If you've read anything about this holiday season, you've met the headline: AI agents are coming for the shopping cart. Soon, the story goes, you'll tell an assistant who's on your list and what you can spend, and it will handle the rest.
It's a good story. It just isn't what Kantar's data shows.
What we see is quieter, and more useful if you're selling this season. Americans are using AI to plan, research and compare. Handing it the wallet is a different matter. AI assistance is scaling faster than shoppers’ willingness to give up control. Understanding that signal, converting it into better commerce decisions and building trust for the longer term will shape how brands and retailers grow through this holiday season and beyond.
AI shopping is already a majority habit
A majority of U.S. shoppers now use AI for shopping at least sometimes, showcasing this is no longer a niche behavior. The more interesting shift in our data is how people use it. Nearly half of active AI shoppers use it daily, and virtually all plan to maintain or increase their usage. Shoppers aren't asking whether to try AI anymore. They're deciding how much of the journey to let it into.
The holiday shortlist now starts with a prompt
Where does AI show up? Early. Last December, Kantar ShopperScape asked U.S. shoppers who had used AI for shopping in the previous four weeks what they'd used it for. Product research and comparison led at 35%, followed by recommendations and price comparison. Once shoppers were actually in the shopping moment, the numbers fell, with only a fraction asking product questions or using AI shopping carts.
In other words, AI is working hardest before the trip. One caution: that survey asked about shopping in general, not gifting or holiday shopping, so read it as a clear signal of where AI sits in the journey, not a forecast of gift behavior.
Deals yes, wallet no
Here's where the agent story runs into shoppers. In Kantar's latest Commerce Barometer synthesis (September 2026), nearly half of U.S. shoppers are very comfortable with AI automatically applying deals, while about a third are comfortable with it suggesting substitutions, building an approved basket, or handling reorders. However, only 28% are comfortable with AI making a purchase on their behalf.
The wider picture matches. While a clear majority of U.S. adults say they have used an AI assistant recently, only 37% trust an AI agent to handle a complex issue.
The pattern is consistent: shoppers delegate what they can understand, check and undo. A coupon applied automatically is low stakes, visible and reversible. A purchase made on your behalf is none of those things. Adoption is outpacing trust, and trust is what limits how far delegation goes.
The store can still close the sale
AI influence is not the same as AI conversion. The prompt may create the shortlist, but the store can still close the sale. If you only credit AI for the orders that arrive through an AI link, you'll understate its influence this season.
Four moves before the holiday rush
The signal is clear: shoppers want AI to reduce the work of deciding without removing their authority to decide. But acting on that signal requires knowing precisely where your brand stands in this new landscape. For brands and retailers, that points to four immediate priorities:
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Be easy to shortlist
AI tools evaluate products, retailers, and prices in milliseconds, but do you actually know how these agents see you? Ask yourself: Do AI assistants put our brand or store on the shortlist in our top holiday categories, or are they quietly steering shoppers to competing brands or retailers? Winning the shortlist requires benchmarking your algorithmic visibility and product content against competitors through Kantar's Commerce and Brand intelligence—ensuring your value, pricing, and promotions are optimized for both AI synthesis and human decision-making.
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Make the deal do the work
Applying deals automatically is the form of delegation shoppers trust most. Ask yourself: Do we know which promotion mechanics trigger an instant conversion versus those that fail to clear the shopper's threshold? Leveraging Kantar’s deep shopper behavior insights allows you to design automated value triggers that motivate immediate action without eroding your brand margins.
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Design for approval and undo
Shoppers want AI efficiency paired with total personal control, favoring baskets they can review and changes they can reverse. Ask yourself: Do we know where in our digital purchase flow shopper trust breaks down and causes basket abandonment? Kantar helps you map the exact friction points in your shopper journey, allowing you to design transparent, reversible interactions that build the trust required for deeper shopper delegation over time.
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Measure the whole journey
A shopper who builds a list using AI and buys in your physical store is an AI-influenced sale, yet standard attribution misses it entirely. Ask yourself: Can we accurately measure how much of our revenue is being driven by pre-trip AI discovery versus final-mile impulse? By combining Kantar’s holistic path-to-purchase tracking with broad commerce data, you can capture total AI influence across the entire ecosystem—not just direct AI-referred checkouts.
AI is changing how holiday shoppers start, but it has not changed who they want in charge at the end. The immediate opportunity is to make discovery and comparison easier while keeping approval visible and reversible. The longer-term opportunity is to partner with Kantar to build the trust, distinctiveness, and connected measurement that keep your brand chosen as AI rewrites commerce. Treat the trust gap as a design brief, not an obstacle, and it becomes a powerful driver of sustainable brand growth.
