AI is moving from influencing purchases to making them. For brands, that changes the question.
The issue is not simply whether consumers will accept AI in the buying process. Some already will. Others are likely to resist it for reasons that are not only technical. The more useful question is who will let AI do what, in which categories, under what conditions, and how much control they expect to keep.
AI in Purchasing Decisions is EmpathixAI’s new consumer research report, which you can download using the form above, based on a nationally representative survey of 1,471 U.S. adults fielded on the Relay platform. It maps the market not as a simple pro-AI versus anti-AI divide, but as a permission market: a set of consumer segments defined by how much authority they are willing to grant AI in the buying process.
The report shows why the path to AI-mediated commerce will not be a straight line toward full automation. Consumers are often willing to let AI reduce effort, organize complexity, and advocate on their behalf. What they resist is more subtle: losing control, narrowing discovery, obscuring commercial incentives, or outsourcing choices that feel personal.
Download the report to see:
- how consumers split across Avoiders, Supervisors, and Delegators
- which consumers are most ready to let AI act on their behalf
- the trust conditions that need to be in place before AI can move from recommendation to action
- how willingness to delegate varies across twelve purchase categories
- why the serendipity problem may matter as much as the trust problem, especially for challenger brands
For any team building AI into a shopping, recommendation, personalization, or customer experience strategy, the central question is no longer whether AI can make purchasing decisions. It is whether consumers will give it permission to do so.