AI-Driven Traffic to US Retail Sites Surged 393% Year-Over-Year

AI shoppers spend more and stay longer

Visits to US online retail websites originating from AI tools surged 393% year-over-year during Q1 2026, according to Adobe Analytics. Users arriving via chatbots and digital assistants are converting at higher rates, spending more money, and staying on sites longer than their human counterparts.

The surge continues momentum from the November-December 2025 holiday season, when AI-driven referrals spiked 693% over 12 months. A year ago, AI traffic conversion lagged behind paid search and email by 38%. The situation has now reversed: AI visitor conversion has hit record levels — 42% higher than standard visitors.

Revenue per user arriving through a chatbot came in 37% above average. By contrast, just a year ago human traffic was 128% more valuable. AI-referred users also spend 48% more time on sites, view 13% more pages per session, and exhibit 12% higher engagement.

Vivek Pandya of Adobe Digital Insights noted that AI is rapidly becoming the primary channel connecting shoppers with brands. An Adobe survey of 5,000 Americans found that 39% have already used AI for online shopping, with 85% of those saying it improved their experience. Trust in AI is growing too — 66% of respondents expressed confidence in the accuracy of AI-generated results. Adobe analysts attributed the sustained conversion growth, showing no signs of plateauing, to this rising trust.

Why this matters

The explosion in AI traffic is fundamentally reshaping e-commerce. Market participants now face a critical question: who is actually generating views and purchases — humans or algorithms? This issue has already reached the courts.

A federal lawsuit between Amazon and AI startup Perplexity centered on whether digital assistants can make purchases on third-party platforms without explicit permission. In March, a San Francisco judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking Perplexity's Comet browser from making purchases on Amazon's site. Amazon argued the tool disguised automated sessions as human traffic. Perplexity called the action "bullying," contending that agentic purchases would have brought Amazon additional transactions.

With the emergence of OpenClaw, AI agents gained even more ways to shop: through APIs, MCP servers, skills, integrations, or by directly controlling a user's browser. Analysts at a16z Crypto had previously predicted that digital assistants would bring about the decline of the internet advertising era.

Coinbase tests internal AI agents

Digital assistants are also making inroads into corporate environments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that the crypto exchange has started testing AI agents in Slack and email.

"Coinbase is testing AI agents that show up in slack/email at work, just like any human teammate. To start we're shipping two which are modeled after legendary former Coinbase employees, @FEhrsam and @balajis." — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong), original post

The first agent is named Fred, after exchange co-founder Fred Ehrsam. It will serve as a "strategic executive agent," helping employees navigate company priorities and providing leadership-level feedback. The second agent, Balaji, is inspired by former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. Its role is that of a "chaos and creativity agent" — challenging assumptions, encouraging unconventional thinking, and sparking innovation.

For now, both assistants are designed solely to support employees in their daily work. However, Armstrong indicated that soon any employee will be able to spin up a new agent for themselves or their team, and that the number of agents at Coinbase could eventually exceed the number of human staff.