Visa’s latest report on holiday shopping behavior shows consumers entering the season with heightened concerns about fraud, continued pressure on household budgets and growing interest in artificial intelligence. The survey also found that shoppers are increasingly considering overseas sellers and looking for value-driven purchases.
The poll, commissioned by Visa and conducted by Morning Consult among more than 1,000 U.S. adults, found that 54 percent of respondents had already used AI for at least one shopping task, up from 47 percent in the previous year’s survey. Forty-one percent said they would not tell someone that AI helped select a gift.
Consumers are mainly using AI for practical purposes. Among those surveyed, 61 percent said they used it to compare prices, 59 percent to check product availability, 57 percent to find discounts and 54 percent to receive gift suggestions. Nearly one-quarter said they were more comfortable using AI for shopping than they had been a year earlier.
Generation Z is driving much of this adoption. Visa reported that more than eight in 10 younger consumers were open to AI assistance, while 73 percent would allow AI to suggest gift ideas, 19 percentage points above the overall adult figure.
However, shoppers remain less willing to let AI complete purchases. Separate Visa research found that only 23 percent of U.S. consumers trust generative AI to manage payment transactions on their behalf. Visa’s Trust Index showed greater confidence when the payment service involved a familiar brand: 61 percent said they trusted Visa to secure an AI-powered payment, rising to 68 percent among consumers aged 18 to 34 and 71 percent among people who use AI weekly.
Fraud is another major concern during the holiday season. Visa said nearly three in 10 shoppers reported being targeted by fraud during the previous holiday period, a share that increased to 39 percent among Gen Z consumers.
Three-quarters of U.S. shoppers said they had changed their shopping habits in response. The most common actions included enabling two-factor authentication and changing passwords more frequently, each reported by 34 percent of respondents. Other measures included avoiding saved payment details, switching from debit to credit cards and using digital wallets.
Cross-border shopping is also expected to play a role this season. Thirty percent of respondents said they planned to buy at least one gift from an overseas seller, while the figure rose to more than half among Gen Z shoppers. Quality, cited by 32 percent, and uniqueness, cited by 31 percent, ranked ahead of better prices, which was selected by 25 percent.
Cost-conscious behavior remains widespread. Visa found that 84 percent of consumers had taken at least one step to manage higher everyday expenses over the past year. The most common responses were searching for discounts, reducing discretionary spending and choosing less expensive brands.
Michael Brown, Visa’s principal U.S. economist, said shoppers were looking for deals, testing tools such as AI and changing their habits because of fraud concerns. Travel and live-event tickets were the experiences consumers were most excited to give or receive, selected by 60 percent and 55 percent of respondents, respectively.
Sources: WWD.