Most UK Adults Would Abandon an AI Shopping Agent After a Single Error, YouGov Poll Finds
TLDR
A YouGov poll of 2,080 UK adults found only 19% trust AI to make everyday purchases, compared with 55% for a human adviser.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
The poll, commissioned by ACI, found only 19% of UK adults trust AI to make everyday purchases, against 55% for a human adviser. The article also raises the open question of who should pay refunds when shopping agents fail. PPC Land first reported the findings.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Nov 1AI agents reach checkout in 25% of sessions on tracked sites, against 15% for humans, Clarity data shows
Clarity data across 230,511 sites shows checkout appearing in 25% of AI agent sessions versus 15% of human sessions, though the implied session base appears to be about 1.2 million rather than the 5.2 million in the headline.
- Oct 24IAB Europe survey finds 86% of European ad businesses using AI for marketing, but only 48% have governance policies in place
An IAB Europe survey of 50 ad businesses shows heavy AI adoption among marketers but significant gaps in governance and compliance policies.
- Sep 18Semrush survey finds AI chatbots are as likely to steer consumers away from purchases as toward them
A Semrush survey found that 81% of shoppers using chatbots have rejected purchases based on AI guidance, creating a new challenge for brands beyond traditional search visibility.
- Sep 7Study: AI Chatbots Talked 57.5% of AI Users Out of Making Purchases
Semrush surveyed 2,338 US consumers and found that 57.5% of AI users have been talked out of purchases by chatbots, and 65% have replaced some product searches with them.