How AI Shopping Tools Influence Product Discovery and Customer Engagement

Ecommerce Technology

October 28, 2025

7 minute read

Written By: Chris Caesar

How AI Shopping Tools Influence Product Discovery and Customer Engagement

Remember when Google was a shopper’s best friend for product discovery?

These days — with ads on ads, artificial intelligence (AI) snippets that confidently make things up, and results that feel farmed, not found — the search engine can feel more like a pushy salesperson than a definitive source. Shoppers, meanwhile, are more determined than ever to find a reliable “friend” they can trust when making purchases.

It’s one of the reasons why so many are now turning to AI. According to Salsify’s “Ecommerce Pulse Report: Q4 2025,” 64% of consumers now use AI tools to discover or research products, with the approach particularly popular among younger consumers.

Digital Commerce 360 also reports a staggering 4,700% year-over-year increase in AI-driven visits to ecommerce sites, with those shoppers showing 10% higher engagement and a 27% lower bounce rate than non-AI visitors.

And of course, AI’s influence doesn’t end with discovery. It’s reshaping touch points throughout the customer journey — how shoppers read reviews, weigh brand content, and even decide whether to stay loyal or switch.

And therein lies the challenge for global ecommerce leaders: AI is compressing what used to be separate steps of the journey, often into one decisive moment. Take a closer look at how these new searches continue to transform product discovery, which tools shoppers are leaning on, and how brands can adapt their content to stay visible in an AI-first world.

AI Is Shortening the Path To Purchase

It’s not just that discovery is faster. Salsify’s consumer research reveals that shoppers are growing more comfortable with offloading the customer journey’s legwork to assistants, chatbots, and other product discovery tools — and trusting them enough to buy on the spot.

Chatbots lead the way: 54% of shoppers already use chatbots, far ahead of shopping assistants (19%), visual search (16%), virtual try-on (13%), and AI recommendations (12%). That adoption spans every generation, with Gen Z (70%) and millennials (65%) leading the way.
They influence real purchases: 17% of shoppers say they’ve bought something because a chatbot or AI assistant recommended it, and another 17% purchased after a virtual try-on or placement preview.
Shoppers increasingly trust them: Nearly half (46%) of consumers say they trust AI to give more honest advice than their friends, according to Bloomreach.

This means brands’ product pages, reviews, and enhanced content must be AI-readable because that’s what assistants surface to your potential customers.

Ultimately, it won’t matter how good your product is — if assistants can’t parse your pages and reviews, those shoppers won’t even know you exist.

Turning Shopper Signals Into AI Signals

AI assistants don’t just skim content; they synthesize multiple touch points into a single interaction.

Every review, product detail, and comparison chart becomes training data for how your brand shows up for shoppers. The more structured and credible those signals, the more likely assistants are to feature you in their answers.

Social Proof Signals Authority

Nearly a third of shoppers (32%) say ratings and reviews are the single most helpful factor in decision-making, and 63% left one themselves last year.

If shoppers don’t see reviews — or worse, only see bad reviews — they’ll take it as a sign that your brand is untrustworthy.

Broader Decision Drivers Shape Discovery

While better promotions still matter (55%), reviews (28%), improved product content (22%), and brand values (18%) are now critical reasons buyers switch — and could differentiate your offerings from others that are surfaced in an AI query.

Rich Content Trains the Model

From comparison charts and lifestyle images to callouts and galleries, structured product detail page (PDP) elements are the assets AI models ingest when summarizing choices. Brands that provide them give assistants more to work with and a better chance of being presented favorably.

The Markers of Success Have Changed

Keen marketers might notice that these best practices — clear reviews, enriched product content, transparent brand values — are already similar to the kinds of successful strategies ecommerce leaders have leaned on for years.

What’s changed is the stakes: In the past, strong reviews and rich content set you apart. Today, AI assistants treat them as prerequisites.

Four Strategies To Stay Visible in AI-Powered Search

What are some concrete next steps brands can take to account for these shifting trends in product discovery?

Emphasize Readability, Authority, Accuracy

Success with generative engine optimization and answer engine optimization depends on how consistent and clear your product data is. The cleaner your specs, the more AI-visible your brand becomes.

Personalization Drives Repeat Buying

Personalized recommendations influence many shoppers to purchase more often, especially millennials (48%) and Gen Zers (53%).

That makes alignment with AI-driven recommendation engines a potential growth lever.

Feed the Assistants With Structured Content

Reviews (positive and negative), FAQ-ready answers (e.g., from Reddit), lifestyle images with alt text, and mobile-first PDPs all supply the raw material assistants use to build responses.

Community Chatter Is Algorithm Fuel

Large language models lean heavily on user forums; Reddit alone is cited more than 40% of the time, according to Statista. Monitoring user-generated content is as central to brand visibility as optimizing the PDP itself.

Today, success means speaking fluently to both people and machines. Brands that successfully nail that balancing act increase their chances of showing up on the shortlist of options.

The Same Rules Apply — With New Consequences for Product Discovery

It’s clear: AI assistants have already become trusted shopping companions. Campaigns that smartly engage both humans and machines can help you break through the noise.

Just as in the pre-AI years of ecommerce, brands that emphasize clean data, credible reviews, and enriched product details are far better positioned for success than those that don’t.

Salsify Report Ecommerce Pulse Q4 2025 Feature Image

Ecommerce Pulse Report: Q4 2025

See what else is driving shopper decisions in 2026, plus actionable growth hacks and expert advice on how your brand can tackle it all.

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Tag(s): Ecommerce Technology Artificial Intelligence

Written by: Chris Caesar

Chris Caesar (he/him) is a professional writer with two decades of experience working with national publications, as well as top software-as-a-service (SaaS) and technology brands. He is passionate about crafting high-quality, lead-generating content that drives awareness and action.