New research finds 48.5% of shoppers have used AI to research a purchase, but just 35.4% trust its recommendations. Here’s what the trust gap means for retailers in 2026.
In the past few years, AI has dramatically changed the retail journey, whether shoppers notice AI’s influence or not. AI-powered recommendations now have a tremendous influence on the online shopping experience. Visual search enables customers to find an exact product with just a screenshot. Generative summaries sit at the top of review pages and Google searches, condensing hundreds or thousands of opinions into a paragraph.
Most of that happens in the background. But increasingly, consumers are consulting third-party assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini when they shop. Shoppers type a question, read an answer, then decide how much of it to believe and what to do next. That makes conversational AI one of the best ways to understand how much shoppers trust AI recommendations.
The data referenced in this piece comes from Alchemer’s 2026 Retail Report, a survey of 1,002 U.S. shoppers.
Shoppers adopted AI faster than they trusted it
The key numbers in the report show how many shoppers use AI and how many of those shoppers trust what AI is telling them.
Nearly half of shoppers (48.5%) have used an AI tool to research a retail purchase in the past 12 months and 21.8% do it often enough to call it a habit. Generative AI is growing as a legitimate research channel in the shopping process. 22.9% of shoppers use an LLM when researching a purchase, close behind social media at 24.7% and review sites at 30.7%.
However, trust is lagging behind usage. Only 35.4% of shoppers say they trust AI recommendations completely. Almost two-thirds have doubts and 22.2% of shoppers don’t trust AI recommendations from conversational assistants at all.
The gap widens as customers get closer to making the purchase. Asked which source shoppers trust most when deciding what to buy, they rank online reviews first at 36% and friends and family second at 31%. Around 15% of shoppers trust AI recommendations when deciding what to buy, with expert review sites and influencers at 9% each.
That ranking is more encouraging than a “shoppers don’t trust AI” headline suggests. It turns out shoppers trust AI recommendations more than third-party review sites and influencers, despite their track records as sources for recommendations. For a research channel that most shoppers only started using in the last 24 months, 15% indicates strong traction among consumers.
Shoppers are also specific about their hesitations around AI recommendations. Privacy leads the list of shopper concerns at 35.1%, driven by uncertainty about what happens to their data behind a personalized recommendation. Many shoppers are also skeptical of fake reviews and AI-generated reviews, with 21.4% of shoppers listing that as a major concern. In the survey, shoppers also listed biased recommendations (16.5%) as a top concern. Put all these concerns together and it’s clear that many shoppers have trust issues when it comes to how AI is applied to their shopping experience. Retailer transparency around privacy and reviews could go a long way in building shopper trust.
Discovery is multichannel, and AI joined the party
However, skepticism hasn’t slowed adoption and nowhere is that clearer than in how shoppers discover what they buy.
Ask shoppers where they discovered their most recent purchase and the answer is mixed. Shoppers cited search engines at 33.7%, the retailer’s own site or app at 32.0% and marketplaces at 30.2%. AI has quickly become a meaningful product discovery channel. 17.4% of shoppers found their most recent purchase through an LLM or AI tool, ahead of in-store browsing at 14.4% and recommendations from friends and family at 10.6%.
A channel that barely existed three years ago is rising rapidly as a discovery channel.
However, when it’s time to buy, shoppers decide on price (67.3%), product quality (56.7%) and total cost including fees (35.2%). AI helps get shoppers to the item and value closes the deal in 2026.
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Reviews still dominate, but 42% now question whether they’re real
One research channel still outranks everything, including AI. It’s also under pressure from the same technology that’s reshaping the rest of the journey.
Reviews are still shoppers’ preferred and most trusted source of information in a purchase decision. In the report, 70.2% of shoppers said they read reviews before buying and nearly half of shoppers called reviews extremely influential in their choices. Google reviews are the most influential with 51.6% of shoppers listing Google as their preferred review source, followed by Amazon reviews at 40.9% and reviews on the retailer’s own site at 37.1%. Generative AI review summaries already carry 13.6% influence, ahead of YouTube product videos (12.1%) and third-party sites like Trustpilot and Yelp (11.9%).
However, 42% of shoppers worry that the reviews they read are fake or AI-biased. Another 40.6% suspect they’re paid or incentivized, and 32.5% believe brands manipulate them.
When nearly half of shoppers question review legitimacy, a review presence that holds up to scrutiny stops being table stakes and becomes a real differentiator for brands.
How to close the trust gap
1. Win AI-assisted research with accurate listings and product information
Nearly a quarter of shoppers use LLMs to research what to buy. Only 0.3% plan to do most of their holiday shopping through them. The behavior is in the research phase, so the budget belongs there.
Generative AI tools build answers from structured product data, reviews, listings and third-party coverage. Retailers whose product information isn’t organized to answer natural-language questions won’t appear in a growing share of research. Audit how AI tools currently describe your products, listings, and local pages. Treat accuracy in your listings and on your website as crucial and correct any misinformation in the sources they pull from.
2. Prioritize a strong review presence and silence legitimacy concerns
A review program built on volume and recency is critical to building shopper trust and standing out among your competition. Always ask shoppers for feedback after they make a purchase, so the review base keeps refreshing. It is also extremely important to respond publicly to reviews, including negative ones. Closing the loop with the shoppers that provided feedback is important to winning their repeat business and earning new business from prospective shoppers.
Shoppers have already let AI into their purchase decisions. Whether they believe what it tells them still depends on how retailers prioritize reviews and optimize for AI search.
About the Author of this Article
Brian Henley is Vice President of Research Services at Alchemer
About Alchemer
Alchemer empowers you to do more with feedback. From a one-time survey to a powerful feedback program, Alchemer gives customer-obsessed teams the clarity to move from asking to action, driving your business forward
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