Advertisers··10 min read
AI Shopping Before Black Friday 2026: 88% of Prompts on Shopping and Other Vertical Assistants Carry Buying Intent, Aria Ads Analysis Finds
As US shoppers head into Black Friday on November 27, 2026, Aria Ads‘ research team explores how AI is changing shopping behaviors this holiday season. Aria Ads' analysis of 4 million prompts across 67 languages found that 88% of prompts sent to vertical AI assistants, such as shopping assistants, fitness coaches and travel planners, carried commercial intent, compared with 6 to 7% of prompts sent to general assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini. The gap points to specialist AI apps as the place where much of the buying research done with AI takes place, at a time when Google reports that its AI search answers earn less than traditional search and is adding more ads to them.
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