Overview
- About a quarter of UK shoppers now use AI tools to find products, with usage climbing to roughly 30% among 25- to 34-year-olds and 1% for those over 65, according to PwC and KPMG.
- Guardian testing found AI often defaults to big marketplaces such as Amazon and can produce bland or stereotyped picks unless carefully guided, though it can surface local shops when prompted.
- Major retailers have set up teams to influence LLM outputs by improving product data access, engaging in forums like Reddit, and managing reviews, while Moonpig is experimenting with generative engine optimisation.
- Etsy integrated ChatGPT’s instant checkout first, followed by Shopify, Walmart and Target, adding buy buttons without apparent ranking preference in AI search results.
- UK rules still require human oversight for purchases, and safety and legal tensions persist, including Microsoft’s manipulation concerns and Amazon’s lawsuit accusing Perplexity of improper account access, which the startup disputes.