2025 Consumer Adoption of AI Report

Artificial intelligence makes the headlines daily. But while we’re all reading about AI, how many of us are using it? This report aims to quantify both consumer openness to AI and their adoption of the technology. We’re especially interested in consumer sentiment towards brands using AI, and their likelihood to engage with AI during shopping journeys.   

Benchmarking against multi-market data from 2024, we can see that consumer readiness for AI in retail is increasing, driven by greater familiarity – and a growing belief that AI has the potential to improve customer experience. However, trust and ethical considerations remain important factors shaping adoption. 

Survey sample: The data in this report comes from two multi-market surveys of 5,000 consumers aged 18-67 residing in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. The research was conducted on the Attest platform during January 2025.

Consumers are feeling more positive about brands using AI  

Only a year has passed since we last polled consumers about brands using AI technology but rapid advancement has taken place in that time. Most businesses have begun integrating AI into their operations and many consumers have had the chance to experience it – be it interacting with AI-powered customer service or receiving personalized product recommendations. 

As consumers become more familiar with AI in retail, some fears around the technology are abating, while more people are starting to see the benefits. A primary concern in 2024 was that brands using AI would result in people losing their jobs but this worry is starting to decline. Today, 57% of consumers are worried about job losses (down from 59%). Concern about this issue has most decreased among UK consumers. Following a -5 point decline to 54%, the UK is the market least worried about losing jobs to AI. 

Meanwhile, objection to brands using AI-generated models in their ads is also declining. The percentage of consumers who say they are not ok with it has dropped from 49% to 46%. Canadian consumers have had the biggest change of heart, with a -5 point decline in objection.  

Consumers have a growing belief that AI will improve two key aspects of retail; following a +4 point increase, 31% think it can provide a better customer experience, while 29% believe AI means better personalization (a +3 point increase on last year). Belief that AI will improve the customer experience in the UK, specifically, has increased by a notable +10 points to 35%.

In the US, positive sentiment towards brands using AI has modestly increased across the board, with the biggest increase in relation to advertising: 38% think it will make advertising more creative (up by +4 points). At the same time, concern around inauthenticity and the potential for bias have both declined by several points. 

Sentiment in Canada remains more or less consistent, although belief that AI will lead to better personalization for consumers is up by +5 points to 29%. Australian consumers, on the other hand, have become a little more pessimistic about brands using AI. Notably, there has been a +5 point increase in concern about the inability to speak to a real person (to 61%).  

Overall, the US and the UK demonstrate significantly lower concern about brands using AI compared to Canada and Australia, indicating that these markets are more mature and ready for greater adoption. 

However, AI-readiness also differs by demographic. Interestingly, Men are significantly more likely to believe there are benefits to brands using AI. For example, while 36% believe that it will lead to cost savings passed on to the consumer, and greater product innovation, only 28% of women think the same thing. 

Women are also more likely to object to brands using AI models in advertising (52% versus 41%), this is primarily because it could promote unrealistic beauty standards. Older consumers are more likely to be against artificially generated models than younger shoppers (50% of those aged 50-67 object compared to 43% of those aged 18-30). 

In general, consumers aged 50+ have a more negative perception of AI in the shopping experience. They over-index for concern about the loss of the human touch (63%) and the inability to talk to a real person (64%) and are significantly less likely to believe there are benefits to brands using AI. Only 27% think AI will improve the customer experience, in comparison to 33% of shoppers aged 31-49, and 34% of those aged 18-30. 

Consumer adoption of AI tools is growing 

Not only are consumers starting to feel more positive about brands using AI, but they’re also more likely to use the technology themselves as a part of the shopping experience. Compared with last year, there’s been a +6 point increase in consumers who say they’re likely to use generative AI (Gen AI) tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to research purchases (to 47%).

The biggest uplift in likelihood to use AI tools for researching purchases has occurred in Canada, where 51% of consumers now say they’re likely to do it, following a +10 point increase. Likewise, in the UK, there’s been a +9 point increase to 47%.

Digging into the demographics, we see that men are significantly more likely to use AI to help them make purchasing decisions: 52% versus 43% of women. There’s also a distinct difference between age groups. While, around 54% of consumers under 50 would use AI tools for product research, only 41% of their older counterparts would do the same. 

The age disparity can also be seen in likelihood to use an AI assistant or chatbot on a brand’s website. Around 60% of consumers in age groups below 50 are likely to take advantage of such tools, compared with a lesser 43% of shoppers aged 50+. Overall, though, 54% of consumers are likely to engage with an AI chatbot (up from 52%), with the UK the market most likely to use them, at 57%. 

Of course, consumer adoption of AI isn’t limited to help with shopping. A separate survey we carried out among Gen AI users has shown that the technology is being used for a wide range of purposes and a variety of tools are being used. We found that the most commonly used Gen AI tool is ChatGPT (52%), followed by Google Gemini (30%) and Microsoft Copilot (20%).

Young consumers represent the biggest user group of ChatGPT (69% of those aged 18-30 have used it), while those aged 31-49 over-index for use of Google Gemini (35%) and Microsoft Copilot (23%). It’s also notable that men have higher usage across all Gen AI tools, with the biggest disparity seen in usage of Copilot (27% men versus 15% women), and Gemini (36% men versus 25% women).   

The US lags behind for its adoption of Chat GPT, where 45% of consumers have used it in comparison to 55% in the UK, 56% in Canada, and 58% in Australia. Meanwhile, the UK is ahead of the rest for its use of Gemini (34%), and Copilot (26%). 

Gen AI usage levels are highest in the UK: 58% of consumers who have tried such tools say they use them frequently, compared with 50% of consumers in Canada. US consumers are most likely to have never tried a Gen AI tool (34% versus 25% in the UK).

Overall, however, 53% of consumers who use Gen AI tools are using them frequently, including 18% who are using them ‘very frequently’. So what are they using them for? The top use case is answering questions or explaining complex topics (42%), followed by study or learning (33%), and writing letters/drafting documents (31%). 

Around 30% use Gen AI tools for help with work-related tasks, as well as with idea generation and problem solving. Researching products and services is also amongst the top use cases, with 30% of Gen AI users employing the technology for this purpose (rising to 37% among frequent users). 

Tools like DALL-E and MidJourney allow image creation from text prompts, and 20% of consumers say they use Gen AI for creating or editing images and videos. Slightly fewer (17.5%) use the technology for content creation, generating things like blogs and social media posts. 

F&B manufacturers and retailers will be interested to learn that 19% of consumers are using Gen AI tools for recipes and meal planning. Women are especially likely to use AI for help in the kitchen: 22% say they use it for this purpose versus 15% of men. 

There’s burgeoning use of Gen AI for other types of planning, including travel planning (14%), diet and fitness planning (9%), and interior design (8%). Meanwhile, consumers are also turning to AI for recommendations: 15% ask for recommendations for TV shows, movies, games, books and music, while 13.5% ask for recommendations for restaurants, bars, hotels and attractions.

Consumer trust in AI tools (and the companies behind them) is increasing 

With high profile legal cases about the use of copyrighted data to train AI continuing to play out, AI companies haven’t always enjoyed the best public image. But our data suggests consumer opinion is improving. In 2024, only 29% of consumers said they trusted companies with the data they collected through AI technology. Today, that has increased by +4 points to 33%. 

At the same time, trust in AI tools themselves is also growing: 43% of consumers would trust the information given to them by an AI chatbot or tool, up from 40% last year. When looking specifically at consumers who currently use Gen AI tools, this figure increases to 68%. Just over 14% of these users go so far as to say they trust the information provided by AI tools ‘completely’. 

Younger consumers are notably more trusting – both of AI tools and AI companies. 37% of those aged 18-30 trust AI companies to look after their data, in comparison to 27% of shoppers aged 50+. Likewise, 47% trust information provided by AI tools, versus 35% of consumers aged 50-67.

Men – who we saw earlier are more likely to use AI – are also likely to have higher trust in the technology. 46% would trust information given to them by an AI chatbot or tool, compared with 40% of women. And 37% say they trust companies in regards to collecting data via AI (versus 29% of women). 

Comparing the markets, Australia has the lowest trust in companies handling AI data (only 29% trust them compared with 36% of Americans). And they’re the market most in favor of laws to control the use of consumers’ data to train AI (83% versus 75% of Americans). 

The push for legislation around AI is strongest among older consumers: 85% of shoppers aged 50+ support laws to control AI companies collecting data, versus 74% of those aged 18-30. Older consumers also over-index for wanting labeling of AI-generated content to be a legal requirement (89% versus 77% of younger consumers). 

In Europe, plans are already underway for regulating AI technologies. The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act is expected to be adopted in 2025 and creates a legal framework that ensures AI is used safely, ethically, and in ways that respect fundamental rights, which may go some way to improving consumer trust.

Overall, 43% of consumers remain concerned about privacy or security weaknesses when it comes to AI, which is the same as last year. But, again, we see that the consumers who are most likely to use AI tools are the least likely to have these concerns, suggesting that increasing familiarity will grow trust. 

AI is changing how consumers search online

One of the biggest ways AI is going to affect brands is search. According to MIT Technology Review, “AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it“. We’re entering an era of conversational search, where users ask questions and – instead of a list of links – receive longform responses expressed in natural language. 

The rise of Gen AI search will likely mean a substantial loss in traffic for most websites – people no longer need to visit individual sites to get the information they’re looking for. This is great for consumers, but not so great for brands.

Our data suggests the shift to Gen AI for search is well underway. Research we carried out for our annual Consumer Trends Report found that 37% of under 40s in the UK and 32% in the US use AI at least half of the time they do an internet search. We also found elevated use of AI for search among high earning consumers. 

Right now, Gen AI is not pay-to-play, meaning brands cannot buy ads or pay to be mentioned by these tools. But for those that organically get picked up by the Large Language Models (LLMs), we wanted to explore if there could potentially be benefits over appearing in regular SERPs. 

It turns out that there is. Gen AI search results are deemed to be more trustworthy by 40% of consumers (who are already using the technology). Only 17% trust AI results less than the links that regular search engines return. It appears that getting mentioned by Gen AI could provide a halo effect for your brand. 

It could even be more effective than Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising because nearly 41% of consumers agree that they trust Gen AI search results more than paid search results (while just 15% trust it less).

American and British consumers, especially, demonstrate greater faith in Gen AI search: around 43% think it’s more trustworthy than both organic and paid search results. That’s in comparison to around 36% of Australians and Canadians. 

Men are more likely to trust Gen AI results over regular search results than women are (44% versus 37%). And age also plays a role in how much sway AI search holds, with 44% of consumers aged 18-30 trusting it more than normal search, versus 37% of those aged 50+.

With consumers clearly valuing AI-enhanced internet search, what’s likely to happen to their usage of it? Among consumers who are already using Gen AI, 60% think their use will increase in the next six months (although 5% predict a decrease).

The biggest increase will take place in the UK, where 66% of consumers say they’ll carry out more Gen AI searches. But it doesn’t look like website owners need to panic just yet, since consumers don’t plan to reduce their use of regular search engines in line with this increase. 

Only 15.5% of consumers expect their usage of normal search engines to decrease. In fact, 27.5% of consumers actually expect to increase their use in the next six months. Younger shoppers are most likely to predict higher use (31%), which might just reflect their commitment to spending time online in general. 

Either way, it seems for the time being that consumers will make use of a variety of tools for finding information online. And with regular search engines continuing to expand their integration of AI summaries we could reach a happy medium between the two. But that’s not to say brands shouldn’t be focused on optimizing their content for LLMs – and enjoy the associated benefits.