AI shopping assistants are reshaping holiday retail – and you might already be using one without realizing it

• Adobe is forecasting a 520% surge in AI-driven traffic to retail sites during the 2025 holiday season.
• Shoppers are relying on chatbots for gift recommendations and deal hunting.
• Over a third of US consumers have already used AI tools to shop online.

Your holiday shopping this year is likely to have a lot of help from AI, according to a new report from Adobe. This year’s holiday e-commerce forecast predicts a whopping 520% jump in AI-driven traffic to US retail websites.

AI’s presence in holiday shopping spiked last year by 1,300%, but the ten days leading up to Thanksgiving will see AI’s retail aid hit new heights. The forecast is based on more than 1 trillion site visits. The expected $253.4 billion spent online between November 1 and December 31 would be a 5.3% bump from last year, regardless, but the role of AI and its adoption for shopping is remarkable.

The “AI traffic” Adobe refers to doesn’t necessarily mean a robot is buying you socks. Instead, it tracks when people land on e-commerce sites via a recommendation or link generated by an AI interface. That might be a chatbot. It might be an AI-powered browser sidebar. It might be an auto-suggest tool in an online marketplace. What matters is the role AI now plays.

It helps that more than a third of those responding to Adobe’s survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers have already used AI for online shopping. A majority of 53% cited AI as a research tool, with 40% saying they use AI for product recommendations, while 36% say AI helps them find deals, and 30% reported using AI for gift inspiration.