The news: Consumers increasingly trust shopping suggestions from AI, even more than product suggestions from content creators, positioning the technology as a trusted and personalized guide rather than a back-end tool.

• 27% of US consumers trust AI shopping recommendations, per Walmart’s Retail Rewired Report, compared with 24% who trust suggestions from social media influencers.
• 48% of respondents said AI improves their retail experience, and 54% said they’d like an AI shopper that knows their preferences well enough to recommend products before the consumer can find them.

Purchase control: Despite rising trust, adoption is still low: 69% of consumers start their shopping journey in a search bar and only 13% begin with a chatbot or AI tool.

That trust in AI comes with conditions: Consumers want to maintain oversight, especially when it comes to expensive products.

• 24% of respondents would be more likely to use digital shopping agents if they could review and approve all purchases.
• 47% are comfortable using AI assistants to buy household essentials—a low-stake category. By comparison, 32% would use them to shop for furniture, the highest budget category.

Roadblocks: While familiarity and comfort with automated assistants is growing, some concerns remain, especially around data privacy and unhelpful recommendations.

• 37% said security concerns about sharing personal preferences and information are impeding their adoption of AI shopping tools.
• 33% are concerned about getting irrelevant product suggestions, and 29% are worried they’ll get pushed toward brands or items they’re not interested in.

Our take: AI retail tools are most likely to succeed if they offer both speed and a sense of user control. Retailers should let users set spending caps and offer options to pause or customize recommendations to help AI agents feel more like a trusted assistant than a pushy salesperson.

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