消费者乐于用AI辅助购物 对AI生成广告信任度低

This consumer survey, released in September 2026, outlines the value of AI use in everyday shopping scenarios as well as key caveats, to help consumers make more rational purchasing decisions.

1. On practical value: AI serves as a highly useful, free shopping assistance tool. More than half of consumers now occasionally use AI to research products they plan to buy, with adoption reaching 60% among consumers under 40. Users widely recognize AI’s strengths in comparing features across brands, answering specific product questions, and summarizing user reviews. 74% of AI users report that AI recommendations help them discover more alternative brands and expand their consideration set.

2. On key caveats: Consumers hold very low trust in AI-generated brand advertising. 54% of consumers say they will lose trust in a brand if they identify such ads, with younger demographics showing stronger resistance. Additionally, almost no consumer is willing to fully cede purchasing decisions to AI. The vast majority of users cross-verify AI recommendations through channels including brand official websites, search engines, and product detail pages after seeing AI suggestions. For everyday shopping, consumers should avoid blindly following AI recommendations, and actively screen out inauthentic, forced AI-generated advertising.

This latest consumer survey provides robust, data-backed insights for brands to identify consumer trends, refine marketing strategies, and better understand user behavior.

1. Brands need to clearly define the boundary of consumer acceptance for AI applications. At present, consumers broadly welcome AI tools that support their own shopping decision-making: 60% of consumers under 40 use AI for pre-purchase research, and 45% of AI users report increased trust in a brand after receiving positive AI recommendations about it. However, 54% of consumers say their trust in a brand declines when they identify AI-generated ads pushed directly by the brand, with the 18–29 age group showing the strongest resistance. Brands should avoid hard-selling AI-generated content as direct advertising to reduce user backlash.

2. Brands need to adapt to evolving user media consumption and purchasing behavior patterns. Consumer tolerance for digital advertising continues to decline, with more than half of users actively blocking or skipping ads; repetitive, poorly matched ads deliver extremely poor user experience, while pre-roll and mid-roll ads on streaming platforms retain the highest user attention. The long-running decline in brand loyalty has slowed, and economically optimistic consumers demonstrate far higher brand loyalty, AI usage rates, and acceptance of AI recommendations than their pessimistic counterparts. Aligned with Net Conversion’s core reach logic, brands should target touchpoints where users demonstrate active purchase intent, rather than relying solely on demographic targeting.

This survey clearly maps shifting consumer demand, market opportunities, and operational risks for sellers, offering direct guidance for day-to-day business decision-making.

1. High-priority growth opportunities: More than half of consumers—especially those under 40—have developed the habit of using AI for pre-purchase research, and 74% of AI shopping users report expanding their considered brand set due to AI recommendations. Ensuring authentic, accurate product information is visible in AI-related scenarios presents a significant path to acquiring new customers. Economically optimistic consumers, with strong spending intent, higher brand loyalty, and greater acceptance of AI recommendations, represent a core conversion segment. Additionally, conversion rates are extremely high at the point where users actively search for relevant content after exposure, so sellers should pre-position content across channels users rely on for information verification, including official brand websites, search engines, content communities, and product detail pages, to capture this traffic.

2. Operational risks to avoid: Directly pushing AI-generated ads will significantly erode user trust, while repetitive, poorly targeted ads are highly likely to be actively blocked by users; ad formats such as interactive pop-ups and clickable videos have extremely low user acceptance, so investment in these low-performing formats should be reduced. Only 2% of users are willing to let AI fully make purchase decisions on their behalf, so sellers should not over-rely on fully automated AI conversion funnels, and instead build out authentic, multi-channel information presence to facilitate user verification.

The shifts in consumer behavior highlighted in this survey provide clear direction for manufacturers to align with consumer demand, build out digital channel presence, and capture new business opportunities.

1. For product-demand alignment: AI is emerging as a critical entry point for consumers screening products. 74% of consumers who use AI for product research report expanding their considered brand set based on AI recommendations. When using AI to support shopping decisions, consumers prioritize three categories of information: feature comparisons across brands, answers to specific product questions, and summaries of authentic user reviews. When designing products and communicating product information externally, manufacturers should clearly highlight their core functional differentiation, proactively address common product questions, and prioritize the accumulation of authentic user reviews, to improve their odds of being selected by consumers within AI recommendation pathways.

2. For digital channel buildout: After seeing AI recommendations, consumers cross-verify information across multiple channels including brand official websites, retailer product detail pages, video platforms, and content communities. As manufacturers advance e-commerce and digital transformation, they should ensure accurate product information is present across these high-frequency verification channels. On the marketing side, they should avoid hard pushes of AI-generated content that trigger user backlash, and instead focus on communicating real product value.

This survey outlines the latest industry trends in digital marketing and consumer services, providing data-backed support for service providers to identify client pain points, refine solutions, and plan for emerging technology adoption.

1. Industry trends: Consumer attitudes toward AI show a clear dual pattern. Adoption of AI as a self-service shopping assistant continues to rise: 44% of consumers report spending more time on AI assistants year-over-year, a growth rate outpacing all other media channels including YouTube and streaming video. By contrast, AI-generated ads directly pushed by brands face widespread trust deficits, while overall consumer tolerance for digital advertising continues to decline, dragging down the performance of traditional broad, untargeted ad placement.

2. Client pain points and solution directions: Brands currently face common pain points including difficulty calibrating the appropriate use of AI in marketing, insufficient ad targeting precision, and broken conversion funnels. Service providers can address these needs by developing compliant AI shopping information tools that help brands surface authentic product information in scenarios where users proactively use AI to search for information, avoiding hard-sells of AI-generated advertising. Providers can also support brands in building a touchpoint system covering the full user information verification journey, capturing high-conversion moments of active user search to replace traditional broad demographic targeting and improve overall marketing efficiency.

The shifts in consumer behavior outlined in this survey provide clear guidance for platforms to optimize user operations, improve ecosystem governance, mitigate operational risks, and adjust platform strategies.

1. User operations and experience optimization: Platform users’ tolerance for digital advertising continues to decline, with 52% of users actively skipping or blocking ads. Repetitive ad delivery and poorly tag-matched ads are the core drivers of user frustration. Platforms need to improve ad targeting precision to reduce disruption from low-quality, repetitive ads; prioritize user experience for high-acceptance ad formats including streaming pre-roll and mid-roll placements, while reducing the share of low-acceptance formats such as interactive pop-ups and clickable videos to minimize user backlash.

2. Ecosystem development: More than 60% of consumers use AI for pre-purchase research, and navigate across multiple channels to verify information. On one hand, platforms can upgrade the capabilities of their in-house AI shopping assistants to provide reliable brand comparison, product Q&A, and review summarization features for users. On the other hand, platforms should strengthen their in-platform systems for authentic product information and user reviews, to facilitate user verification and capture search-driven conversion traffic after users view AI recommendations. Platforms should also guide merchants on the platform to avoid hard pushes of AI-generated ads, to reduce overall erosion of user trust across the ecosystem.

The second edition of the MORE Intelligence Consumer Pulse Survey, released by Net Conversion in September 2026, documents multiple emerging trends and characteristics of consumer markets amid widespread AI adoption, providing robust empirical data for academic and industry research in related fields.

1. Emerging industry dynamics: AI’s restructuring of the consumer journey shows distinct dual characteristics. Consumers treat AI as a self-serve pre-purchase research tool: 60% of consumers under 40 have developed habits of using AI to compare brand features, look up product questions, and reference review summaries. AI has significantly expanded consumers’ considered brand sets, but nearly all users cross-verify AI-recommended content across multiple channels, with only 2% of users willing to fully cede purchase decisions to AI. In contrast, brands’ practice of pushing AI-generated content directly as advertising faces widespread trust deficits. Overall consumer tolerance for digital advertising continues to decline, and time spent on AI assistants is now growing faster than time spent on traditional audio and video media.

2. New market characteristics: Data shows the long-running decline in brand loyalty has slowed notably. Consumer groups with different economic expectations demonstrate significant gaps in brand loyalty, AI usage habits, and acceptance of AI recommendations. The organization’s core finding notes that outreach based on users’ active purchase intent is replacing traditional demographic targeting as the core logic driving marketing conversion.