Artificial intelligence saved the average consumer money and sanity during the recent holiday retail season
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the retail experience. Consumers experienced reduced anxiety and increased happiness and savings through AI-powered recommendations.
- The survey surfaces a correlation between AI enhancing the holiday shopping experience and shoppers spending more.
- Consumers expect brands to provide a higher standard of shopping experience in 2025 after seeing AI-enhanced services in play.
Santa may have had the aid of his reindeer, but consumers had artificial intelligence (AI) to help them this holiday season – the technology helped shoppers find cost-saving deals and choose better gifts, and it reduced anxiety often associated with the busy retail period. That’s according to the Post-2024 Holiday Shopping Survey conducted by Talkdesk®, Inc., a global provider of AI-powered customer experience (CX) technology that serves retail enterprises of all sizes, which found that 88% of shoppers used AI in some form during the recent holiday retail season and 56% of shoppers said they were happier from having that extra support. Moreover, more than two-thirds (69%) of consumers who used AI are now more likely to embrace AI-powered shopping throughout 2025.
Key findings from the Talkdesk Post-2024 Holiday Shopping survey included:
- AI Brought Peace and Joy to Holiday Shoppers. Three-quarters of respondents (72%) said AI helped them save money because they had more resources to find cost-saving deals and options. A quarter (24%) of consumers who used AI to help buy a gift for a loved one reported that AI chose much better than they would have done unassisted. In fact, 61% of people didn’t get anxious about holiday buying because they were more confident in their purchase decisions. Returns numbers similarly highlight how AI helped people buy confidently, as 70% of people said they returned fewer products than in prior years.
- Diverse Adoption of AI. On the practical side, 59% of people used AI chatbots to find coupons, discount codes, or less expensive product prices, while 57% used one to track holiday shipments. However, shoppers are increasingly getting creative with how they use AI: 43% used AI chatbots to get gift ideas for a loved one and 36% used one to get inspiration for holiday party outfits or home holiday décor. A similar number (42%) said they conducted a visual shopping search (uploaded images or used smart device cameras so AI could help find matching or similar products).
- Consumers’ AI Expectations for Retailers Have Grown. Retailers should take note that over half (58%) of consumers expect a higher standard of shopping experience in 2025 due to the effectiveness of technology innovations like AI during their 2024 holiday shopping. Men’s expectations are higher than women’s — 64% of men believe retailers should use AI to improve how they shop this year. The data, however, indicates that the retailers that get the AI-enhanced shopping experience right stand to profit — among consumers who took advantage of AI-powered services and capabilities leading up to the holidays, almost half (44%) bought more products because AI made the experience more enjoyable.
The Talkdesk 2024 Holiday Survey was conducted via the online platform Pollfish on January 2, 2025. It asked 1,000 consumers in the United States about their experiences using AI to assist in the holiday shopping experience.
Supporting Quote
Ed Durbin, vice president and general manager of industry strategy for retail and consumer goods at Talkdesk, said: “Our survey demonstrates that consumers embraced AI-powered tools across the buying journey this holiday season for more personalized, easy, and stress-free shopping. Consumers’ message to retailers is clear – they want AI to continue to improve its recommendations and support into 2025. By learning from what worked during the recent busy retail period, retailers can gain a competitive edge year-round by strategically implementing AI.”
About Talkdesk
Talkdesk® is on a mission to rid the world of bad customer experience. With our cloud-native, generative AI-powered CX platform, purpose-built industry solutions, and extensible AI offerings, we empower enterprises in the cloud and on-premises to deliver exceptional customer experiences that make them more competitive, grow revenue, reduce costs, and provide operational efficiencies. With specialized workflows and integrations delivered out of the box for our Industry Experience Clouds, Talkdesk accelerates value for our customers faster and more simply than legacy or one-size-fits-all solutions.
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