The shopping journey is becoming less linear, and artificial intelligence is increasingly influencing what consumers discover before they ever reach a retailer’s product page. New research from NielsenIQ (NIQ) and World Data Lab finds that nearly three-quarters of shoppers now use AI during product discovery, as retail media and social commerce add new layers to an already fragmented path to purchase.
The findings point to a broader shift for advertisers and consumer brands: product visibility is no longer determined only by search rankings, shelf placement or retailer websites. AI recommendations, retail media networks and social platforms are becoming competing discovery engines, forcing brands to rethink how they make products visible across the digital commerce ecosystem.
For consumer brands, being found has always been the first step toward being purchased. What is changing is where discovery happens—and who controls the recommendation.
Consumers once relied heavily on search engines, retailer websites, product reviews and word of mouth. Increasingly, AI assistants and recommendation systems are entering that decision-making process, potentially changing which brands make it into a shopper’s consideration set.
A new global report from NIQ and World Data Lab, A Tale of Two Consumers: The Polarized Mindsets Reshaping Global Consumption, examines that transition alongside the continued expansion of retail media and social commerce.
The report says nearly 75% of shoppers use AI during product discovery, while 20% of consumers already use AI somewhere in the broader shopping process. At the same time, retail media has grown into a $184 billion global market, according to the announcement.
Together, those developments point toward a commerce environment in which advertising, product information and consumer recommendations are becoming increasingly interconnected.
AI is becoming another product discovery layer
The most important implication for brands may be the growing importance of AI-mediated discovery.
Consumers can now use AI tools to compare products, evaluate alternatives, research prices and determine which option best fits a particular need. That means brands are no longer competing only for a position on a search results page or a retailer’s digital shelf.
They are competing to be included in an AI-generated answer.
That distinction has major implications for product marketers and advertisers.
Traditional search optimization has focused on keywords, rankings and clicks. AI-driven discovery puts greater emphasis on whether product information is accurate, structured, comprehensive and sufficiently differentiated for recommendation systems to understand.
A brand that performs well in conventional search but has weak product descriptions, inconsistent specifications or poor digital-shelf information could become less visible in AI-assisted shopping journeys.
This makes product content optimization, digital shelf management and AI visibility increasingly relevant parts of the modern commerce stack.
Retail media is becoming more than advertising
Retail media introduces another layer to this competition.
Retail media networks allow brands to advertise across retailer websites, apps, search results, stores and other owned environments using retailers’ first-party consumer data.
That gives retailers an increasingly important role in determining what shoppers see and when they see it.
NIQ’s findings suggest that retail media is now part of a broader convergence between commerce data and consumer decision-making. Brands can use retail media to promote products to specific audiences while also using commerce intelligence to understand purchasing behavior.
The opportunity is particularly valuable as consumers become more selective about where they spend more and where they trade down.
Instead of assuming that consumers are universally premium-seeking or price-sensitive, advertisers can increasingly identify different consumer segments and tailor messaging accordingly.
That could mean premium positioning for one audience, value messaging for another and promotional offers for a third.
Social commerce shortens the journey
Social platforms are adding another route from discovery to purchase.
According to the report, nearly one-third of Western consumers have purchased a product after discovering it on a social platform. In APAC, nearly 60% of consumers shop through social and quick-commerce channels.
The regional difference is significant.
North America remains less mature in direct social commerce, with 68% of North American consumers reportedly never having purchased through social media. In other markets, social platforms and rapid-commerce services are already much more closely integrated into everyday shopping.
For global advertisers, this makes a single commerce strategy increasingly difficult to apply everywhere.
The path from product discovery to purchase can look fundamentally different depending on geography, platform behavior and consumer expectations.
The convergence creates a new measurement problem
More discovery channels also mean more fragmented measurement.
A consumer might first encounter a product through an AI recommendation, see a sponsored placement through a retail media network, watch a creator demonstrate it on social media and eventually purchase through a retailer.
Each interaction may belong to a different platform, data environment or advertising system.
That complicates attribution.
Retail media has an advantage because retailers can connect advertising exposure with transaction data within their own ecosystems. AI discovery introduces a different challenge: recommendation systems can influence consideration without necessarily generating a conventional click that advertisers can easily attribute.
This could push commerce measurement toward more sophisticated approaches that connect discovery, consideration, engagement and purchase rather than treating the final transaction as the only meaningful signal.
Commerce intelligence becomes strategic infrastructure
NIQ’s report ultimately points toward a broader change in how brands approach growth.
AI, retail media and social commerce are not isolated trends. They are changing the infrastructure through which consumers discover products.
That means marketers may need to manage several forms of visibility simultaneously: visibility in search, retailer marketplaces, retail media networks, social feeds and AI-generated recommendations.
For enterprise consumer brands, the implications extend beyond advertising.
Product information management, customer data platforms, retail analytics, media buying, content operations and measurement increasingly need to work together. Salesforce, Adobe, Google, Amazon and other major technology ecosystems are already competing to provide pieces of that broader marketing and commerce infrastructure.
The next challenge is making those systems work together.
If AI becomes a major intermediary between consumers and products, brands will have to optimize not just for human shoppers but also for the systems helping those shoppers make decisions.
That could make commerce intelligence one of the defining capabilities of the next generation of retail marketing.
The question is no longer simply whether a consumer can find a product.
It is whether the product will be recommended in the first place.
Market Landscape
The retail advertising ecosystem is evolving from a collection of separate channels into a more interconnected commerce media environment.
Retail media networks provide first-party purchase and behavioral data, while social commerce connects discovery directly to transactions. AI introduces another layer by acting as an intermediary between consumers and product information.
For advertisers, this creates both additional reach and additional complexity.
Retail media leaders such as Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect and Target’s Roundel have built advertising ecosystems around retailer data and transaction environments. Meanwhile, Google and other technology companies are integrating AI into search and discovery.
The competitive advantage is increasingly shifting toward whoever can provide accurate consumer signals, relevant product information and measurable connections between advertising exposure and commercial outcomes.
For brands, that means the traditional distinction between media buying, ecommerce, SEO, product content and analytics is becoming less useful.
Top Insights
- Nearly 75% of shoppers use AI for product discovery, making AI visibility an increasingly important consideration for consumer brands and ecommerce marketing teams.
- Retail media has reached a reported $184 billion globally, giving retailers growing influence over advertising, product discovery and purchase decisions.
- Social commerce is developing unevenly by region, with APAC consumers showing significantly greater adoption of social and quick-commerce shopping channels.
- AI recommendations could change product marketing by shifting visibility from conventional search rankings toward machine-generated recommendations and comparisons.
- Brands increasingly need unified commerce intelligence connecting product content, retail media, social commerce, customer data and measurable purchase outcomes.
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