Shoppers naming an AI assistant grew 5.4x in 10 months
What 3,303,402 shoppers said about how they found a brand, measured on completed orders across 3,237 stores, and compared with the source each store’s own analytics recorded for the same order.
- Responses
- 3,303,402
- Stores
- 3,237
- Orders with no tracked source
- 51.8%
- Of those, said “don’t know”
- 8.3%
AI-assisted discovery
The share of shoppers naming an AI assistant when asked how they found a brand rose from 0.23% in 2025-12 to 1.24% in 2026-09 — a 5.4x increase over 10 months. It remains a small channel. No other channel in this dataset moved at a comparable rate.
Earlier months exist but are not shown: 3 months fell below the 50-store minimum and are excluded rather than reported thinly.
How often analytics loses each channel
For every channel a customer named, the share of those purchases that reached the store’s analytics with no usable source recorded. This is a rate within each channel, not a share of all orders, so it does not depend on how common the channel is.
| Channel | Untracked | Responses | Rate | Stores |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online (unspecified) | 15,554 | 21,496 | 72.4% | 63 |
| TV | 10,860 | 16,467 | 66.0% | 78 |
| YouTube | 80,472 | 133,733 | 60.2% | 1,015 |
| Word of mouth | 287,798 | 490,512 | 58.7% | 2,420 |
| Marketplace | 4,681 | 8,084 | 57.9% | 143 |
| Press / editorial | 12,819 | 22,719 | 56.4% | 249 |
| TikTok | 62,011 | 110,149 | 56.3% | 1,148 |
| 9,841 | 17,926 | 54.9% | 145 | |
| Creator / influencer | 18,316 | 33,528 | 54.6% | 264 |
| Returning customer | 26,819 | 49,701 | 54.0% | 157 |
| 13,777 | 26,598 | 51.8% | 186 | |
| Podcast | 11,833 | 22,858 | 51.8% | 106 |
| 2,371 | 4,595 | 51.6% | 169 | |
| Advertising (unspecified) | 9,892 | 19,302 | 51.2% | 161 |
| 284,670 | 560,766 | 50.8% | 2,111 | |
| AI assistant | 7,847 | 15,600 | 50.3% | 333 |
| Event | 4,003 | 7,971 | 50.2% | 196 |
| Search | 202,994 | 405,008 | 50.1% | 2,271 |
| Community / organisation | 4,771 | 9,740 | 49.0% | 70 |
| Retail / in store | 11,975 | 24,641 | 48.6% | 211 |
| Other social | 38,633 | 80,564 | 48.0% | 168 |
| 195,670 | 488,516 | 40.1% | 1,706 |
Method
Every figure is drawn from responses to “how did you hear about us” questions on stores using Zigpoll, collected between 2025-09-18 and 2026-09-18. Only responses attached to a completed order are included, so that what a customer said can be compared with the source recorded for that same order.
Answers are grouped into channels by an open, rule-based mapping. Answers that cannot be confidently classified are reported separately rather than assigned to a category; 87.3% of responses were classified. No figure is published for any channel or month with fewer than 50 contributing stores.
Stores using Zigpoll are not a random sample of ecommerce. These figures describe that population, not the market as a whole. Shares are of all classified stated answers. Order values are recorded in their original presentment currency and are not exchange-rate adjusted, which is why no revenue figures are published here.
Citing this
These figures are free to reproduce with attribution (CC BY 4.0).
Zigpoll Attribution Index, September 2026. 3,303,402 post-purchase survey responses across 3,237 ecommerce stores. https://www.zigpoll.com/attribution-index
For the underlying tables, a breakdown by a channel not listed here, or questions about method, contact [email protected].
Behind the numbers
Each finding in this edition, unpacked.
