Younger shoppers are ready to let AI take over the gift list.
Four in 10 Gen Z and millennial consumers report that AI knows them so well that they trust it to pick gifts for their loved ones more than they trust themselves, compared to just over a quarter of all shoppers. And the holiday card? Also written by AI for roughly four in 10 younger shoppers.
That’s just one sign of how AI is reshaping the holiday experience, according to Mastercard’s second annual Shopper Snapshot, conducted with The Harris Poll. Across the survey, the same story keeps surfacing: AI may be influencing how people shop, but it’s not changing what they care about. Value, community and shared experiences are still shaping the season, but technology is making it a little easier to pull it all together.
The poll surveyed 9,034 adults 18 and older globally. Results are nationally representative of the general population.
Across ages, 29% of consumers say AI has increased their ability to stay within budget, and 28% agree that it helps them make more confident decisions.
Even so, shoppers aren’t handing over the keys without setting a few ground rules first. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) would want to approve a transaction before an AI agent uses their loyalty points or card rewards, and 65% want an agent to weigh price against quality, trust and their preferences instead of just chasing the lowest price. Shoppers can also be skeptical of the output – 58% believe that links shared by AI chatbots are likely to be phony, while 42% believe AI would only send them verified information.
That isn’t stopping younger shoppers from leaning in. For those consumers, AI is less a novelty than a way to get some time and sanity back: 53% of Gen Z and 59% of millennials say it will lighten the load this year. In fact, 40% of Gen Z and 43% of millennials would let it handle all their gift buying if it meant avoiding the stress.
