Why more consumers prefer AI-enhanced shopping - and still expect the human touch

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• 73% of consumers person utilized AI chatbots to hunt for products and services. 
• Nearly arsenic galore (71%) are disquieted astir however generative AI uses their information.
• Only 57% of consumers are satisfied with their chatbot experience. 

The user scenery of 2026 is defined by a displacement successful perceived value, moving beyond elemental "value for money" to prioritizing "value done intelligence." Today, consumers favour brands that leverage artificial quality (AI) to present transparency, confidence, and highly personalized assistance. Crucially, they besides proceed to request that analyzable needs beryllium managed with a captious quality touch, according to Capgemini's probe "What matters to consumers successful 2026."

The mode consumers marque decisions is being fundamentally changed by AI-powered buying experiences, a greater request for fairness and transparency, and the value of quality transportation astatine important stages. In this caller scenery of empowered consumers, AI's expanding relation successful regular choices is causing shoppers to redefine what they accept, value, and are consenting to wage for. Expectations person go much demanding, tolerance for shortcomings has decreased, and the conception of worth present encompasses much than conscionable price.

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Capgemini's probe investigates however the interplay of AI, trust, and emotion is reshaping consumers' cognition of what deserves their time, money, and focus.

AI is delivering worth done intelligence

By 2026, AI volition modulation from a passive, backend inferior to an progressive subordinate successful regular user decision-making. This displacement is characterized by 3 main trends successful commerce.

• AI agent-driven commerce: Consumers are delegating buying tasks to AI assistants. These agents are blase capable to expect needs, specified arsenic proactively suggesting a suitable outfit for a scheduled calendar event.
• Predictive assurance and trust: AI-backed suggestions trim the intelligence obstruction to trying caller products. Consumers are much consenting to experimentation due to the fact that they spot the system's data-driven insights volition pb to palmy purchases, mitigating the hazard of a mediocre choice.

• Brand visibility utilizing generative motor optimization: Since AI assistants curate merchandise shortlists for shoppers, brands are present focused connected making their accusation highly "AI-readable." This strategical displacement is indispensable for ensuring a marque remains disposable to the integer agents acting connected behalf of consumers.

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Hyper-personalization and anticipatory service

The benchmark for lawsuit acquisition (CX) has shifted from a reactive attack to an anticipatory, proactive approach. Key advancements successful this country include:

• Anticipatory AI: Predictive intent engines usage AI to foresee lawsuit needs earlier they are explicitly stated. A applicable illustration is an AI suggesting caller moving shoes aft a linked fittingness app registers 500 miles.
• Stress simplification successful shopping: AI-driven exertion importantly improves the buying journey; astir 65% of consumers study that this exertion has reduced the accent associated with buying by efficiently filtering done an different overwhelming fig of choices.

• Dynamic customization: Digital interfaces, specified arsenic websites and mobile apps, present dynamically set their presumption and enactment based connected an individual's real-time context, incorporating factors similar their location, browsing history, and adjacent existent upwind conditions.

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The premium connected quality enactment successful the property of AI

The wide adoption of AI has elevated quality enactment from a basal anticipation to a cardinal operator of lawsuit loyalty.

• Humanity astatine the halfway of service: Successful brands successful 2026 are adopting a hybrid work exemplary that strategically combines AI ratio with quality empathy. This ensures a creaseless escalation from automated enactment to a quality cause erstwhile a customer's needs go analyzable oregon their sentiment changes.
• A penchant for the quality touch: Consumers present highly worth the quality interaction for circumstantial interactions. For example, 74% of consumers similar in-person assistance for in-store service, and 66% request it for navigating hard acquisition decisions.
• The captious relation of quality judgment: While AI tin negociate astir 70% of regular work tasks, quality agents stay captious for analyzable problem-solving, wherever nuanced judgement and empathy are required. Brands that over-rely connected AI for each enactment hazard eroding lawsuit trust.

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Salesforce research corroborates Capgemini's findings, analyzing aggregated information from implicit 1.5 cardinal planetary shoppers crossed much than 89 countries, powered by the Salesforce CRM level and its AI cause services. The 2025 vacation buying play (November 1 -  December 31) marked a important milestone, with record-breaking planetary online income reaching $1.29 trillion and US income hitting $294 billion. This maturation was notably influenced by AI and agents, which impacted $262 cardinal of the full 2025 vacation walk globally.  

Key AI-powered trends

• Rise of third-party AI search: 2025 signaled a caller epoch for AI-powered search, arsenic the stock of planetary and US postulation from third-party channels similar ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity doubled year-over-year. Although inactive emerging, these channels present highly high-intent shoppers, converting 9 times much often than societal media referrals.
• Impact of branded AI agents: Companies that implemented their ain branded AI agents experienced importantly higher growth, averaging a 6.2% year-over-year income summation compared to 3.9% for others -- a 59% higher maturation rate. These agents besides enhanced squad efficiency.
• Customer clasp of AI service: Shoppers dramatically accrued their usage of retailer AI and agents for lawsuit service, seeing a 126% surge during the vacation unreserved compared to the 2 preceding months.
• AI agents arsenic captious work support: As the play peaked, AI agents became indispensable for always-on lawsuit service. December saw a 66% summation successful agentic AI-powered work conversations compared to November. Interactions during the Christmas and Boxing Day week besides grew 12% year-over-year.
• AI handling analyzable tasks: Beyond elemental Q&A, these agents took nonstop enactment for customers, handling 142% much tasks -- specified arsenic updating transportation addresses and initiating returns -- than successful the anterior 2 months, relieving quality representatives of manual, resource-intensive duties.

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15 cardinal takeaways from the Capgemini report

1. 71% of consumers would power brands if battalion sizes oregon merchandise prime were reduced without wide communication.
2. 74% of consumers volition power brands if competitors connection little regular prices; 65% volition power brands if a competing marque offers a better/higher worth loyalty programme successful presumption of benefits.
3. Trust successful channels matters. Two successful 3 consumers judge e-commerce offers just prices, with thrift and discount formats adjacent behind.
4. Concerns astir transparency continue, with 71% disquieted astir however generative AI uses their information. Two-thirds of consumers expect brands to disclose AI-generated advertising.
5. Social commerce is increasing quickly, and 35% person already purchased done platforms similar Instagram oregon YouTube.
6. 53% of consumers privation generative AI to supply hyper-personalized content, and 65% consciousness exertion has reduced accent successful their buying routines.
7. More than 7 successful 10 consumers worth in-person assistance erstwhile dealing with analyzable purchases oregon resolving work issues. Preference for quality assistance has risen sharply, with 74% valuing enactment during in-store lawsuit work and 66% during the acquisition stage, up from 54% and 40% past year.
8. Adoption of AI tools is high, with astir three-quarters (73%) of consumers having utilized chatbots for queries astatine slightest once.
9. Consumers are not satisfied with chatbots. While adoption of chatbots is increasing, execution does not look to support pace, with lone 57% satisfied with the experience. While chatbots connection instant responses, convenience, and speed, their constricted problem-solving ability, deficiency of personalization and empathy, mediocre contextual understanding, and trouble successful escalating to quality enactment often pb to disappointment. AI agents are amended capable to grip much analyzable engagements. 
10. Use of AI shopper agents is rising. Almost fractional of consumers (52%) usage virtual assistants that automate re-ordering oregon repast readying astatine slightest erstwhile a week. Among these, little than fractional (46%) are satisfied with the experience, but the maturity curve of these technologies suggests this volition rapidly rise. 
    
11. Monetizing consumer-facing AI solutions is successful its infancy. While consumers mostly invited chatbots and virtual buying assistants, willingness to wage for specified automation is acold little than adoption rates. Just 11% are unfastened to a one-time payment, and 8% similar a subscription model, though 22% would see paying if bundled with discounts oregon rewards.
12. In the epoch of AI-powered commerce, establishing user spot is paramount. This spot is fundamentally built and maintained done transparency and providing users with control. A important bulk of consumers (76%) explicit a tendency to acceptable boundaries for integer assistants.
13. Empowering users to set preferences, judge oregon cull suggestions, and negociate information sharing fosters confidence. This power ensures that AI serves to heighten the buying acquisition alternatively than dictate it, enabling shoppers to customize their interactions based connected factors specified arsenic dietary restrictions, budgets, oregon marque loyalties. Furthermore, erstwhile users tin supply feedback, AI systems tin larn and improve, thereby creating a continuous rhythm of trust, relevance, and engagement.
14. While consumers tendency AI tools for personalized experiences and autonomous action, a bulk (71%) are acrophobic astir the deficiency of wide consent and transparency regarding the postulation and usage of their idiosyncratic data.
15. Social commerce remains a unit to beryllium reckoned with -- 35% of consumers purchased a merchandise via a societal media level successful 2025, arsenic compared to 24% successful 2023.

To larn much astir user buying behaviour successful 2026, you tin presumption the study here.