Where Generative AI Wins—and Where Traditional Search Still Matters

by James Sorensen and Eric Scheer

Search has long been the connective tissue of digital commerce. When shoppers wanted to learn about products, compare options, or make decisions, they searched—and brands organized entire strategies around being found.

That model is now splitting in two.

Our on-going research on AI usage¹ with shoppers now reflects that Generative AI (GenAI) is rapidly displacing traditional search for early, educational shopping tasks, while traditional search still dominates the final moments before purchase. This isn’t a temporary transition—it’s a structural shift in how influence and execution are distributed across the shopper journey.

Generative AI Has Moved from Experiment to Habit

Over the past 18 months, reported use of GenAI while shopping has accelerated—from roughly one-quarter of U.S. consumers to nearly half today.¹

This builds on our earlier research² showing GenAI adoption concentrated in complex, high risk decisions. What’s new is how broadly GenAI is now showing up across categories and journeys.

GenAI use still over indexes as a decision-making tool in service categories like real estate, travel planning, financial decisions, and healthcare—categories marked by complexity, infrequent purchase cycles, and higher perceived risk. But adoption is no longer confined to these categories. Meaningful use now appears across electronics, home furnishings, apparel, beauty, and even everyday essentials.

Generative AI Is Replacing Search—But Only Early in the Journey

Among shoppers who already use GenAI while shopping, a majority say it is changing how they find brands, products, and services. Nearly one in four report relying less on traditional search engines altogether.³ This aligns with Semrush data who tracks AI search vs. traditional search use and predicts AI search will surpass traditional search in 2028.⁴

How is use of GenAI platforms changing how shoppers learn about products/services?

^{Source: Burke Omnibus; January 2026; n=600 rep US consumers}

In a prior article, we documented this shift: discovery is moving from lists of links to direct, synthesized answers. GenAI doesn’t just retrieve information—it interprets it and makes a recommendation.⁵

The Generative AI Journey Breaks at the Point of Purchase

Today’s pattern is clear: GenAI’s strength is not transactional—it’s educational—at the start of the shopper journey, where preferences and mental shortcuts begin to form.

When we look at where shoppers prefer GenAI versus traditional search today, a clear dividing line emerges. In short, GenAI wins the thinking early in the journey; search still wins the final transaction. This is a critical distinction. GenAI is shaping what shoppers consider, but traditional tools still control how purchases get executed. Which supports recommendations from experts who say the future of awareness and conversion is about AEO and SEO, not one or the other.

Trust Is the Gatekeeper to Conversion

The reason GenAI stops short of checkout is not usefulness—it’s trust.

Nearly half of GenAI shoppers express concerns about the accuracy or objectivity of information. Others worry about hidden sponsorships, biased recommendations, or missing better options elsewhere.⁶ These concerns keep shoppers from fully delegating purchase decisions to AI, and the development of advertising-based revenue streams by notable LLMs is likely to increase this skepticism.

Until adoption of more robust Agentic AI models and GenAI platforms offer clearer transparency around sourcing, bias, and real-time validation, shoppers will continue to “hand off” the journey to traditional search before committing to a purchase.

What This Means for Brands and Retailers

Taken together, the data points to a fundamental shift:

Influence of GenAI is focused earlier in the journey—shoppers continue to use traditional methods to complete the transaction.

Brands that focus exclusively on SEO, retail media, and last touch optimization risk missing out on opportunities to spur top-of-mind awareness at the moment when shoppers are forming preferences, narrowing options, and defining what “best choice” looks like.

Winning in this environment means:

• Creating content for education and sensemaking, not just conversion making
• Structuring product information in ways that make it easier for GenAI systems to interpret and summarize
• Establishing trust before checkout, especially as GenAI-enabled transactions expand and shoppers seek assurance they—not sponsors—are in control.

Given today’s dynamics, Generative AI isn’t killing search. It’s reassigning its role. And increasingly, the brands that shape the early conversation will be the ones shoppers choose when it’s time to buy.

But stay tuned, because things are changing fast.

Interested in reading more? Check out James’ other articles:

A Practical Playbook for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

How Big Brands Can Better Resonate with Gen Z

AI Agents for Shopping

As always, you can follow Burke, Inc. on our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram pages.

Sources:
1. Burke, Inc. Burke Omnibus Research Survey. June 2024 – January 2026. Dataset.
2. Sorensen, James. “Accelerating the Shopper Journey with GenAI.” BeyondMeasure, Burke, Inc., 2025, www.burke.com/beyondmeasure/bym-innovation/accelerating-the-shopper-journey-with-genai/
3. Burke, Inc. Burke Omnibus Research Survey. January 2026. Dataset.
4. Handley, Rachel. “We Studied the Impact of AI Search on SEO Traffic. Here’s What We Learned.” Semrush Blog, 21 July 2025, https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-search-seo-traffic-study/
5. Sorensen, James, Eric Scheer, and Kyle Swan. “Winning AI Search: When Key Words Aren’t Enough.” BeyondMeasure, Burke, Inc., 2025, https://www.burke.com/beyondmeasure/winning-ai-search-when-key-words-arent-enough/
6. Burke, Inc. Burke Omnibus Research Survey. January 2026. Dataset.

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