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InterviewCX Intelligence6h · 12:01 BST · 4 min read
Only 6% Trust AI Suggestions to Make the Final Purchase Call
Only 6% of shoppers would buy from an unfamiliar brand on an AI recommendation alone, Bazaarvoice research finds. Retail analyst and podcast host Kiri Masters explains why reviews, customer photos, and videos remain essential trust signals in AI-led shopping journeys.
AI recommendations are becoming a more prominent starting point for product discovery, but they are not enough to close the sale on their own.
In its ‘What Is a Brand Worth When AI Does the Shopping?’ report, Bazaarvoice found that while 83% of shoppers are open to an unfamiliar brand suggested by AI, only 6% would buy based on that recommendation alone.
To ensure that customer feedback is powering journey design CX leaders should consider how it, along with accurate product information, can help customers verify AI-led suggestions before purchase.
In conversation with CX Today, Kiri Masters, Retail Analyst and Host of the ‘Retail Breakfast Club’ Podcast, argues that AI does not replace a customer’s need to verify a recommendation.
Having co-created the report, she warns:
“AI might be making the introduction, but the brand still has to earn the trust at the end of the day.”
Why Familiar Brands Win in AI Recommendations
AI is becoming an increasingly influential part of product discovery, generating valuable interest in a product, but without further evidence, customers are not yet ready to trust its recommendations at face value.
And despite this 6% statistic, the level of trust customers place in AI recommendations depends on the perceived risk.
With product prices skyrocketing to unforeseen levels, the shopping experience has become far more intentional and cautious, as more purchasing mistakes can now cause significant financial consequences.
“How much is at stake with that purchase?” Masters asks.
“Are we talking about a category which is high risk versus a grocery product which is sort of low stakes?”
Despite this reality, shoppers may be more willing to experiment with an unfamiliar brand without significant reassurance.
However, the possible bias nature of these recommendations reportedly hinders customer confidence, as 54% of shoppers believe AI tools are more likely to recommend brands that advertise with them.
If suggestions are not based on genuine relevance but commercial relationships, this creates a challenge for brands seeking to convert AI-driven discovery into sales.
In some cases, long-term, established brands retain a strong advantage in this environment, as 13% of shoppers would accept an AI result if the brand was already familiar to them.
“Familiarity and trust give brands a huge edge in this environment because people still want to check the receipts when AI recommends something to them.”
For CX leaders, giving shoppers access to credible evidence that an AI recommendation is accurate and relevant can reignite trust back into the customer journey.
76% Want Visual Evidence
User-generated content created from real customer reviews, along with product photos and videos are becoming increasingly important to shoppers navigating AI-led product discovery.
In fact, 76% of shoppers want to see customer photos or videos before trusting an unfamiliar AI-recommended brand, while 75% want written reviews.
“To validate what they’re telling us, we want to get the real experience from other human beings,” she said.
“We still look to reviews today because they are helpful, they are unbiased and they give lots of extra information that a brand isn’t necessarily going to provide as well.”
The value of customer feedback now increases to an intelligence asset that provides key insight into product performance, complaints, expectations, and potential improvements.
The challenge is ensuring that this evidence is both useful and accessible.
“How many [reviews] do you have? How recent are they? How many are including the videos and photos that increasingly consumers are looking for as well?”
To ensure feedback is taken into the entire journey design decision, brands need to make this information available across the channels for both teams and customers.
Brands that make reviews and visual content technically accessible is becoming more valuable as AI systems increasingly draw on online information to generate recommendations.
Content that is hidden behind scripts or difficult to access may be less useful to both shoppers and the systems helping them discover products.
AI may become an increasingly important for product discovery, but purchase confidence will continue to depend on credible, human-based evidence.
While reports that customer journeys are placing more and more AI agents at the center of their shopping experiences, high-cost purchases will increasingly need human validation before purchase.
Brands that can turn post-purchase experiences into accessible, relevant, and accurate product information can help customers validate recommendations even faster.
For CX leaders, the priority is to use customer intelligence to make every AI-led recommendation easier to assess and trust.
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