By: Reportable
March 27, 2026
Tidio Research Finds AI Influences Half of Purchase Decisions but Receives Credit for Less Than 1% of Web Traffic
Chicago, IL March 27, 2026
According to McKinsey, half of consumers now rely on AI as their primary or preferred source for product research. Contentsquare's analysis of actual retail web traffic puts AI-referred sessions at 0.2% of total visits. Both figures are accurate - and the gap between them is the subject of a new research report published today by Tidio.
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Key Takeaways:- Despite McKinsey reporting that half of consumers rely on AI for product research while Contentsquare records only 0.2% AI-referred traffic, Tidio's report finds AI shapes purchase decisions at a scale current attribution cannot capture, creating a 'dark AI' gap.
- Similarweb shows ChatGPT-referred U.S. retail sessions convert at 11.4%, the highest of any measured channel, implying tagged AI referrals reflect high-intent traffic from a much larger pool of AI-influenced journeys.
- McKinsey projects $750 billion in U.S. revenue will flow through AI-powered search by 2028 with brands that fail to prepare risking 20–50% of traditional search traffic, while Morgan Stanley estimates AI agents will influence $190–$385 billion in U.S. e-commerce spending by 2030.
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About Tidio
Tidio is an AI-powered customer service platform that unifies live chat, chatbots, and AI agents in one help desk. Its AI agent, Lyro, resolves customer inquiries automatically and escalates complex cases to human operators. The platform is designed for fast-growing e-commerce businesses that treat customer service as a revenue function. See https://www.tidio.com for more information.
About LyroLyro is Tidio's AI agent for customer service, tailored to e-commerce, SaaS, and service businesses. Lyro resolves an average of 67% of incoming tickets by taking action rather than repeating FAQs, maintains an AI CSAT score approaching 90%, and doubles as an AI shopping assistant capable of increasing average order value through product recommendations and lead collection. See https://www.getlyro.ai for more information.
Bart Turczynski
b.turczynski@tidio.net
Source: Newsworthy.ai
Distributed by: Reportable, Inc.
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