October 5th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Brands are continuously leveraging AI to facilitate and even enhance a number of tasks for consumers - from providing customer service and rounding up film recommendations, to managing finances and building travel itineraries. In this piece, we zero in on how effective, if at all, consumers think AI will be with personalizing online shopping.
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 18 international markets about which activities AI will make better, worse or have no impact on, in the next five years. Diagnosing medical diseases/conditions emerges as the top choice for progress, with more than two in five consumers (43%) saying AI will improve this process. Building a travel itinerary is at a close second (42%) followed by personalizing online shopping (39%).
When it comes to making things worse, more than a quarter (27% each) of consumers across all markets surveyed cite driving a car or other vehicle, and providing customers service - something brands can perhaps take note of, especially when businesses are eagerly hopping on the AI-powered customer service bandwagon.
Polling data also reveals that younger consumers are more likely to say AI will improve personalizing online shopping, than slightly older consumers. For instance, more than half (52%) of 18-to 24-year-olds say so, followed by 48% of 25-to 34-year-olds.
Consumers aged 55 years and above are the least likely to say so - nonetheless, a significant 26% of them are of the opinion that AI will improve personalizing online shopping.
Let’s now move on to looking at how likely consumers are, across countries, to say they think AI will make personalized online shopping better.
UAE, Urban India account for largest share of consumers who feel AI will improve personalized online shopping
At over three in five consumers each (62%) UAE and Urban India lead all markets we survey in saying AI will enhance personalized online shopping.
Compared to our other markets, the US seems to be the least optimistic about AI’s effect on personalized shopping. Less than a quarter (23%) of consumers in the US say so and a similar proportion of them (22%) feel it will make it worse. A quarter of consumers (25%) here feel AI will have no impact on personalizing online shopping.
In Great Britain, 23% of consumers feel AI will make personalizing online shopping worse - the group of consumers most likely to say so across all markets surveyed.
Half of all consumers (50%) in Singapore are of the same opinion. However, Singaporeans are also the most likely (26%) across all markets to say AI will have no impact on personalizing online shopping.
Over a quarter of consumers (26%) in Denmark say AI will make personalized online shopping better. So do a third (33%) of consumers in Germany.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 437 and 2045 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in June 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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