Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping the 2025 holiday shopping season, with Salesforce forecasting that AI-powered tools will influence a staggering $263 billion in global online sales. This figure represents approximately 21% of all online holiday purchases, highlighting the rapid mainstream adoption of AI in retail.
Consumer engagement with AI shopping assistants has skyrocketed. Adobe Analytics data reveals a 760% surge in traffic to U.S. retail websites originating from AI tools between November 1 and December 1. Shoppers arriving via platforms like ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity are proving to be highly valuable: they are 30% more likely to complete a purchase, spend about 14% more time browsing, and generate 8% more revenue per visit compared to standard web traffic.
Major retailers are aggressively integrating AI to capture this shift. Walmart, Target, and Etsy have partnered with OpenAI to enable product discovery and direct purchasing within ChatGPT. Walmart's October deal, while not yet live, aims to let customers find and buy items without leaving the AI interface. Target's recently announced feature allows test users to purchase multiple items, including groceries, and choose delivery or in-store pickup.
Etsy launched its OpenAI-powered "Gift Mode" for U.S. customers in late September, and many Shopify merchants like Glossier have followed suit. In contrast, Amazon has taken a defensive stance, blocking external AI chatbots from OpenAI, Google, and Meta from scraping its product listings and sending a legal letter to Perplexity AI to prevent purchases via its Comet browser.
Retailers are also developing proprietary AI tools. Walmart, Amazon, and Target have all built their own in-house shopping assistants. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon emphasized in a November business call that AI is critical for growing online sales, helping "people save time and have more fun shopping." Target reported thousands of users for its AI Gift Finder, with popular searches in sports, beauty, and cooking.
The broader context shows deep AI integration: 97% of large U.S. retailers now use AI for operations. Studies from Visa and Zeta Global indicate that between 40% and 83% of consumers plan to use AI for holiday shopping this year. This trend is driven in part by declining effectiveness of traditional social media and search engine ads, pushing brands toward AI-driven customer acquisition.
In a symbolic move underscoring its tech focus, Walmart transferred its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq this week, marking the largest company departure in NYSE history. The retailer, now valued at over $920 billion, seeks to align itself with the technology-focused exchange.
