Every August, many retailers prepare for one of the biggest moments in their calendar. Parents begin buying uniforms, stationery, shoes, backpacks, lunchboxes, and technology, while brands compete to be found first when shoppers start searching.
But what if shoppers aren’t starting with Google anymore? Increasingly, the data is showing that they’re starting with AI.
Whether it’s asking ChatGPT to create a shopping list, using Gemini to compare school shoes, or asking Copilot to build a back-to-school budget, AI is becoming another touchpoint in the customer journey. The question is whether consumers are beginning to trust it enough to influence their purchasing decisions.
The early signs are compelling
Recent research suggests that AI-assisted shopping is moving rapidly into the mainstream. PwC’s latest Back-to-School survey found that 73% of parents in the US expect to use AI somewhere in their shopping journey, whether that’s researching products, comparing options, finding deals or managing their budget.
Further, Deloitte has found that parents who intend to use a combination of search engines, social media, and generative AI are planning to spend considerably more than those relying on traditional channels alone. While this doesn’t mean AI causes higher spending, it does suggest that digitally engaged shoppers behave differently.
Yet trust remains a major barrier. Research from Gartner found that consumers are comfortable using AI to narrow down choices and support product research, but very few are willing to let AI make purchasing decisions on their behalf. Only around 11% of consumers said they would allow AI to actually decide what to buy, even for relatively low-risk purchases.
This distinction is important; consumers don’t appear ready to hand over the checkout process, but they are increasingly happy to let AI do the research beforehand.
Has the customer journey changed?
Traditionally, the back-to-school journey might have looked something like this:
- Receive the school list
- Search Google
- Visit several retailer websites
- Compare prices
- Read reviews
- Purchase
Now the same journey could begin with a single prompt:
“Help me buy everything a Year 7 student needs for under £150.”
Or:
“Compare the best backpacks under £40 that will last all year.”
The retailer’s website may still be where the purchase happens, but it may no longer be where the journey begins. That change creates interesting questions for brands, retailers, and marketers alike.
What does this mean for retailers and brands?
The headline numbers tell us that AI is entering the shopping journey. But they don’t necessarily tell us what happens next.
If a parent asks AI for help with their back-to-school shop, where does it actually influence the decision? Is it being used to find the cheapest option, compare products, or simply make the whole process quicker? And how much do shoppers trust what they’re being told?
There are some important questions still to answer:
- At what point does AI enter the shopping journey?
- Are parents using it to compare prices, choose products or simply get organised?
- Do shoppers trust AI recommendations, or double-check them elsewhere before buying?
- Are some purchases easier to hand over to AI than others?
- Does AI genuinely help families spend less, or does it mainly save them time?
- And perhaps most importantly for retailers: does AI change which brands and stores make the shortlist?
These questions move beyond AI adoption and more into how the path to purchase is changing, and who gets to influence it.
The opportunity for market research
If AI becomes another step in the path to purchase, brands need to understand where they remain influential, where they’re becoming invisible, and what information AI is surfacing to consumers before they ever reach a retailer’s website.
Back-to-school shopping offers an ideal lens through which to explore these changes. It’s a planned purchase, involves multiple product categories, often has a fixed budget, and requires a series of decisions; making it a perfect case study for understanding how AI is reshaping the customer journey.
The technology may be new, but the research challenge is familiar: understanding how people make decisions. The only difference is that for this back-to-school period, one of those decision-makers could be AI.