Shoppers Ask AI Before They Buy
A quarterly survey puts AI advice marginally ahead of traditional advertising on purchasing decisions.
A survey of consumer sentiment for the second quarter of 2026, published in late July, found that 79.4% of respondents consult AI assistants such as Doubao or DeepSeek before buying, and that 43.7% consider such advice very or fairly influential, edging past traditional media advertising at 42.6%. Testing also shows platform assistants generally cannot compare prices across competitors and are influenced by browsing history. Note the timing: this is a second-quarter finding, not a development from 9 November.