Holiday shoppers will let AI hunt for the deal, but they want to be the ones who buy it. That boundary, plus a stubborn deal-overload problem, shapes the pitch radio sellers can make to retail clients heading into Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to YouGov data.
YouGov surveyed 1,495 US adults between July 13 and August 11, and 36% said they are likely to shop for post-Thanksgiving deals. Intent skews younger, with 47% of Gen Z and Millennials planning to shop compared with 27% of Gen X and Baby Boomers and older. Women are slightly more likely than men to expect to shop, 38% to 34%.
Likely shoppers expect to spend an estimated $393 on average, and 39% plan to spend about what they did last year. Smaller shares expect to spend more (15%) or less (17%), while 28% are unsure. Men are more likely than women to plan a bigger spend, and 23% of women expect to spend less, compared with 11% of men.
Finding the best deal is the toughest part of the sales for 42% of likely shoppers, followed by deciding whether to buy now or wait at 41%. Another 35% struggle to tell whether discounts are genuine. Men are more likely than women to struggle with timing (50% vs. 33%) and with spotting genuine deals (42% vs. 29%), while women (32%) are twice as likely as men (16%) to worry about spending more than planned.
Planned AI use among likely shoppers has more than doubled, from 16% last year to 34%, though the question wording changed between the two surveys. Among likely shoppers, 30% have already used AI to shop, compared with 18% of all US adults, and another 27% would consider it. Four in 10 say they would not. ChatGPT and Google Gemini are the tools shoppers are most likely to use, at 29% each, followed by Microsoft Copilot at 14%.
Comfort drops sharply near the checkout. Shoppers are most at ease with AI finding the best price (43%), tracking price changes (37%), and comparing products or offers (34%). Only 9% would let it add items to a basket, 5% would let it complete a purchase after approval, and 4% would let it buy without asking.
Retailer websites and apps remain the most trusted route to a good deal, with 80% of likely shoppers confident in them. AI tools rank last at 48%. The split is wide within the group, with 83% of shoppers who have used AI confident in it, compared with 14% of those who reject it. Among AI shoppers, 56% worry about inaccurate or outdated information, 51% about biased or sponsored recommendations, and 48% want AI to explain its recommendations.
But shoppers are drawing a clear line around what they want AI to do. They are comfortable using it to find prices, track deals and compare products, but far fewer are ready to let it add items to a basket or complete a purchase. AI also remains the lowest-confidence way to find the best deal overall, behind familiar channels such as retailer websites.
