AI is becoming a prominent part of gift discovery, according to new research from Generation Media on how UK and US families are changing how they shop for Christmas.
The independent family-audience media specialist surveyed more than 600 people across the UK and US, including children aged four to 12, their parents and extended family members.
The study, conducted with Giraffe Insights, found that 22 percent of UK parents are already using AI tools such as ChatGPT to generate present ideas.
AI now ranks as the fourth most common source of gift inspiration for parents, behind linear TV, YouTube and social media. UK parents are also far more enthusiastic adopters than US parents, being 80 percent more likely to use AI in their Christmas planning.
The research points to other shifts: 21 percent of parents plan to shop through TikTok Shop, while many are also buying second-hand via platforms like Facebook Marketplace.
Spending intentions diverge, with 63 percent of parents expecting to increase budgets compared with 17 percent of grandparents, though grandparents may still outspend parents per child overall. November remains the main purchasing month, especially for parents.
Generation Media director Alex Taylor-Smith said the rise of AI and social commerce reflects parents seeking “smarter ways to browse and buy,” and urged advertisers to follow families into emerging channels, like ChatGPT and Claude, this festive season.
Santa Claude?
The holiday season has revealed how AI is already becoming a trusted shopping tool for some consumers, in giving them personalised product recommendations specific to their needs.
Agentic commerce is on the rise, with AI agents – instead of people – finding, comparing and purchasing products on a consumer’s behalf.
Perplexity recently announced a Shopping Assistant feature with Paypal in the US – an agentic feature that lets users complete purchases within the chat interface.
For advertisers, these shifts mean optimising their online presence to appear in AI tools, a term referred to as artificial intelligence optimisation (AIO).
