A third of US shoppers would ask AI for gift ideas, and they check more sources. What to fix

What Gartner found

About a third of US consumers are open to asking AI for gift ideas this season. In Gartner's survey of 1,004 US consumers in August 2026, published on 7 October, 34% said they were very or extremely willing to use generative AI tools or chatbots for holiday gift recommendations.¹

The more useful finding is about behaviour around the AI. In the same survey, shoppers using AI for inspiration consulted 4.48 sources on average, against 3.24 for shoppers who did not.¹ Retailer websites, search and wishlists remained the top sources of inspiration overall.

Where people plan to buy has not moved to AI. In the same survey, 77% planned to shop in stores and 75% on Amazon.¹ The AI conversation sits near the start of the journey, and the purchase still happens in familiar places.

US consumers, August 2026

AI joins the gift search; it does not replace the shop

34%very or extremely willing to use AI for gift ideasGartner, Aug 2026 ¹

4.48 vs 3.24inspiration sources: AI users vs non-usersGartner, Aug 2026 ¹

77% and 75%plan to shop in stores and on AmazonGartner, Aug 2026 ¹

Why do AI shoppers check more sources?

The survey shows that AI users check more sources; it does not show why. Two readings fit the data, and both point to the same fix.

One reading is that AI widens the list. A chatbot suggests products the shopper had not considered, so there are more retailer pages, reviews and listings to look at before deciding. The other is that heavier shoppers adopt AI first, and they always checked more sources. A survey of this kind cannot separate the two.

Our view: for a retailer the distinction matters less than it seems. Either way, the shopper who meets your product in an AI answer will check it somewhere else before buying. If the price in the answer, the price on your product page and the price on a marketplace listing differ, the extra checking works against you.

Salesforce's 2026 holiday predictions describe a similar picture of a shopping journey spread across more discovery channels; Salesforce sells commerce AI, and the post does not state its sample or method.² Gartner's survey is the firmer evidence because it states its sample, its period and its geography.

How this fits Adobe's holiday forecast

Adobe expects AI traffic to US retail sites to more than double this season, which raises the stakes on consistency. Adobe forecasts AI traffic up 130% year on year for 1 November–31 December 2026, and up 159% on Thanksgiving.³ It forecasts US online holiday sales of $275.1 billion, up 6.7%.³

Growth rates on a small channel need care: doubling a small share still leaves a small share. Our note on Adobe's forecast covers the traffic readiness list. Gartner adds the other half: the shoppers who arrive from AI will also have looked elsewhere.

What they ask also matters. In Profound's study of 200,000 commercial prompts from 20–26 December 2025 (geography not stated), 68.2% were product research and comparison.⁴ Our notes on that study list the prompt types. Comparison prompts are where conflicting facts across sources do the most damage.

What to fix before November: one set of facts everywhere

Make every source a shopper checks state the same price, stock, delivery date and product facts. Start with the places the Gartner respondents still buy and browse, then work outwards.

• Product feeds against product pages. The price, availability and variant names in your feed should match the live page. Our note on ChatGPT Shopping's move to product feeds covers the feed checks.
• Marketplace listings. Titles, specifications and images on Amazon and other marketplaces should match your own site, because shoppers compare them side by side.
• Retail partner pages. Where stockists sell your products, send them the same product facts and check their pages before Black Friday.
• Delivery and returns. Put order cut-off dates and holiday return windows in server-rendered text on your own pages, so AI engines and shoppers read the same dates.
• Gift-guide pages. Write them answer-first for real prompts, such as a gift under 100 US dollars for a teenager who likes photography, with the price and the place to buy in the text.

Then check what the engines say. Run your gift prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, and compare the facts in each answer with your pages. Answers vary from run to run, so the Sigzen AI audit runs each prompt on three separate days before reporting a result. Our playbook for e-commerce brands covers what to change when you are missing from the answer.

What the survey does not tell you

The survey measures willingness and habits among US consumers, not purchases. It does not say which AI tools respondents use, how often an AI suggestion leads to a sale, or how shoppers in other countries behave.

Willingness also runs ahead of use. Saying you are very willing to ask a chatbot for gift ideas is not the same as doing it in December. Our view: treat the 34% as a ceiling on the share of shoppers who might start with AI this season, and the source-checking finding as the part to act on now.¹

For brands selling outside the US, there is no equivalent survey in the sources we track, so measure directly. Your own analytics, with AI referrals set up as their own channel, will show whether AI-referred shoppers also visit more pages before buying from you.