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Dive Brief: - A fourth (27%) of teenage survey respondents said they’re likely to use a fully AI-run shopping assistant that provides product recommendations, selects between items and makes purchases based on their dictated criteria, according to a Mastercard survey released Tuesday. That compares to just 16% of their parents. - While nearly a third (31%) of teenagers said they trust AI-generated product recommendations over a friend’s, about a fourth (23%) would trust an AI tool’s advice over their parents’ guidance, the survey of 26,000 parents and teens found. - Two-thirds of parents said they anticipate AI shopping will define their children’s generation, but only 5% expect the same shift for their own cohort, the survey found. Dive Insight: Mastercard’s survey findings point to a generational shift among consumers as they bring AI into their purchasing process. While 49% of parents said they turn to AI at least once a month to research products, 62% of teenagers surveyed said the same, according to the report. “AI increasingly helps people decide what to buy; tomorrow it will help do the purchasing for them too,” Brice van de Walle, executive vice president of core payments Europe at Mastercard, said in a press release. Other research suggests that consumers are increasingly relying on AI in their purchasing decisions, but these tools extend the time it takes them to buy. Almost six in ten U.S. shoppers surveyed by marketing firm RTB House found that AI platforms have surfaced brands they didn’t previously know. Roughly four in ten respondents said AI lengthens the time they spend weighing which products to buy because of the wider range of options it introduces. As consumers increasingly rely on AI during their shopping journey, retailers continue to roll out capabilities to guide shoppers through their vast product assortments. While The Home Depot integrated local store information into its Magic Apron AI assistant last month, Williams-Sonoma is deploying AI to enhance product discovery, refine the checkout experience and grow its personalization capabilities across its portfolio. Earlier this summer, Target released its Review Insights and Photo Search features to condense information shoppers mention in product reviews and let shoppers search for products using photographs they upload or snap themselves. Retailers plan to pour more resources into their technological infrastructure, and many say they’ve already realized between 31% and 40% of their total financial value from AI and similar tools. Over half of retailers spend $50 million or more on digital technology annually, according to a KPMG survey of 250 retail executives. However, 48% of respondents said technical debt — defined by IBM as the future costs stemming from shortcuts and flawed decisions during software development — keeps them from investing in other technologies.
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