This year's Black Friday online sales in the U.S. surged to a record $10.8 billion, surpassing physical store sales. A key driver of this growth was the integration of AI chatbots, which enhanced the shopping experience by simulating human interactions, aiding in discount searches, product comparisons, and checkout processes. According to Adobe Analytics, traffic from AI chatbots increased by 1800% compared to the previous year.
Salesforce reported a 31% increase in AI-driven online chat services during this period, with retailers using AI seeing a 9% higher conversion rate. The holiday shopping season, marked by Black Friday, is expected to see a 7% increase in online spending, reaching $40.6 billion.
Companies like OpenAI and retail giants Amazon and Walmart are leveraging AI to streamline shopping and enhance customer experience. Walmart's CFO, John David Rainey, acknowledged the trend towards AI tools for optimizing product searches.