By Jill Standish
Generative AI is reimagining the digital shopping experience by making the product search experience conversational. It used to be that consumers searched for a brand or a product by using phrases, brand names or information such as pricing to pull up results. But now, they can ask for advice and recommendations.
While the proportion of purchases influenced by Gen AI remains small, it is increasing at a significant rate and quietly rewriting the rules of brand discovery and consideration. For retailers and brands, it means learning how to show up in this new, AI-curated path-to-purchase in order to be best positioned to fill (and widen) the top of the funnel.
Accenture’s Consumer Pulse Survey 2025 shows nearly one in 10 consumers already rank the technology as their most trusted source of what to buy. And over a third of active users — defined as people using Gen AI tools at least weekly for personal and/or professional reasons — consider it “a good friend.”
It’s easy to see why. Search tools or chatbots powered by Gen AI, can communicate back to a consumer. For instance, the consumer can start by mentioning they have birthday party to attend and need ideas on what clothing to wear and makeup to apply, and the technology can ask about age, themes and preferred styles to narrow down the results.
In many ways Large Language Models (LLMs) are becoming influencers that act as AI “concierges,” guiding consumers throughout the purchasing process by presenting options, comparing product features and narrowing choices — often without the consumer noticing.
Disruption, yes, but also opportunity
As transformation AI-powered technologies evolve, it brings both a challenge and an invitation for retailers and consumer brands. If they do nothing, they risk being misrepresented or even left out of the conversation entirely.
Instead, they must actively engage with the consumer LLM ecosystem, such as forming strategic partnerships with AI platforms to help optimize content for discoverability and ensuring the brand guardrails are adhered to and accurately represented in AI-generated recommendations.
Success also demands optimizing for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) alongside traditional SEO, recognizing that AI systems interpret and rank content differently than traditional search engines.
There is a deeper revenue opportunity here too. Accenture’s Survey reveals consumers are 1.7 times more likely to accept a higher price point from a brand that delivers emotionally or experientially engaging experiences. In response, retailers and brands should tap AI to curate experiences that feel personal, relevant and timely — to not only boost sales but garner loyalty.
Trust through transparency
Gen AI is capable of analyzing product and customer data, providing precise and customized responses within seconds. The technology is helping to develop conversational experiences that have the potential to significantly influence how customers discover offerings and make purchasing decisions in the future.
However, the benefits of Gen AI depend on establishing trust. Although many consumers are already using the technology, retailers and brands will benefit from putting in the effort to onboard reluctant consumers or those unfamiliar with the technology.
With transparency at the core of building trust, retailers and brands should carefully consider how they might help with onboarding those consumers using Gen AI tools for the first time. There are many different ways to do this, including practical examples of how to converse with Gen AI, or examples of what the output could look like, or here are some of the questions you could ask.
It is also important to tell consumers who are interacting with AI that some of the results may not be accurate, even if brand guardrails are in place.
However, too much detail can make important product information harder to find, especially in categories such as food and beauty, where consumers often have to dig for data on efficacy, pricing or ingredients. Adding to consumers’ “thinking workload” to find, assess and purchase will undoubtedly have a negative knock-on effect to trust, not to mention revenues.
In fact, Accenture’s 2024 Consumer Pulse Survey found many shoppers experience frustration and are overwhelmed when shopping, with roughly three-fourths of consumers feeling overwhelmed by too many choices (73%), and as a result, walked away from purchases (74%).
A great example of a company aiming to solve for these issues is Noli — which stands for No One Like I — the AI-powered multi-brand beauty start-up founded and backed by the L’Oréal Groupe.
Noli cuts through the noise, using powerful AI diagnostics and tools built from over 1 million skin data points and analysis of 1,000s of product formulations, to decode each user’s beauty profile and to then provide them with product recommendations to help them make confident, right-for-them choices, which are then delivered to their doorstep.
Entering the recommendation era
With search giving way to suggestion, retailers now have the opportunity to embed branded, AI-powered advisors directly into their own channels. Instead of forcing shoppers to hunt through thousands of choices on your website, invite them to have a conversation through asking questions: “What should I buy for a newborn baby boy?” or “Which morning cereal is best for my child with a gluten allergy?”
Through tapping the transformational power of technologies such as Gen AI, retailers and brands can let Gen AI do the listening and reasoning with product and customer data, so that tailored answers and recommendations can be delivered in seconds. Curating these conversational experiences today will define how customers discover, trust and buy from you tomorrow.
Jill Standish is Accenture’s global retail lead.
