Key Takeaways
- 58% of US holiday shoppers would let an AI agent complete tasks on their behalf, but only 8% would let one make purchases independently, according to Accenture's survey of 4,048 consumers.
- Simon-Kucher finds 55% plan to use AI for holiday shopping, while just 16% would let AI complete a purchase, falling to 6% among Boomers.
- Nearly three-quarters of shoppers want AI agents to buy only from familiar brands and retailers, and six in 10 favour AI offered directly by retailers.
- Salesforce forecasts that 20% of 2026 holiday ecommerce traffic will originate from AI chat agents, and that one in three ecommerce sites will have a shopper agent live by Cyber Week.
This holiday season is the first in which AI agents can realistically carry a shopper from a gift idea to a finished checkout. The infrastructure is arriving quickly. The permission is not. Three consumer studies released in the past five weeks describe the same pattern: shoppers are happy to let AI research, compare and hunt for deals, and markedly reluctant to let it spend their money.
For brand teams, that gap is the story of the quarter. Discovery is moving into AI assistants, which weakens the brand's grip on the first touch. But the final decision is still being reserved for a human, and when shoppers do hand over more control, they say they want the agent to stay with brands they already know.
Delegation Stops at the Checkout
Accenture's 20th annual holiday survey, reported on September 23, polled 4,048 US shoppers. They expect generative AI to influence 45% of their holiday spending, and about 73% are open to collaborating with an AI agent. Some 58% would allow an agent to complete tasks on their behalf. Then the numbers fall away: 22% would let an AI tool decide what to buy, and 8% would let an agent make purchases independently.
Simon-Kucher's 8th annual holiday study, fielded between August 6 and 20 among 1,501 consumers and published on October 8, draws the same line. Some 55% plan to use AI for holiday shopping, rising to 71% of Gen Z. Among AI users, the leading tasks are finding prices and deals (55%) and comparing products (51%). Yet only 16% would let AI complete a purchase, from 22% of Millennials down to 6% of Boomers. The consultancy's study summary describes AI as a decision-support tool, with shoppers maintaining control over the final purchase.
Holiday shoppers who would let an AI agent complete tasks for them, against those who would let one make purchases independently, in Accenture's 2026 survey.
The reasons are less about capability than about whose side the agent is on. In the Simon-Kucher data, 29% prefer to make their own decisions, 25% do not trust AI with personal information and 21% do not trust its recommendations. Some 18% think an agent would favour the retailer, and 14% worry it could charge the wrong amount. A separate Channel V Media survey of 7,675 US adults, summarised in The Agile Brand Guide's October 9 roundup, found 40.1% would let an AI agent handle at least one everyday task, but 69.1% prefer a person for online shopping and 60.5% are very or extremely concerned about AI violating their privacy.
The Pipes Are Ready Before the People
On the supply side, the season looks very different. Salesforce's 2026 holiday predictions forecast that 20% of all holiday ecommerce traffic will originate from AI chat agents and that one in three ecommerce sites will have a site-specific shopper agent live by Cyber Week. The company reports that 50% of shoppers already use an AI assistant somewhere in their buying journey, a 67% increase year on year.
Checkout is moving into the assistants too. The same October 9 roundup notes that US shoppers can now buy eligible Newegg products inside the Gemini app and Google's AI Mode, paying with Google Pay while Newegg remains the merchant of record. Crossmint launched a toolkit that lets agents pay with tokenised cards from Visa Intelligent Commerce or Mastercard Agent Pay, and Riskified announced a service that identifies which AI assistant sits behind an order, with an enterprise beta opening in December. The rails for agent purchasing exist. What the surveys say is missing is a reason for most shoppers to use them.
Kelly Askew, Accenture's global retail lead, put the tension plainly: “Nearly three in 10 shoppers say they would trust a personal AI agent more than themselves when making holiday purchases.” That is a meaningful minority, and it skews young. It is not yet the mainstream.
Familiar Brands Hold the Advantage
The most useful finding for brand strategists is where trust settles when shoppers do delegate. In Accenture's survey, nearly three-quarters want AI agents to purchase only from familiar brands and retailers, and six in 10 favour AI offered directly by retailers over cross-brand tools. Salesforce found that 41% of shoppers say a brand-owned AI assistant makes them much more confident in a purchase, and that retailers using branded shopper agents saw 59% higher holiday sales growth in 2025, at 6.2% against 3.9%.
Salesforce also found a division of labour. Shoppers prefer general AI assistants for gift lists, promo codes and product comparisons, and brand-owned agents for order management, returns, loyalty and customer service. In other words, third-party assistants are winning the top of the funnel, while the brand's own agent is trusted with the relationship after the sale.
Trust in price claims is fragile as well. Simon-Kucher found only 22% of shoppers believe advertised discounts fully reflect true savings, down from 46% in 2025, while average planned spending falls 5.5% to $1,018. “The retailers that win won't necessarily be the loudest discounters,” said Shikha Jain, partner and head of consumer North America at Simon-Kucher. An agent that compares prices across retailers will expose inflated reference prices instantly, which makes honest pricing a brand asset rather than a compliance detail.
Building an Agent-Ready Brand for the Season
- Optimise for the research stage, not just the purchase. Shoppers use AI mainly to find deals and compare products. Make product data, pricing and availability clean and machine-readable so assistants describe you accurately.
- Keep the final click human. With only 8% willing to let an agent buy independently, design agent journeys that end in a clear confirmation step rather than a silent checkout.
- Invest in the brand-owned agent for service. Shoppers prefer brand agents for returns, order tracking and loyalty. Start there, where trust is already highest, before chasing discovery.
- Treat familiarity as distribution. Nearly three-quarters want agents to buy only from brands they know. Brand awareness built now decides whether an agent is allowed to pick you.
- Make pricing defensible. Only 22% fully believe advertised discounts. Retire inflated reference prices before comparison agents surface them for you.
- Say plainly what the agent does with data. A quarter of shoppers do not trust AI with personal information. Explain what an assistant stores and why at the moment it asks permission.
The holiday data does not show shoppers rejecting AI. It shows them using it as an adviser and keeping the wallet for themselves. Brands that accept that split, and earn their place in the agent's shortlist through familiarity, clean data and honest pricing, are positioned for the season when shoppers finally let go of the checkout.
