How AI is changing holiday shopping and what advertisers need to know

A holiday gift can make a shopper’s shortlist before they ever see an advertisement. With Americans spending $257.8 billion online during November and December 2025, according to Adobe, advertisers have reason to watch how those lists take shape.

Agencies that specialize in SEO, AI search optimization and paid media use AI tools to help analyze campaign performance and manage advertising. As shoppers turn to AI for gift ideas, elk Marketing explains, those agencies must also consider how brands enter the conversation before someone sees an ad.

How AI Is Changing Holiday Product Discovery

Holiday shoppers have several ways to find and compare gifts, and AI offers a more conversational way to narrow their options:

• Browse products: Search engines and retail websites let shoppers explore what’s available.
• Find inspiration: Social media, advertisements, reviews and recommendations from friends and family offer gift ideas.
• Ask for tailored suggestions: Shoppers can ask AI for headphones under $200, grilling gifts or presents for a 10-year-old, then follow up with questions comparing specific options.

OpenAI’s shopping research asks follow-up questions and compares product features to help narrow the choices. That could help shoppers choose gifts before delivery deadlines.

From “Search and Click” to “Ask and Decide”

Instead of searching, visiting websites and reading reviews separately, shoppers can ask questions, compare options, and decide within an AI conversation. A strong search ranking still matters, but does not guarantee inclusion in an AI-generated shortlist.

Being seen does not always mean earning a click. Studying 900 U.S. adults’ March 2025 browsing, Pew Research Center found traditional Google results received clicks on 8% of visits with AI summaries, versus 15% without. This was not shopping-specific research, and it cannot establish cause and effect.

How AI Recommendations Could Change Advertising

Paid visibility differs from a recommendation. OpenAI says its shopping results are selected independently of advertising, using information including shopper preferences, prices, product descriptions and reviews.

Advertisers should therefore connect campaign planning with the information shoppers can find about their products. A bigger ad budget cannot secure a recommendation; no universal formula explains AI product selection.

What Happens When AI Becomes the Shopping Assistant?

Assistants can help research gifts, features, prices and reviews; agents can take further steps. Meta says Muse can make purchases with user approval.

Meta has announced retail connections including Walmart and Best Buy. Retailer participation does not establish widespread adoption. Amazon uses Alexa for Shopping to let customers track packages and check order status conversationally, extending assistance beyond checkout.

The New Holiday “Consideration Set”

The “consideration set” is the shopper’s shortlist. To understand how products reach it, try asking for gifts with different budgets or features. Notice whether availability and reviews feature in the answers, and whether naming a familiar brand changes the suggestions.

Alongside improving checkout, check whether shoppers are finding the product.

What Advertisers Need to Know About AI Visibility

AI search optimization, also called answer engine optimization, focuses on how businesses appear in AI answers. Google’s guidance starts with familiar SEO basics: pages it can access and useful, original content.

To help shoppers and AI systems understand their products, businesses should focus on three areas:

• Clear product explanations: Describe specifications using the business’s expertise.
• Consistent brand information: Keep details accurate across websites.
• Credible outside perspectives: Encourage genuine reviews and earn independent coverage. 

Why Product Data Matters More Than Ever 

An outdated price or missed delivery deadline can undermine a gift recommendation. Google warns that inaccurate product information can prevent listings from appearing.

The product information businesses send to shopping platforms should match their websites in three areas:

• Purchase details: price and availability.
• Product specifications: dimensions, materials, features and compatibility.
• Customer policies: shipping and returns.

Businesses can use tools for product feed management while staff resolve mismatches and check holiday exceptions.

Reviews, Reputation, and the AI Shopping Journey

OpenAI’s review summaries draw on public websites, making customer feedback part of the information shoppers may encounter through AI. It cautions that those reviews are not independently verified.

Compare customer feedback with expert commentary, independent comparisons and retailer descriptions. Beyond reputation management, these sources may shape how AI describes products, making contradictions worth investigating.

What This Means for Paid Advertising

Keep paid search, social and display in the plan alongside organic search, marketplaces and AI discovery. Agencies use AI tools for bidding, campaign monitoring and budget management to support managed campaigns.

Marketers decide whom to reach, what to say and how to spend. Evaluate sales across the shopping journey, beyond clicks and impressions.

How Advertisers Can Prepare Before the Holiday Rush

Before holiday campaigns ramp up, check product accuracy, customer questions and visibility across channels:

• Check descriptions, specifications, prices and stock across pages, feeds and structured data — the machine-readable product details.
• Look for conflicting brand details and recurring concerns in reviews.
• Answer frequent customer questions with useful explanations and supporting evidence.
• Try shopping prompts and record how AI describes the brand and how often competitors appear.
• Keep paid campaigns running while reviewing AI discovery alongside SEO results.

What Advertisers Shouldn’t Do

Don’t assume AI will replace search or advertising overnight. Nor should brands flood the web with generic pages: Google warns against mass-produced content intended to manipulate visibility.

Avoid keyword stuffing and promises of guaranteed AI rankings. One favorable answer is only a snapshot. Keep this work connected to broader marketing, with people checking that automated content sounds like the brand and deserves customers’ trust.

The Holiday Shopping Data Advertisers Should Be Watching

Adobe measured a 693.4% annual increase in AI referrals to retail sites during the 2025 holidays. That measures clicks from AI tools, not every purchase AI influenced.

Track three sets of signals to understand product discovery and purchasing:

• Are shoppers finding you? Monitor organic and AI visibility, branded searches, referrals and direct traffic.
• Is interest becoming business? Examine product-page engagement, conversion rates, acquisition costs and paid performance.
• What are customers saying? Review ratings and sentiment for recurring concerns.

Read these signals together. Crediting only the final click overlooks AI conversations that influence purchases without sending shoppers directly to the website.

The Bigger Shift: AI Is Becoming Part of the Path to Purchase

The bigger change is what shoppers can ask technology to do: help them decide, not just find information. As search, social content and e-commerce overlap, marketers need information that serves people and can be understood by search engines, social algorithms and agents.

The Future of AI-Powered Shopping

Comparisons and some agent-assisted purchases are already available. Meta’s connections with retailers suggest more integrated shopping, but the reach of personalization and automated purchasing remains uncertain. Businesses can keep product information trustworthy and organized without betting on one future.

Conclusion: Advertisers Need to Be Ready for the New Shopping Journey

Holiday planning should account for how shoppers discover and evaluate gifts before clicking an ad. Treat AI as another layer alongside existing channels, and focus on making products easy to discover, understand, trust, and recommend.

This story was produced by elk Marketing and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.