According to a December 2025 report by PYMNTS Intelligence, “How AI Becomes the Place Consumers Start Everything” [email wall], AI is becoming a starting point for everyday activity online by consumers . The report’s authors surveyed 2,100 US adults and found that the structure of digital discovery, which begins at a search engine portal, has changed. This is due to the AI-forward nature of common search engines and the presence of dedicated AI vendors monetising via on-platform purchases.
The report describes a transition from a linear sequence of search, browse, compare, and purchase to repeated prompts that undertake the same tasks. The difference comes from the nature of the algorithm being queried, and the increased trend of AI platforms allowing users to make purchases on the chat platform – without visiting the vendor online. More than six in ten consumers used dedicated AI platforms in 2025, with some cohorts reducing their use of traditional search.
The report segments users according to their patterns of AI use: holdouts, light users, mainstream users, and power users. Holdouts tend to be older, and cite concerns about personal data, while at the other extreme, power users commonly perform at least 25 tasks, including higher-risk activities such as making personal financial decisions.
Evidence in the report suggests power users are most common among the young, with Gen Z showing the lowest resistance to adopting both search and platform AI. Only 14% of ‘light users’ report being comfortable using AI for banking tasks.
Dedicated AI platforms are, therefore, becoming “first stops” for Gen Z and power users, and a third of these two groups are confident enough to use AI tools to tackle personal tasks.
The report distinguishes between AI encountered inside search engines and AI platforms. Users of dedicated platforms rely 27% less on search engines than those who use AI-generated summaries on search engines. Among those who use dedicated AI platforms, 43% report replacing their older, search engine-based methods of brand and product discovery. By contrast, 59% of users who rely on AI summaries in search say those tools are complementary to rather than a replacement for traditional search.
Embedded AI in search appears, therefore, to extend existing habits, while use of dedicated AI environments appears to change users’ behaviour; thus, the online environment is the most important variable to consider by marketers.
The report identifies users expressing privacy concerns, citing AIs’ difficulty understanding user intent, and inaccuracies in AI responses as barriers to the technology’s popularity. These factors are especially relevant in the uptake of AI in higher-stakes domains such as personal finance and online payments. Light users of AI are most likely to only use the technology for writing and shopping discovery.
Consumers show a preference for using digital wallets when interacting with an AI to make payments. A preference for wallets may reflect a need to preserve control over personal payment data and rely on trusted authentication methods. The report concludes that it may be the digital wallet that becomes the mainstream trust layer in AI-mediated commerce.
The report’s authors describe AI, therefore, as a distribution layer, so firms depending on discovery through traditional search algorithms or brand apps may need to duplicate their product messaging on AI systems if they are to become the de facto provider of recommendations.
Power users, already engaged in cross-domain AI use, may be engaged with for higher-risk applications more easily. Mainstream users are looking for reliability and safety and are therefore less likely to integrate AI into their purchase processes.
The report concludes that some consumers are moving towards an AI-first navigation of daily life, but it recognises that trust and accuracy issues are limiting wider adoption. The evidence points to the early displacement of search and app-based discovery only being notable among specific cohorts and in particular use-cases.
For marketing decision makers, the relocation of purchase and discovery is active in some segments, and it seems likely that traditional and AI systems will operate in parallel for some time.
The report does not resolve how quickly any transition may take place. It does indicate that the change is underway and implies that traditional discovery strategies may, in time, face structural change, while those that adapt to AI-mediated environments may gain an advantage depending on the nature of the product or brand.
(Image source: “In to the Dark…in search of Light” by VinothChandar is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)
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