AI shopping searches surge 200% in one year - top priority for commerce leaders

Salesforce's State of Commerce report, based on a survey of 3,450 commerce professionals, 4,690 consumers, and behavioral data from over 1.5 billion shoppers, found that agentic AI search as the first step in shopping grew 200% in the last 12 months. The report highlights that AI and data are top priorities for commerce leaders, with 86% believing AI raises customer experience expectations. Scaling AI is now the focus, as 35% of agentic AI users are no longer working on proofs of concept. Top use cases for agentic AI include autonomous customer service, AI shopping concierges, autonomous replenishment, fraud decision-making, and merchandising optimization. However, barriers such as poor data integration and lack of defined AI strategy hinder scaling, and only 27% of companies have fully unified customer data. Consumers are increasingly using AI assistants for shopping, with usage growing 200% from 2025 to 2026, and nearly 90% of professionals agree AI search will be essential for product discovery within a year. The report concludes that future commerce will be autonomous, requiring removal of data silos and unified systems.