64 percent of online shoppers are using AI to help find products, study shows

A new Ryder study has found that 64 percent of online shoppers are using AI tools to help find and compare products prior to purchase.

The study looked at more than 1,100 shoppers and found consumers are putting more value on convenience, delivery speed and flexible return options.

Among those asked, search and shopping assistants lead adoption with 45 percent, followed by customer review summaries or key takeaways at 37 percent.

Visual or image-based search, voice assistants and virtual try-on or visualization tools followed.

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“Industry-wide data echoes our findings, reinforcing that AI is fundamentally changing online shopping behaviors; another study found that nearly three in five consumers have begun replacing traditional search engines with generative AI search,” says Jeff Wolpov, Ryder Senior Vice President of E-commerce and Ryder Last Mile. “What it all amounts to is, if products are not optimized for AI-powered search results, brands may lose consideration in the consumer buying journey.”

Researchers say retailers that focus only on price could lose ground as AI and customer experience play a bigger role in buying decisions.