In its just-published Retail Rewired Report, Walmart asserted artificial intelligenceI has evolved into a utility that is altering how consumers shop and how retailers meet their expectations.
Yet, consumers are most likely to accept AI guidance for purchases that don’t have much of an emotional connection or that require a substantial investment, the Walmart report concluded.
Shoppers are more comfortable using digital assistants for lower-stakes purchases, such as household essentials and less for big-ticket or emotionally significant items, such as furniture and groceries, Walmart noted. The company suggested that AI encounters a trust barrier, and consumers are less comfortable using the technology to help with decisions where they still crave the human touch, sensory validation and deeper assurance.
In the survey that underlies the report, 46% of respondents said they were either somewhat unlikely or very unlikely to employ a digital assistant or agent to handle an entire shopping trip for them. So, at least for now, AI can help guide shopping, but consumers still want to be the ones clicking the buy button.
Consumers making shopping decisions have AI as much or more than they trust influencers, according to the report, with 27% preferring AI suggestions to those from influencers, at 24%. From the broader perspective, 49% of survey respondents declared they’re unsure about which to trust.
In demographic terms, consumers from households with incomes of at or above $100,000 prefer AI recommendations to influencer advice by 40% to 23%. Men are more willing to take advice generally, with 36% preferring AI and 23% influencers, compared to women, at 26% for AI and 18% for influencers. Parents are looking for advice, with 39% saying they would take recommendations from AI and 30% from influencers. Meanwhile, 30% of Walmart shoppers will take AI advice and almost as many, at 27%, will respond to influencer recommendations.
According to Walmart, influencers offer aspirational value, but AI delivers something — utility — many consumers find actionable. Shoppers look to AI today not for pie-in-the-sky, cutting-edge guidance but rather for simple, effective solutions that solve real problems, the company added. The report characterizes today’s shoppers as using AI to compare prices, shipping times and availability, to receive alerts on price drops for items they’ve viewed or added to their wish lists, and to narrow down options based on historical preferences.
Practicality is essential to consumers, Walmart notes, with 69% of survey respondents saying they consider the speed of the entire shopping experience as very or somewhat important. Speed is particularly important to parents, with 80% saying quick trips are as important to them. Overall, half of the consumers agreed that using digital assistants saves time, although 25% didn’t agree.
Although AI and other emerging technologies attract much of the public, consumers continue to lean on the means they’ve previously adopted while shopping. The majority of consumers, Walmart pointed out, still initiate their searches by manually typing into a traditional search bar, with social being the second most common point of departure. As such, AI has a long way to go before it becomes the default shopping entry point.
In general terms, consumers aren’t ready to fully surrender shopping control to AI shopping assistants. There is a strong desire for human-in-the-loop systems where human oversight and contribution are maintained. Some 46% of survey respondents said they were either somewhat unlikely or very unlikely to use a digital assistant or agent to handle an entire shopping trip for them.
Even as AI takes a bigger role in shopping, privacy and security remain concerns for many consumers. In the survey, Walmart indicated:
- 27% of respondents wanted clear transparency around data use and third-party involvement.
- 26% of respondents wanted to control what data is shared, with access to clear privacy settings.
- 25% of respondents wanted only the minimum amount of data collected, rejecting storage of sensitive personal information.
