U.K. and U.S. shoppers prefer AI price alerts

Among 3,328 adults surveyed in June, 35% said they want AI for price-drop alerts and 35% for comparing retailers. Search for similar products attracted 27%, while personalized recommendations drew 18% and outfit suggestions 17%.

But 53% said they would be uncomfortable letting an AI assistant shop on their behalf. Another 20% would accept recommendations but not automatic purchases, and only 7% would allow autonomous buying under preset conditions.

The payments piece is just as important for retailers and processors. Of consumers who had already experienced an online payment failure, 39% abandoned the purchase, 22% switched retailer and 53% tried again with another payment method.

For ACI Worldwide, which sells payments software, that reinforces the value of authentication, authorization and fraud prevention as AI starts to sit between consumers and merchants. For Amazon, Shopify and eBay, it underscores that AI features must improve conversion without eroding trust or adding friction at checkout.

Investor takeaway: the market opportunity is real, but adoption will likely favor tools that help shoppers decide faster rather than agents that buy automatically. The winners are the platforms and payment firms that make AI shopping safer and more useful; the losers are vendors assuming consumers are ready to hand over the keys.