The consumer journey is beginning to change at the point where brands have traditionally fought hardest for attention: the moment shoppers decide what to consider. New research from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) suggests that artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming a trusted intermediary between consumers and brands, with 31% of surveyed consumers already using AI during a purchase journey—roughly three times the level reported 18 months earlier. For marketers and commerce teams, the implication is significant: being visible to consumers may increasingly depend on being visible to AI systems first.
For decades, brands have optimized websites, advertising campaigns, search rankings and retail placement to influence what consumers see. AI is beginning to insert another layer between brands and buyers.
BCG’s latest research, based on more than 13,000 consumers across 12 markets, more than 100 in-depth interviews and an analysis of more than 1,000 brands, identifies AI-guided decision making as one of five structural shifts reshaping consumer behavior.
The numbers point to a rapidly changing discovery environment. BCG found that 31% of consumers now use AI at some point during a purchase journey, while 19% regularly rely on AI when making purchase decisions. Among those AI-loyal consumers, 70% ultimately purchase products recommended by the technology.
That makes AI more than another marketing channel.
It is becoming a decision layer.
The distinction matters because AI does not necessarily reproduce the discovery patterns created by traditional search engines or advertising platforms. Instead of presenting a list of sponsored links or ranked webpages, an AI assistant can interpret a shopper’s intent, compare products and explain why one option may fit better than another.
In BCG’s research, AI introduced consumers to brands they otherwise would not have considered in roughly 63% of AI-assisted purchase journeys. That creates an unusual competitive dynamic: an AI recommendation can threaten an established brand while simultaneously giving an unfamiliar challenger an opportunity to enter the consideration set.
For marketing organizations, this changes what “discoverability” means.
Search engine optimization has historically focused on making content crawlable, authoritative and relevant to queries. AI-mediated discovery introduces a related but different challenge: ensuring that a company’s products, services and claims are accurately represented when an AI system synthesizes information for a prospective buyer.
That is the emerging territory of generative engine optimization (GEO).
McKinsey’s research reinforces the shift. Its 2025 analysis found that 40% to 55% of consumers in several major product categories were using AI-based search to inform purchasing decisions. Among those users, 44% said AI-powered search was their preferred source of insight, ahead of traditional search at 31%.
The consequence for brands is not that SEO becomes irrelevant. Rather, the optimization stack is expanding.
Product information must be structured and consistent. Brand claims need credible supporting evidence. Reviews and third-party references become more important because AI systems increasingly synthesize information from multiple sources. Product feeds, pricing, specifications, availability and customer sentiment may all influence whether a model considers a product a relevant recommendation.
This also puts pressure on the technology underneath marketing operations.
Customer data platforms, product information management systems, commerce platforms, analytics tools and content-management systems were largely designed for human-facing digital experiences. AI agents introduce another consumer interface—one that may consume and evaluate structured information before a human ever reaches a brand website.
BCG’s findings arrive alongside another important change in consumer trust. The firm says 43% of surveyed consumers feel mentally overwhelmed by information overload. Consumers are increasingly concentrating trust in experts, friends and family, and AI tools, with AI identified as the fastest-growing source of trusted information.
That creates a paradox for marketers.
Brands can invest heavily in paid media and owned channels while consumers increasingly outsource parts of their decision-making to systems the brands do not directly control.
The situation becomes even more consequential as agentic commerce develops.
Today’s AI-assisted shopping often involves research and recommendation. Tomorrow’s systems could increasingly compare prices, construct shopping baskets, evaluate delivery options and execute purchases. McKinsey describes this as a shift toward agentic commerce, where AI agents act on consumer intent through multistep shopping processes.
For enterprises, that means AI readiness can no longer sit solely within the IT organization.
Marketing teams will need to understand how AI systems interpret brand information. Ecommerce teams will need accurate product data. Customer experience teams will need to account for AI-mediated interactions. Legal and compliance teams may need to consider how product claims are surfaced and reproduced by third-party AI systems.
The competitive landscape is also changing.
Google is evolving search around generative answers and AI-powered discovery. Amazon is applying AI to shopping recommendations and product discovery. Microsoft is incorporating AI into consumer and enterprise experiences, while platforms such as Salesforce are connecting AI agents with customer and commerce data. Meanwhile, specialist generative AI systems are becoming increasingly important entry points for product research.
This creates a new optimization problem: brands are no longer competing only for a consumer’s click. They may first be competing for an AI system’s recommendation.
BCG’s other findings underline why this matters beyond technology. More than two-thirds of consumers say they will buy only when they perceive strong value, regardless of whether they can afford the stated price. Nearly three-quarters identify health and well-being as a stronger indicator of prosperity than career or financial wealth. In mature markets, one in three households consists of a single person, and those households spend two to three times more per capita than multiperson households.
These trends suggest that AI recommendations will increasingly be evaluated against nuanced consumer needs rather than simple product attributes.
A shopper might ask an AI assistant for an affordable laptop for remote work, a skincare routine for sensitive skin or a meal plan for one person. The system’s ability to understand context could become more important than a brand’s ability to win a generic keyword.
For enterprise marketers, the practical response is not to abandon traditional channels. It is to build a machine-readable, evidence-backed and consistently maintained digital presence that can survive the transition from search-driven discovery to AI-mediated discovery.
The next generation of commerce may therefore have fewer moments in which brands directly persuade consumers. Instead, brands will increasingly need to persuade the systems that help consumers decide.
Market Landscape
The shift toward AI-guided shopping is occurring alongside the emergence of agentic commerce and AI-powered search. McKinsey’s 2026 research describes AI as increasingly influencing product discovery and comparison, while agentic systems are beginning to move toward executing multistep shopping tasks.
For marketers, this creates a new layer between brand → search → consumer and an emerging model of brand → AI system → consumer.
The strategic implication is substantial. Traditional SEO remains important, but enterprises increasingly need GEO, structured product data, authoritative content, reputation management and accurate first-party information.
Retailers and brands should also prepare for AI agents that may eventually make purchases rather than merely recommend products. That could shift competition away from impressions and clicks toward product eligibility, relevance, trust, price, availability and machine-readable attributes.
The winners will likely be organizations that treat AI discovery as part of their broader digital infrastructure rather than as a campaign-specific marketing experiment.
Top Insights
- AI now influences 31% of purchase journeys in BCG’s survey, making generative AI a growing discovery layer for brands, retailers and marketing technology teams.
- Seventy percent of AI-loyal consumers buy recommended products, giving AI assistants increasing power over consideration, conversion and competitive brand visibility.
- AI introduces unfamiliar brands in roughly 63% of assisted journeys, creating both disruption risks for incumbents and discovery opportunities for challengers.
- GEO is emerging alongside traditional SEO, requiring marketers to optimize authoritative content, structured product information and brand data for AI-mediated discovery.
- Agentic commerce could extend AI from recommendation to execution, forcing ecommerce, marketing, technology and customer-experience teams to prepare for automated purchasing workflows.
Power Tomorrow’s Intelligence — Build It with TechEdgeAI
