AI shopping queries are shifting brand discovery from search and marketplaces to answer engines

As consumers use ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI tools to compare products, prices and reviews, Indian brands face a growing need to optimise structured product data, third-party validation and cross-platform consistency for AI-generated recommendations.

— Source publishedSat, 8 Aug, 2026, 09:32 IST·First seen Sat, 8 Aug, 2026, 10:08 IST·Source ET BrandEquity

What happened

Indian consumer brands · Urban Indian consumers are increasingly using generative AI to choose products, bypassing search and marketplaces. The article urges

Key facts

  • 49% of consumers used AI for shopping decisions at least once in 2025
  • 47% of US shoppers planned to use AI to summarise reviews
  • 56% intended to use AI chatbots to compare prices and identify offers

Why this matters

Prioritise partnerships or acquisitions in product-information management, review intelligence, retail-media data and conversational-commerce capabilities to strengthen visibility in AI-generated recommendations.

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