AI

Consumers wary about AI shopping assistants but Amazon is changing perceptions

As the retail landscape shifts to a more automated, hands-off marketplace, the industry continues to prioritize investing in AI-powered shopping tech but not all consumers are on board.

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July 17, 2026 by Judy Mottl — Editor: RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com, Connect Media

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Artificial intelligence in the retail store shopping experience is increasingly the focus of research papers, studies and industry analysis.

That's because consumers are not only becoming more familiar with AI shopping assistant technology but are slowly, yet steadily, tapping the technology for various reasons – including personal needs, lifestyle challenges, product discovery, discount offer opportunities and product decision making.

In fact a hefty number of consumers, 70%, are using AI in their personal lives and nearly half, 45%, are using it daily compared to half that just nine months ago, according to a Bain & Company's Consumer Lab AI survey that also revealed most consumers trust Gen AI for research.

"Agentic AI marks a major shift in retail discovery and loyalty since the rise of search engines," Aaron Cheris, a partner in Bain's Retail practice, said in a press release on the findings. "These systems are beginning to act independently across the shopping journey, from product research to checkout, creating both disruption and opportunity for retailers."

The use of AI assistants among U.S. shoppers more than doubled in 2025, year-over-year, increasing to 35% from 12% in 2024 and over half of shoppers are open to AI handling the entire shopping process, according to an Ayden "2026 Retail Report."

Amazon playing adoption role

One big driver in AI shopping assistant adoption among consumers is the fact that omnichannel global retailer Amazon has been leading the AI assistant charge for a long time and is still driving it forward among consumers and now retailers and brands.

Amazon Web Services recently launched an AI-powered solution to help retailers build AI-powered shopping experience. The AWS agentic shopping assistant, called ASA, was built with technology and learnings from Amazon's Alexa for Shopping agentic assistant.

Amazon's influence is clear in one of the most recent studies, Invoice Home's "2026 Agentic Commerce Perception Report," which noted how Amazon has built trust around its Alexa for Shopping offering, especially regarding Amazon's Prime Day sales events.

Invoice Home is an invoicing platform and invoice template software provider with 12 million users worldwide. The study polled 1,000 U.S. online shoppers who shop online at least a few times a month.

During the most recent Amazon Prime Day, which took place in late June, 53% of U.S. online shoppers were expected to interact with an AI shopping agent in some way, according to the report. In examining trust overall, three in 10 (30%) trust Amazon's AI shopping assistants the most, followed by OpenAI's ChatGPT (17%) and Walmart (14%).

Yet, despite respondents trusting the commerce giant the most, 1 in 5 (20%) don't plan to use Amazon's AI-shopping tools out of fear it will not work in their best interest.

Conducted with third-party research firm Censuswide, the data suggests shoppers are now hesitant to adopt the technology. Consumers fear AI shopping assistants are manipulative (designed to drive a consumer to spend more) and despite respondents trusting Amazon the most, one in five polled (20%) don't plan to use Amazon's AI-shopping tools out of fear it will not work in their best interest.

Another 27% will only trust an AI-shopping assistant built by a company with no financial stake and 21% will trust an LLM (Claude, ChatGPT) over one offered directly by a retailer, according to the report's data.

Then there's the consumer fear about data and financial information being shared. Over half, 58%, would not use an AI-shopping assistant out of concern it would collect and sell behavioral data to third parties.

RetailCustomerExperience reached out via an email interview to Petr Marek, co-founder and CEP at Invoice Home, to get deeper insight into the study's findings.

Q: Is this the first agentic commerce report Invoice Home has done?

Marek: Yes, this is the first agentic commerce survey we've released. As the retail landscape is shifting to a more automated, hands-off marketplace, the industry continues to prioritize investing in AI-powered shopping tech, especially big-box companies. Our goal with this report is to educate smaller businesses how they can also benefit from these tools by understanding how shoppers are using them, so they can better navigate the agentic commerce landscape.

Q: What's the top finding and was it surprising or not?

Marek: What was most surprising is the trust online shoppers have for Amazon's AI shopping tools. 30% of respondents trust Amazon's Rufus/Alexa over OpenAI's ChatGPT, which was only 17%. Much of the data also highlights the hesitancy in using AI-shopping assistants, but what was refreshing is seeing many are open to its support and would use these tools to their benefit, such as troubleshooting order issues with customer service or even ordering household essentials/routine purchases. That said, AI is not perfect, so if you do plan to opt in to using an AI assistant for shopping tasks, make sure to set up your own checks and balances to ensure it's running smoothly for you.

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Q: How does Amazon play into consumer adoption of AI in shopping? Is it making inroads easier for other retailers to take the same path?

Marek: Consumers have been familiar with Amazon's AI-powered experiences through Alexa and personalized recommendations for more than a decade, which has helped normalize the idea of AI assisting with shopping decisions. As a result, shoppers are increasingly comfortable interacting with AI tools that help them discover products, compare options, and make purchases. For other retailers, this lowers the barrier to adoption because they no longer have to convince customers that AI belongs in the shopping journey — they can focus on delivering useful, trustworthy experiences.

Q: The study reveals 1 in 5 (20%) don't plan to use Amazon's AI-shopping tools out of fear it will not work in their best interest. Is that surprising and do you expect that to change fast as more Amazon customers get comfortable with AI in shopping?

Marek: Data shows hesitancy to adopt this type of technology across the board, with many pointing to fears of manipulation, data security, and more, for reasons why it's not for them right now. Like any new technology, as more shoppers become familiar with its benefits, we'll see an increase in adoption. However, for this to happen, it's important businesses are clearly communicating their AI policies and how it's being monitored. This is especially critical for payment security and customers' personal information/data.

About Judy Mottl

Judy Mottl is the editor of RetailCustomerExperience.com and DigitalSignageToday.com at Connect Media. She is an award-winning editor, reporter and blogger who has worked for top media for nearly four decades, including AOL, InformationWeek and Internet News, as well as for leading technology providers including HP. She’s written everything from breaking news to in-depth industry trends and reported on technology long before the internet arrived, including the debut of the first smartphone. When she's not sharing insights on digital signage deployments and trends in retail customer experience she's on the beach or watching the latest live murder trial.

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