Retail Businesses Must Brace for GenAI-Enabled Consumers, Says BCG:
As always, with the holidays approaching, people start looking for year-end deals. But this time, shoppers are turning to Artificial Intelligence, according to Monday’s report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
According to an annual Black Friday survey (of 10,000+ consumers in 10 countries), GenAI tools—like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI—have become shopping assistants. These tools guide customers through key decision points, allowing them to make fast and confident purchasing decisions: what to buy, which brand to choose, where to find the best deal, and what item will be perfect.
According to a 2025 survey, more than 45% of consumers are already using GenAI or plan to use it, and some are even considering it for year-end sales—a 10% increase from 2024. BCG Partner Tiffany points out that this growth is consistent across countries, and people’s trust in AI shopping assistants is also increasing.
• 46% of shoppers use GenAI to compare products
• 44% find the best deals
• 42% check technical product information
For retailers, this means that their visibility may not depend solely on Google search. They will need to make their product data machine-readable and maintain consistent pricing so that GenAI can make the right recommendations. Ananda Chakravarty, VP of Retail at IDC, explains that GenAI is now also providing personalization in event-based shopping. Therefore, retailers will need to incorporate GenAI into their omnichannel strategy. Along with this, loyalty programs, reward programs, and better content will also be essential to reach customers.
Next-Gen Discovery Opportunities for Retail Stores:
For retailers, says Tarun Chandrasekhar, generative AI has become the new digital storefront where customers discover products and make decisions. Joe, president and chief product officer of Syndigo (a Chicago-based data management company), told E-Commerce Times, “Customers aren’t just searching. They’re now making purchase decisions by interacting with them using AI tools.
This creates both opportunity and pressure for retailers.”
He explains that AI models need a lot of clean, complete, and context-rich product data to make accurate recommendations. Retailers who enrich their product content with accurate, structured, and metadata significantly increase their chances of appearing in AI results.
According to David Hunter, CEO of Local Falcon, today’s consumers want quick answers—what they want to buy, where they want to buy it, and why they want to buy it.
This is a major shift for retailers, as visibility no longer depends solely on SEO. Whether a brand shows up in AI answers has become more important.
He explained that retailers need not just a “good website,” but strong, structured, and trustworthy signals across the internet that AI can easily read. If this doesn’t happen, they could fall behind their competitors.
Mark N. Vena of SmartTech Research said, “GenAI shopping tools are both an opportunity and a challenge for retailers. They are shaping consumer decisions in real-time and replacing traditional search methods.”
Retailers need to optimize their data so that AI models can easily pick out and display their products, reviews, and prices.
Today, retailers will also have to learn to ‘market to the machine,’ not just to customers.
AI Earns Increasing Trust From Young to Old Users:
The BCG report reveals that AI usage is also increasing significantly among Gen X users—jumping 8 percentage points compared to the previous few years, reaching 42%. Usage among Baby Boomers also increased by 7 percentage points to 31%. BCG explains, “This shift shows that Gen AI is no longer a novelty for early adopters, but has become a mainstream shopping partner for every generation.”
They also state, “Trust, simplicity, and reliability are all crucial for older consumers. AI tools must provide a transparent and easy-to-use experience. Retailers and brands should create inclusive interactions that combine personalization with clarity and control.”
Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said, “The report shows that GenAI is building trust even among groups that are typically slow to adopt new technologies. This is an unprecedented rate of behavior change.”
He explains that this trust will be crucial for the next big AI trend: agentic AI.
“When people start to trust AI, their AI agent can shop and do other things on their behalf,” Enderle explained. “The AI agent will select better gifts based on social media training, reducing both the stress and work of shopping.”
Kearney partner Katherine Black said, “AI adoption has never happened as fast in history as it will now. Agentic commerce will follow a similar trajectory.”
She explained that GenAI’s learning curve is very flat—people learn quickly, and the tool continuously rewards them, so adoption speed is very high.
Black explained that agentic commerce will have a major impact on retailers in the coming years.
“In some categories, retailers’ EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) could shift by up to 500 basis points,” she said. This will be due to:
• Smaller basket sizes (which will eliminate the halo effect)
• Increasing fulfillment costs
• High-margin revenues such as retail media dollars shifting to agentic platforms.
Smart AI Tools Are Replacing Traditional Retail Discovery:
BCG’s Yeh explained that agentic AI will completely transform shopping. Previously, people simply searched for, compared, viewed, and then purchased products. Now, AI agents handle all of this on behalf of users—discovery, comparison, and even purchasing.
He also warned that if retailers don’t integrate their product data and catalogs into AI ecosystems, their direct customer connection could be lost. And to remain relevant, retailers need to:
• Build their own brand-owned AI agents
• Optimize their visibility on third-party AI platforms
It’s also essential that retailers strengthen customer relationships through loyalty programs, exclusive rewards, and personalized offers, reducing their dependence on third-party platforms.
Rob Garf of Cordial notes that this shift is as significant as the advent of search engines.
Today, 1/3 of shoppers are using AI personalized agents for discovery, and this will expand to 50% by 2026.
He explains:
• It’s no longer a game about website traffic.
• The game is for brands to appear where customers already are—within AI agents.
Just as SEO was essential in the 2000s, Agent Engine Optimization (AEO) is the new battleground.
AI agents learn all about a shopper’s context and history—e.g., whether they were a marathon runner, have a hip injury, and need wide-width shoes, and so on.
Brands that provide rich, structured product data will dominate this new AI-driven shopping mall.
Those that don’t will become invisible to high-intent shoppers.
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