By the of end of 2026, more than one third of shoppers in the UK will turn first to an AI assistant or LLM when shopping, instead of a search engine or brand.
The findings are published by customer engagement platform Braze in its CER 2026 Report, which confirms customers now see AI as the most convenient way to shop. Braze surveyed 200 UK marketing executives at VP-level or higher from B2C companies with a minimum annual revenue of US$10 million as well as 2,000 consumers based in the UK. It found that 14 percent of UK consumers already use AI agents to interact with brands and make purchases and that this figure is on track to more than double to 37 percent by end of 2026.
The conclusion, however, is not that consumers are turning to AI to replace brands, but to make their brand experience faster, smarter, and more personal. Among respondents, 20 percent said AI-first shopping journeys require less decision making, 24 percent said experiences are more personalized, and 40 percent believe they get access to better deals.
Nicolas Berliner, general manager for the UK at Braze, says the recent surge in AI adoption signals a broader shift in how consumers want to shop and that, as adoption increases, “AI assistants will act as another competitor for the attention of consumers”.
He adds: “This evolution is moving the industry from a ‘deterministic’ model toward one where context feeds intelligence and drives interaction. Instead of consumers manually browsing multiple sites, AI agents shortlist options and personalize recommendations in real time. In some cases, these autonomous companions will act on the consumer’s behalf to complete purchases. This pushes brands to rethink how they show up, focusing on composable intelligence and structured first-party data to stand out from the noise of their digital and physical lives.”
These aren’t the only figures to show how important AI assistants and LLMs have become to the customer journey.
CX Network’s latest research found that to 2030, AI-first customer journeys/ customers using AI for product research is the third most influential trend for CX practitioners. The research, completed by 342 network members between December 2025 and January 2026 also found the top customer behaviors include awareness of how AI works / uses customer data, customers using AI for their service and sales interactions, and use of generative AI for product/service research.
In previous years, the top customer behaviors have consistently focused on the demand for speed and convenience. This year, for the first time, these behaviors are less of a priority; mostly likely because AI-first journeys are the quickest and most convenient way to shop. The full results will be published on March 24, in our flagship report, CX Horizons: The state of CX in 2026.
Third-party buying agents and customer trust
They might be popular, but AI assistants are not immune to controversy. In the last week, ChatGPT has been embroiled in a political scandal that saw uninstalls surge by 295 percent in a single day. The typical uninstall rate for the 30 days prior stood at nine percent.
Data shows it hasn’t put customer off all AI assistants – many have downloaded Anthropic’s Claude, instead – but it has made them think twice about the organizations they are ultimately sharing masses of personal data with. It also demonstrates how quickly consumers can vote with their feet when big tech fails to meet their moral expectations.
Berliner says: “Trust will ultimately determine which platforms succeed as we build agents to enhance our personal lives. While shoppers are excited by convenience, 32 percent of respondents in our research currently say they would not share personal data with AI agents. Success will belong to the brands that prioritize transparency and use first-party context to build rich relationships. By giving consumers clear control, companies can position themselves as the conductor of these new AI-driven experiences.”
CX Network’s research also highlights growing awareness of the importance of data and privacy. While AI-first customer journeys emerged as a top
10 CX trend, so too did consumer privacy and, when it comes to the top customer behaviors, awareness of how AI works / uses customer data, was the most selected response in 2026.
AI-first journeys and customer loyalty
Whether enabled by Instant Checkout, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or other tools, AI-first customer journeys meet the customer demand for convenience, speed and personalization. However, tools such as these and Google’s agentic commerce suite change the dynamic of the customer relationship, with AI now the intermediary and facilitator.
This has huge implications for customer relationships and loyalty.
“Customers no longer search by company name or product category. They start with intent,” says AI and enterprise architect Anjali Jain. “Loyalty has always depended on trust. The difference now is where that trust originates. It forms in the moments when customers feel understood and guided with clarity. When those moments happen inside conversational platforms, they reshape how customers think about brands.”
Some are making moves to stop customers forming such bonds with AI assistants and ensuring they retain traffic within their own digital ecosystem. Among them, Amazon, which has added specific restrictions to its site against both OpenAI and Google, and eBay, which has updated its user agreement to prohibit the use of third-party chatbots and AI agents from shopping on its platform on behalf of human customers.
Whether they can stem the tide forever remains to be seen. Afterall, “the customer is always right”, and in 2026, customers want to access the best and most cost-effective products and experiences in the most convenient way.
Quick links
- When your customer is a machine: Rethinking service design for AI agents
- The new rules of discoverability
- The human-machine translator: CX's most important new role