TL;DR
A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 UK adults found that 62% of online shoppers had never used AI product recommendations, while 3% said they frequently use AI shopping assistants. The findings suggest the shopping tools have yet to gain broad consumer use, even as retailers face changing expectations around delivery, marketplaces and online discovery.
A survey of more than 2,000 UK adults found that 62% of online shoppers had never used AI product recommendations, while only 3% of all respondents said they frequently use AI shopping assistants. The research, commissioned by logistics company Paxon, points to a gap between expectations of an AI-powered shopping shift and current consumer use, with implications for how retailers plan stock and fulfil orders.
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The online YouGov research also found that 21% had seen products suggested by AI tools but had not bought them, while 43% said they had never been recommended a product by AI. One in 10 online consumers said they were likely to use AI to make online purchases in the next 12 months. The supplied findings do not give the survey fieldwork dates or a breakdown of how respondents defined AI recommendations and shopping assistants.
Paxon UK chief executive Wayne Chapman said AI shopping remains new but could make demand harder for retailers to predict if it makes buying faster or easier. He argued that retailers need to understand changing customer behaviour and have fulfilment operations able to respond. Paxon commissioned the survey as it rebrands and brings together logistics businesses Radial, Staci, Active Ants and Base Logistics.
The survey also examined delivery expectations and other routes to online discovery. Three in 10 respondents thought drone deliveries would make waiting more than 24 hours unacceptable. Only 16% of online shoppers said they would be likely to use smart glasses to shop, compared with 37% of 18-to-24-year-olds. Meanwhile, 64% said they had never watched a live-shopping stream, and 30% said social media content and recommendations did not encourage them to buy products they were not already seeking.
Retailers Face Uncertain Demand Signals
The findings matter because new shopping interfaces could change how consumers discover products and place orders, even if they are not widely used yet. For supply-chain teams, a change in where purchases begin may affect forecasting, inventory placement and the speed at which orders need to be processed. The survey does not measure operational effects or establish that AI tools are already changing demand at scale; it records consumer responses at one point in time.
Delivery expectations may create a more immediate planning issue. If more shoppers come to expect rapid delivery, retailers could face pressure to expand fulfilment options while controlling costs and operational complexity. The responses about drones describe what participants believe may happen, not evidence that most consumers currently demand drone delivery or that such services are broadly available.
The findings also caution against treating digital channels as interchangeable. Interest in AI tools, smart glasses and live shopping differs across the survey measures, while marketplace shopping appears to have its own momentum: 30% said they were more likely to shop through marketplaces over the coming 12 months than through a retailer’s or brand’s website. Retailers therefore need to distinguish between stated future intentions and actual purchasing behaviour.
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What the Survey Measured
The report describes an online YouGov survey of more than 2,000 UK adults aged 18 and over. The supplied source does not state when the survey was conducted, the exact sample size, or the full wording of its questions. Its percentages should be read as survey responses, not as sales figures or verified adoption rates across all shoppers.
The research was commissioned by Paxon, a third-party logistics provider, during a rebranding that brings Radial, Staci, Active Ants and Base Logistics together. Chapman’s comments frame the results through the needs of fulfilment operations: retailers must make products available and deliver them as customers expect, regardless of whether orders start on a website, through an AI tool or another interface.
Other findings offer a wider snapshot of shopping habits. Among people who shop through live streams, 52% cited fear of missing out and time-limited offers as their main motivation to buy. The source also reported that 31% of consumers were rarely influenced by social media, while 17% said they might occasionally buy products they discover there. These measures describe different behaviours and should not be combined into a single measure of social commerce adoption.
“AI shopping is still pretty new, but it’s not going away. If it makes it quicker and easier for people to buy, demand is going to become harder to predict.”
— Wayne Chapman, Paxon UK chief executive
Adoption and Delivery Demand Remain Open
The survey does not show whether stated intentions will turn into purchases. One in 10 respondents said they were likely to use AI to make online purchases within 12 months, but the source provides no follow-up data on whether they did so. It also does not specify how often participants encountered AI recommendations or which services they had in mind.
It remains unclear how representative these responses are of UK consumers overall, because the supplied report does not include fieldwork dates, detailed methodology or respondent weighting. Nor does it quantify how AI shopping, social media, marketplaces or faster delivery affect retailers’ sales, inventory levels or fulfilment costs. Chapman’s comments about harder-to-predict demand are an industry assessment, not a measured outcome of the survey.
Retailers Watch for Behaviour Changes
The source does not announce a specific next milestone, product launch or follow-up study. The near-term question is whether consumers who currently report limited use of AI shopping tools begin using them more often, and whether that activity changes what they buy or how quickly they expect orders to arrive.
Retailers and logistics providers will need to track actual order patterns alongside stated preferences before making costly changes to inventory or delivery networks. Further survey details, including the fieldwork period and methodology, would help readers judge how broadly the results apply. Paxon’s broader message is that fulfilment systems should be able to respond to shifts in demand while keeping added cost and complexity under control.
Key Questions
How many UK shoppers in the survey had used AI product recommendations?
The survey found that 62% of online shoppers had never used AI product recommendations. The source also said 3% of all respondents frequently used AI shopping assistants.
How many respondents expected to use AI to shop soon?
One in 10 online consumers said they were likely to use AI to make online purchases in the next 12 months. That is a stated intention, not a confirmed adoption rate.
What did the survey find about smart glasses?
Sixteen percent of online shoppers said they would be likely to use smart glasses for shopping. The reported figure was higher among 18-to-24-year-olds, at 37%.
What delivery expectation did respondents express about drones?
Three in 10 respondents thought drone delivery would make waiting more than 24 hours for an online order unacceptable. The survey records their views, not current delivery demand or the availability of drone services.
Who commissioned the research?
The online YouGov research was commissioned by Paxon, a logistics company bringing Radial, Staci, Active Ants and Base Logistics together as it rebrands.
Source: rss
