The AI shopping assistant has graduated from novelty to necessity. According to InsightAce Analytic, the global AI shopping assistant market was valued at $4.33 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $46.76 billion by 2035, growing at a 27% compound annual growth rate. That trajectory reflects a fundamental shift in how consumers discover, evaluate, and purchase products, with artificial intelligence increasingly serving as the intermediary between shoppers and retailers.
The biggest names in technology are staking their claims. As TechCrunch reported, Shopify is actively preparing for AI shopping agents to reshape the commerce landscape, with executives describing the shift as potentially more disruptive than the move from desktop to mobile. Meanwhile, Amazon has expanded its Rufus assistant with an automatic-buying feature, and OpenAI has embedded checkout capabilities directly into ChatGPT. Modern Retail noted that OpenAI has struck deals with major retailers including Target, Instacart, and DoorDash to allow purchases within ChatGPT, while Amazon released a "Buy For Me" tool that lets consumers shop other retailers' websites without leaving the Amazon app.
The business case is becoming hard to ignore. Walmart has reported that customers who use its Sparky AI shopping assistant generate order values roughly 35% higher than those who do not, according to Retail Customer Experience. Albertsons has taken a different approach, launching an AI assistant designed to reduce grocery shopping time to as little as four minutes by executing complex end-to-end tasks like meal planning and list building, as detailed in an Albertsons Companies press release.
What separates the current generation of AI assistants from earlier chatbot implementations is their proactive nature. As InsiderOne explained, these tools no longer wait passively for customer queries. They initiate engagement, offer contextual recommendations, and guide shoppers through the purchase funnel. The 2026 iteration of conversational commerce sees chatbots evolving from basic question-and-answer tools into full shopping concierges, with voice and agentic AI capabilities shortening the path from product discovery to completed purchase.
Industry analysts predict that roughly one-quarter of shoppers will use AI-powered assistants when making purchases this year. For retailers, the implications are clear: those who invest in sophisticated AI-driven shopping experiences stand to capture a disproportionate share of consumer spending, while those who lag behind risk ceding ground in an increasingly agent-mediated marketplace.