Even though it may seem that the share of traffic generated by AI assistants is still low, the trend from recent months shows dynamic growth that is worth watching.
Based on a survey conducted by ui42 on a representative sample of 80 e-shops – from small local retailers to large e-shops with million-dollar turnovers – it is clear that AI assistants are beginning to play a more significant role as a source of visits, and thus in acquiring customers.
August 2025: July's increase hit August's decline
The extreme growth in the share of visits from AI assistants that we saw in July hit an overall and widespread stagnation in visits in the e-commerce segment in August. Most segments in e-commerce recorded a decline not only in visits but also in turnover in August. This decline did not spare AI assistants, which in August accounted for only 0.22%,
and the share of AI assistants in turnover was only 0.18%.
However, just a few days ago, the season of the year started, so we will see how AI traffic develops for September.
July 2025: 8-fold increase in e-shop traffic from AI assistants
While in January 2025, the average share of traffic from AI was only 0.03%, by July 2025, it was already 0.26%, which means an increase of more than eightfold. Interestingly, this trend varies according to the size of the e-shop. While large e-shops achieve AI traffic shares of about 0.01–0.05%, smaller and specialized stores record numbers approaching 1%.
A new competitive tool for smaller ones?
This phenomenon can not only be explained by content strategy, but it also opens new competitive doors precisely for smaller brands in the fight with the big ones: smaller specialized e-shops often offer more expert content, detailed product reviews, and an optimized customer experience (CX), which AI assistants can better evaluate and recommend to their users.
About the analysis:
- We compile the analysis every month based on data in GA4
- We involved 80 e-shops from various segments, of different sizes and seasonality in the survey
- We evaluate the source of traffic from chatGPT, as the most widely used AI assistant on the market
