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.
October 2025: Stabilization of Traffic and Revenue Growth in the Season
Entering the full pre-Christmas season (October/November), traffic from AI assistants stabilized at a high level, as indicated by the growth in September. Interestingly, its conversion value also significantly increased, indicating that users coming through AI are more relevant in the main season.
Average traffic from AI assistants in October 2025 reached 0.40%. However, even more important is the average share of revenue from AI assistants, which increased to 0.13%, representing a slight increase compared to September and indicating better conversion of AI traffic in the key period of the year.
September 2025: Return to Growth Thanks to the Season
After the decline in August, when the overall stagnation in the e-commerce segment also dragged down traffic from AI assistants, September brought the expected revival. The start of the season was reflected in the growth of traffic and revenue from AI tools.
Average traffic from AI assistants in September 2025 reached 0.40%, which is a significant increase compared to August's 0.22%. Although the average share of revenue from AI assistants was 0.09%, which is slightly less than 0.18% in August, the higher share of traffic indicates that AI assistants are once again becoming a more relevant channel for bringing potential customers to e-shops. We will see how this trend manifests in conversions in the coming months of the main e-commerce season.
August 2025: July's Growth Hit by August's Decline
The extreme growth in the share of traffic from AI assistants that we saw in July hit a general and widespread stagnation in traffic in the e-commerce segment in August. Most segments in e-commerce in August recorded a decline not only in traffic but also in revenue. This decline did not spare AI assistants, which in August accounted for only 0.22%,
and the share of AI assistants in revenue was only 0.18%.
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 around 0.01–0.05%, smaller and specialized stores record numbers approaching 1%.
A New Competitive Tool for Smaller Players?
This phenomenon can not only be explained by content strategy but 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
