Generative AI is rapidly growing as a source of traffic to leading US retailers for the 2025 holiday shopping season.
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We’re using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and many other AI answering engines to find gifts and goodies for the 2025 holiday season. According to new data from Adobe, AI traffic to retailers increased 830% year over year in the first part of November.
We primarily use artificial intelligence to search for technology-related products, Adobe says. The top product categories that consumers search for in LLMs include toys, video games, appliances, personal care products, and electronics.
Online retail shoppers using AI also buy more often, according to Adobe. Perhaps the most interesting part of the data is that “shoppers who landed on a US retail site from an AI service were 30% more likely to convert” than those who arrived via traditional search and other means, Adobe says.
However, there are conflicting data on how big a role artificial intelligence will play in this year’s holiday shopping season.
An adult 2,202 overview from AT&T says 58% of us are more likely to use traditional search, like Google, to find vacation matches, and only 9% of Americans are more likely to use AI. In other words, it’s still kind of cutting edge, if not cutting edge, to use ChatGPT or Gemini to find a gift for grandma.
In addition to the data collected by its retail platform, Adobe also conducted a consumer survey of 1,000 consumers, but their data shows something completely different.
“32% of respondents reported using AI to help with their online shopping journeys, and nearly half (48%) said they have used or plan to use AI specifically for holiday shopping,” Adobe told me via email.
There is a big difference between these two investigations. The reality is that how people answer a question is greatly influenced by how it’s asked, so clearly more data would be helpful here.
That said, the 830% increase in traffic to retailers is hard data, not survey data, so something real is going on here. The boost is down from last year, when traffic to retailers from productive AI services jumped 1,300%, but that’s to be expected: this is growth on a larger basis. And, as consumer activity with new technology flattens out, the growth curve rises.
“While artificial intelligence traffic remains modest compared to other channels such as paid search or email, the uptick this season has been remarkable,” says Adobe. “Despite its smaller share, AI is already reshaping the shopping experience, with 81% reporting an improved shopping experience as a direct result of using these tools.”
In other words: retailers need to figure out how to be competitive when people search on LLM as much as when they search on Google, Bing or DuckDuckGo.
