holiday 2026: Consumer Shopping Insights, revealing a holiday season defined by cautious spending, heightened price sensitivity and growing adoption of AI throughout the shopping journey.

• For more information about this research and Cordial, visit www.cordial.com.

"With the holiday season no longer defined by merely Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consumers will navigate a longer and more complex shopping journey where value, personalization and AI Assistants all play a role," said Rob Garf, head of strategy at Cordial. "Winning this holiday season requires brands to be discoverable by personal shopping agents and deliver relevance and trust to optimize customer profitability."

Holiday shoppers prioritize value as budgets remain cautious

Despite continued holiday shopping activity, consumers approach this year's holiday season with measured budgets.

• 43% expect their spending to remain about the same.
• Only 35% of shoppers expect to spend more this year.
• 23% plan to spend less.
• Just 11% expect to spend significantly more.

Spending confidence varies significantly by generation. Gen Z will likely increase holiday spending, with 48% expecting to spend more this year, compared with just 16% of Boomers. Meanwhile, 58% of Boomers expect to spend about the same amount as last year.

Price sensitivity also shapes purchasing decisions. More than half of consumers (55%) say discounts and promotions will matter more this holiday season than last year, with 26% saying they will matter much more. As the most promotion-focused generation, 61% of Millennials say price and promotions are increasingly important.

Free shipping remains the strongest purchase driver, influencing where 61% of consumers decide to shop, followed by discounts at 45%. While consumers increasingly want and expect personalized experiences, practical value continues to determine where they make purchases.

AI becomes a trusted shopping assistant, with opportunities beyond discovery

More than 4 in 10 consumers (42%) say they are at least somewhat likely to use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude during their holiday shopping process this year. Millennials lead adoption, with 54% likely to use AI tools, compared with 19% of Boomers.

Consumers are also increasingly open to AI-powered purchasing experiences. More than one-third of shoppers (34%) say they are comfortable allowing an AI agent to automatically complete holiday purchases based on their preferences and budget, including 13% who would trust AI to complete purchases without review. Younger generations lead this shift, with 49% of Millennials and 44% of Gen Z expressing comfort with AI-assisted purchasing.

However, consumers remain most comfortable using AI during the research and comparison stages of shopping. The top AI use cases include comparing prices and finding deals (43%) and comparing products or brands (38%).

When AI recommends an unfamiliar product or brand, consumers remain cautious but open: 39% remain neutral about purchasing an AI-recommended product, but also 39% say they are at least somewhat likely to make the purchase.

Consumers expand the holiday shopping timeline

Black Friday continues to lose its position as the defining holiday shopping moment. A quarter of consumers plan to begin shopping in early November, the most popular starting point.

Last year, only 20% of consumers planned to begin shopping on Black Friday weekend, and this year remained relatively unchanged at 19%. This trend of consumers spreading purchases over a longer holiday period extends opportunities for brands to engage consumers but also raises the importance of delivering relevant messages throughout the entire consideration process.

Additional data points include:

• Retailer websites remain the top destination for holiday research: 53% of consumers plan to use retailer websites to research holiday deals and promotions, followed by social media at 39%. Social media adoption varies significantly by generation, with 56% of Gen Z and 51% of Millennials using it for holiday research compared with just 12% of Boomers.
• Personalization resonates most with younger shoppers: Gen Z is more likely than any other generation to be influenced by personalized recommendations (25%) and bundles or added value (26%) when deciding where to shop. By comparison, only 5% of Boomers are influenced by personalized recommendations, and 17% are influenced by bundles.

This research coincides with the release of Cordial's Holiday Readiness Playbook, outlining what retailers need to build, test and personalize before the season begins.

About Cordial
Cordial is an enterprise marketing platform used by Levi's, Tapestry, L.L.Bean, Boot Barn, and other world-class brands to power billions of personalized messages across email, SMS, and mobile. Its proprietary Context Graph captures customer, product, and message understanding in a single system — turning raw signals into relevance and relevance into revenue. At a time when the Battle for Attention has made volume a liability and context a competitive advantage, Cordial pairs its platform with expert guidance and benchmarks so brands don't just have the tools. They know how to use them.

Learn more at www.cordial.com.

Media Contact
Ryan Hecker
PANBlast for Cordial
[email protected]

SOURCE Cordial