Shoppers aren’t just searching, scrolling, and clicking through ads and retailer sites anymore. A large share are asking AI tools to compare products, find deals, summarize reviews, narrow down gift ideas, check prices, and decide which brands are worth their attention. Centerfield’s ecommerce survey of 1,603 U.S. adults, representative of the American population by age, sex, and ethnicity, confirms just how far this has already gone.
For digital commerce teams, that changes the Black Friday/Cyber Monday playbook. Visibility used to be earned at the ad impression, the organic rank, the affiliate placement, the marketplace listing, the email open. Now a good chunk of it gets earned earlier, at the moment an AI assistant decides which brands, products, retailers, and sources are worth including in an answer.
BFCM AI visibility can’t wait until November. By the time shoppers ask AI what to buy, where to find the best deal, or which brand to trust, the sources AI pulls from have usually been shaped by content, reviews, structured data, partner pages, and third-party validation built up over the prior months. The runway to influence that is short, and it’s already open. Brands that move now have a real chance to shape the shortlist. Brands that wait will be competing for whatever attention is left over.
of BFCM shoppers start researching before Thanksgiving week
of AI shoppers are more likely to buy when a deal or discount code appears
of AI shoppers say cited sources affect whether they trust a recommendation
The old holiday ecommerce journey is fading. A shopper would see an ad, search on Google, click an affiliate article, browse a retailer, compare a few product pages, and decide. Now much of that comparison happens before the brand ever sees a visit. A shopper might ask:
“What are the best gifts for a 10-year-old under $50?”
“Which espresso machine is worth buying on Black Friday?”
“Find me the best running shoes for flat feet that are on sale.”
“Is this brand legit?”
“Which skincare brands have the best reviews but aren’t overpriced?”
“Compare these three products and tell me which one I should buy.”
A single AI response can summarize product differences, surface trusted reviews, recommend retailers, identify deals, and narrow the shortlist for the shopper — all before your team even knows the shopper exists.
If your products, offers, reviews, and policies aren’t part of the information AI tools are pulling from, you lose consideration before Black Friday traffic ever shows up. The upside cuts the other way too: brands that show up well in that research layer get a head start no ad budget can fully replicate.
of adults have used AI to shop in the last 6 months. Among them, they use it to:
Black Friday and Cyber Monday get treated as a late-November campaign window, but AI visibility doesn’t work on that schedule. AI systems don’t discover brand authority, product credibility, or deal accuracy on Thanksgiving weekend. They lean on source material that already exists: product pages, deal pages, reviews, category guides, comparison articles, structured product data, offer feeds, marketplace listings, coupon content, and third-party coverage.
That’s a timing problem, because a lot of the groundwork needs to happen well before BFCM week. Among BFCM shoppers in Centerfield’s survey:
of BFCM shoppers begin researching deals before Thanksgiving week. 77% of holiday shoppers expect to use an AI tool or AI-powered search result, and 74% of BFCM shoppers say they’d be likely to ask AI to help find the best price or promo code. The window to shape those early answers is open right now.
Shoppers use AI for tasks that sit close to conversion, not just casual browsing. Deals and discounts carry a lot of weight: accurate deal and offer data is one of the highest-leverage moves available before BFCM.
of AI shoppers say a deal or discount code in an AI response makes them more likely to buy.
say coupon codes and discounts help them decide which product, brand, or merchant to choose.
would try a new retailer if a deal was present in the AI response.
For digital commerce brands, an AI citation isn’t only a referral source — it’s a trust signal. 86% of AI shoppers usually look at links, sources, or citations included in AI shopping answers, and 85% say those sources affect whether they trust a recommendation. Trust is being built, or lost, in the citation layer.
Brand-owned content is just one piece of the trust ecosystem. Across 1.2M tracked AI citations, AI systems tended to cite trusted editorial, comparison, review, and institutional sources more than brand-owned content. The opportunity to be part of that trusted mix is still wide open.
Brands can gain shortlist position through AI just as easily as they can lose it. A shopper can start with a brand in mind, ask AI for a comparison, and walk away considering a different product, competitor, or retailer entirely.
of AI shoppers would consider a product or brand recommended by AI
would consider switching if AI recommended a competing brand
would try a new retailer if a deal showed up in the AI response
AI visibility strategy needs to go beyond being named. It’s about being recommended, backed by credible sources, and paired with accurate pricing, availability, discount, shipping, and return information.
AI influence won’t always show up as a tidy referral line in analytics — but that’s a reporting gap, not a signal that the influence isn’t real. And the window can be short:
Last-click referral reporting won’t capture all of that value on its own. Watch AI referral sessions, but also branded search lift, marketplace behavior, product query share, citation share, assisted conversions, and conversion changes among shoppers coming out of comparison-heavy journeys.
Winning AI-mediated holiday journeys takes content and data that AI can actually verify. Asked what they most want AI to double-check:
Publishing BFCM promotions isn’t the finish line. Making the evidence behind them easy to verify is what actually earns the recommendation.
Shoppers picked the categories they’d be most likely to use AI to help shop for during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Brands in these categories have the clearest opening to act. Treat AI visibility as part of holiday demand planning now — the shopper’s first real comparison may happen inside an AI answer rather than on a category page.
Ask major AI platforms the questions your customers ask. Track which brands show up, which sources get cited, and whether pricing, discounts, shipping, and returns are correct.
Don’t stop at promotional copy. Build the proof points that earn a recommendation.
AI systems cite editorial, review, comparison, coupon, forum, and commerce content more than brand-owned pages. Invest in that ecosystem directly.
Conflicting claims across the web erode trust fast. This is one of the most fixable items on the list.
AI influence shows up as referral traffic, but also as branded search, marketplace visits, review-site visits, and fast follow-on purchases.
The brands that prepare now will shape the sources, proof points, and offer signals AI systems draw on when holiday shoppers start asking. That window is open today. The teams that use it well will walk into BFCM week ahead of the research curve, not chasing it.
Centerfield fielded an online survey in September 2026 among 1,603 U.S. adults. The sample was representative of the American adult population by age, sex, and ethnicity. Respondents answered questions about their use of AI for online shopping, Black Friday/Cyber Monday planning, deal and discount behavior, trust in AI shopping recommendations, and attitudes toward AI-assisted shopping and gifting. Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
Used for: Centerfield’s prior analysis of 1.2M tracked AI citations and findings on AI systems’ tendency to cite trusted editorial, comparison, review, and institutional sources.