Brand websites are increasingly becoming a final stop for shoppers to confirm a decision already made with an AI tool, rather than a place to browse, according to a new consumer study from agency DEPT.
The new research, which surveyed 2606 US consumers, found that AI tools send shoppers who have already decided on their purchase to brand websites, not consumers who are likely to browse – out of 58.8 percent of shoppers who visited a brand website, 80.7 percent had already made up their mind about what they were going to purchase.
This hints at a phenomenon of brand websites becoming more of a channel for final transaction, when consumers use AI tools for browsing.
Shoppers using AI tend to consider more brand options, 56 percent of AI shoppers – those using tools like Google AI Overviews, Claude, and ChatGPT to search for products and services – chose a different brand than they had planned because they were recommended it by an AI tool.
The survey also found that 55 percent of respondents were introduced to a brand they hadn’t previously considered and 56 percent chose a different brand than they had originally planned.
AI Doesn’t Replace Traditional Search
One of the most compelling findings from the report, is that traditional search isn’t going redundant because of the prevalence of AI tool usage.
When asked about using an AI assistant for researching products in the past three months, 61 percent of respondents said they had, with 46 percent doing so multiple times.
Despite this, only 11 percent of consumers began their product search with AI, compared to 56 percent who started their product search in a traditional search engine, and a small 12.1 percent consider AI search tools as the most influential tool in making their final decision.
“A good brand experience now depends on how AI describes you, not just how your site looks,” said Isabel Perry, Global EVP Strategy, DEPT. “Treating this as a search-replacement story misses the real shift. The competitive question is whether AI trusts you enough to recommend you for a specific need, and that trust comes from structured data and consistent proof, not SEO tactics.”
