The assertion: AI and agents will drive 21% of holiday orders globally, an estimated $263 billion in sales, per Salesforce’s holiday forecast.

The reasoning: Salesforce justified its bullish view by noting that traffic from AI assistants has skyrocketed this year.

• The company’s internal data found that online traffic from AI assistants spiked 119% YoY in the first half of 2025, with conversion rates over 700% higher than social media traffic, and 200% higher than traditional search.
• Others have seen an even bigger surge: Adobe reported a 4,700% YoY increase in generative AI (genAI) traffic in July, although the company noted that genAI traffic is still “modest” compared with other channels.
• More than half (52%) of US consumers plan to use genAI to shop online this year, while 38% have already done so.
• This holiday season, 54% of shoppers plan to use AI for price comparison, product searches, review summaries, and tailored recommendations, per a survey by Klaviyo.

Retailers get ready: As shoppers rely more heavily on AI tools—knowingly or unknowingly—to make purchase decisions, retailers are racing to keep up.

• Ralph Lauren launched Ask Ralph, an “AI-powered conversational shopping experience” available to app users. Powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, it delivers a personalized array of shoppable outfit ideas featuring Polo Ralph Lauren products.
• Albertsons is the first retailer to use Google Cloud’s Conversational Commerce agent in the search experience across all its banners. The tool provides personalized recommendations, product discovery, and even nudges for impulse purchases.
• Amazon recently debuted Lens Live, an AI feature within its Shopping app that scans products and shows matches in real time. Integrated with the retailer’s AI assistant Rufus, the tool suggests questions and summarizes reviews to give shoppers quick access to the information they need.

Our take: GenAI is both a disrupter and a gamechanger for retailers.

On the one hand, it lets retailers personalize the customer experience as never before, deepening relationships with their shoppers. But the growing use of AI assistants and agents could challenge companies’ ability to interact directly with customers (and monetize their data) by funneling more traffic—and buying activity—through intermediaries like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

To avoid being left behind, retailers need their own AI tools—either built in-house or with partners like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI—to ensure they can deliver personalized, relevant recommendations and shopping experiences. At the same time, companies need to optimize every piece of content on their sites—from product listings to reviews to FAQs—for discoverability on AI search engines to avoid falling into oblivion.