The news: Generative AI (genAI) is taking on a multifaceted role in users’ lives, as an influencer, a personal companion, and a consumer proxy.

• 87% of genAI users would consider asking the technology for social or relationship advice, per Accenture’s Me, My Brand and AI: The New World of Consumer Engagement survey.
• GenAI is the top source for purchase recommendations for 18% of users, above social media (15%) and recommendations from friends and family (13%).
• Three-quarters of people who use genAI are open to deploying AI agents as personal shoppers.

Evolving emotions: The improvement of AI tools’ empathy and conversational abilities may be boosting engagement and making it easier for users to feel like they’re chatting with a friend rather than a robot. That emotional intelligence has been a focus of several recent model launches, including OpenAI’s GPT-4.5.

• 36% of genAI users would consider the technology to be a “good friend.”
• “Therapy and companionship” ranks as the No. 1 use case for genAI, per Filtered, followed by life organization activities like structuring goals and priorities.

Trusted source: GenAI platforms are an important part of the content discovery journey for many consumers and an attractive source of information. However, search engines like Google remain a more trusted source overall.

• 83% of genAI users rely on the technology when choosing a product or service, per Accenture.
• Over half (57.8%) of consumers still prefer Google Search over AI platforms like OpenAI when they need a factual answer, per Pearl.com, indicating a trust barrier remains.

Shopping companion: AI’s developing autonomy can be a big asset when shopping, especially for making purchase suggestions and streamlining the browsing process.

• 27% of consumers trust AI-powered shopping suggestions, per Walmart, coming in above 24% for content creators.
• 9% of consumers rank genAI as their most trusted source of what to buy, per Accenture.

Our take: Embedding AI tools like chatbots, agents, and recommendation engines into brand websites can help users shop faster and discover new content.

Offering transparency around data use and building opt-out features could help users trust the tools more and give them the peace of mind to hand over personal information in exchange for assistance and recommendations.