As kids and adults across the D.C. region finish up their back-to-school shopping ahead of the first day of class, many of them may be turning to artificial intelligence rather than their friends for opinions.
The latest Bloomreach survey data suggests 60% of consumers are using AI for shopping decisions, according to Luca Cian, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. In a recent customer survey, 46% of people say they trust AI more than friends for certain choices, he said.
“We are sort of witnessing a big shift in terms of shopping in general, and how AI can help through shopping specifically,” Cian told WTOP.
Sometimes, shoppers can be overwhelmed at the number of choices they’re facing, Cian said. AI can help because it can create categories or exclude some products while recommending others.
Shoppers are turning to software such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and asking what items to buy given a specific budget.
Some people are drawn to AI technology because of its speed, Cian said.
“I want to make a decision, I’m not calling my friends to see what they’re doing,” Cian said. “Maybe it takes two hours of phone calls. They’re going to tell me how they feel or complain about something.”
Shoppers also perceive AI to be more objective and lacking a social motivation that a friend might have to influence a decision. For example, if a friend buys something, they may be more likely to want you to buy the same thing or something similar.
“Algorithmic recommendations seem more trustworthy for certain decisions,” Cian said.
Humans trump AI when shopping for experiences
Consumers trust AI recommendations over human ones when considering a practical, functional decision, Cian said. That’s particularly prevalent for back-to-school shopping, because many school products fall into that category.
However, shoppers prefer humans over AI when thinking about experiential or emotional purchases, Cian said.
“People tend to think that AI is not able to understand aesthetics or trends; while in reality, if the AI is well done, they can do it,” he said.
In certain cases, a company’s website may use an algorithm or AI to suggest other possible purchases, Cian said. Walmart and Amazon take that approach, but many shoppers are turning to specific software to ask what to buy.
Businesses such as Netflix reframe their AI recommendations so consumers are more likely to trust them, he said. So, because a movie is connected to emotions, Netflix uses AI but frames it as “people like you” are choosing a particular movie.
AI is compressing the traditional marketing funnel, Cian said. If someone asks for a back-to-school shopping recommendation, AI can present three to five options.
“So this means that the company, right now, they have to really shift a little bit of their budget from what was traditional marketing to creating content that can be picked up by the large language models” of AI, he said.