Product.ai Survey Finds Four in Five AI Shoppers Haven't Let an AI Assistant Buy for Them, Nine in 10 Check Its Advice Before Purchase

Heading into the holidays, 71.5% of the 550 AI shoppers surveyed expect to use an AI assistant for holiday shopping, but 37.5% wouldn't let an AI agent spend anything before asking

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- More shoppers who use AI are checking its answers before they buy. According to the October 2026 edition of Product.ai's Trust in AI Commerce Report, 89.9% of U.S. online shoppers who used an AI assistant for product research verified its recommendation through another source before buying, up from 85.7% in the June 2026 edition.

Among the 550 shoppers in Product.ai's survey who use AI for product research, 71.5% expect to use an AI assistant for holiday shopping this season, though only 21.6% have let one complete a purchase from start to finish, equal to 8.0% of all 1,493 shoppers surveyed.

Google Gemini and ChatGPT are the AI assistants these shoppers use most. Of the 550, 63.5% used Gemini to research a purchase in the past 90 days and 60.0% used ChatGPT, ahead of Amazon's shopping assistant (27.5%), Walmart's shopping assistant (22.5%), Microsoft Copilot (22.4%), Claude (17.6%), and Perplexity (11.3%). Two in three (64.0%) use more than one assistant.

The same two assistants are also the most trusted. Asked which assistants they trust most for shopping, 43.5% named Gemini and 42.2% named ChatGPT. Perplexity (35.2%) and Claude (31.3%) were most commonly listed as the least trusted, and they are also the two assistants the fewest shoppers use.

"I think people will be more likely to adopt AI commerce when they can trust AI to make fact-based product recommendations. Nine in 10 shoppers who use AI to search for products check the AI answer before they buy. Today, shoppers do that extra research on their own. We're building the verification layer for commerce so AI assistants can give shoppers verified answers, and people can spend less time on online research," said Michael Quoc, Founder and CEO of Product.ai.

More AI shoppers now check before buying

Only 10.1% of U.S. online shoppers who use AI act on its recommendation without checking, down from 14.3% in the June 2026 edition. Six in 10 AI shoppers who have caught a mistake changed their plans, by skipping the purchase, buying a different product, or dropping AI for that kind of shopping.

Half of AI shoppers (50.4%) would trust an assistant less after learning a recommendation was paid for without being told, against 39.8% for one clearly labeled as sponsored. The report calls the 10.5-point gap the Disclosure Premium.

"Seven in 10 people who use AI for product recommendations expect to use it for holiday shopping this season, but only 16.9% would let an AI agent place an order without asking. I believe shoppers will be more likely to adopt agentic commerce when they can feel confident AI answers won't include one or more mistakes," said Quoc.

Shoppers who always verify AI product recommendations let it buy most often

Beyond the 21.6% who let an assistant finish a purchase, another 27.8% of AI shoppers reached checkout with one and paid themselves. Among shoppers who always verify AI product recommendations, 28.8% have let an assistant complete a purchase, against 8.8% of those who never verify.

Shoppers want an AI agent to ask first

On each of seven tasks an AI agent could take on, from applying a promo code to placing an order, the most common answer from AI shoppers was "only if it asks first." Asked the most an agent should spend without checking with them, 37.5% said nothing at all, and 43.1% would not give an agent access to any payment method.

Read the full report

The October 2026 edition, with its codebook and de-identified response data (CC BY 4.0), is available at product.ai/research/trust-in-ai-commerce-report.

Methodology

Product.ai surveyed 1,493 U.S. adults who shop online or in person, through a general-population panel, from Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, 2026. Comparisons with the June 2026 edition use the 1,247 respondents who shop online; verification comparisons use the 517 of them who used AI to research a purchase. Other findings about AI use describe all 550 respondents who used an AI assistant to research a purchase in the past 90 days. Product.ai publishes the full methodology with the report.

About Product.ai

Product.ai (formerly Demand.io) is the verification layer for commerce. Its adversarial verification methodology tests product claims against physics, economics, and engineering constraints, so shoppers know what to buy, what to skip, and why. The company is bootstrapped, profitable, and headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

SOURCE Product.ai