The IT Nerd

New data from a Salesforce November 2026 Holiday Insights Survey of 500 Canadian shoppers reveals shoppers are turning to agents to help them shop, but are not yet ready to let AI spend their money.

Retailers are seeing higher conversion rates and customer loyalty with AI – but are under pressure to get their own agents right.

AI is becoming a bigger part of how the holidays get shopped

AI has become a real starting point for holiday shopping. More shoppers begin their search there, and many treat its recommendations as advice worth acting on.

• AI is projected to drive $75.8 billion in Cyber Week spend globally, up 13% since 2025.

• AI-driven traffic to ecommerce sites is up 12% year over year globally, and AI-driven recommendations are projected to influence over 1 in 5 holiday orders.
  • Gemini has moved into the top AI search spot with 50% of AI search visits, overtaking ChatGPT at 43%. A year ago, Gemini had just 8% of AI search visits and ChatGPT had 81%.

• 16% of Canadian shoppers turn to AI as the first stop in their shopping journey.

• 75% of Canadian shoppers trust the recommendations they receive from AI.

• AI’s advice carries weight: 18% of Canadian AI shoppers say these tools frequently introduce them to new brands. And almost 1 in 10 (9%) of shoppers say they wouldn’t buy something if an AI assistant told them not to.

Personal agents are catching on, but shoppers aren’t handing over their wallets yet

Shoppers are quickly adopting personal AI agents to compare products and check reviews – but for now, these agents are treated as researchers rather than buyers.

• 28% of Canadian consumers have tried a personal AI agent.
  • Meta Muse is the most widely adopted personal agent, used by 12% of consumers today. It’s also the most recognized, followed by Grok Bot.

• 22% of Canadian personal agent users assign their agent tasks multiple times a day.

• Shoppers turn to personal agents for 1) price comparison, followed by 2) analyzing product specifications and reviews.

• 5% of Canadian consumers have already let a personal AI agent make a purchase for them.

• Just 9% of Canadian personal agent users give their agents unrestricted access to their financial details. 34% of personal AI agent users have set up a separate credit card just for their agent to use.

• 53% of Canadian shoppers are not interested in having a personal AI agent make purchases for them. Top obstacles holding consumers back from using AI agents are:
  • Unwanted sharing of purchase history or personal data
  • Accidental or unwanted charges

Agents pay off for retailers, but shoppers won’t forgive many mistakes

Retailers that offer their own shopper agents are seeing bigger orders and stronger loyalty – but shoppers have little patience for AI that gets things wrong.

• 33% of Canadian shoppers have used a brand shopper agent on an ecommerce site. 83% reported a good experience, and 63% of that group felt more loyal to the brand afterward.

• Most Canadian shoppers will abandon an AI assistant after just 2-3 mistakes. When AI makes a bad recommendation, 32% of shoppers blame the AI agent.

• Among Canadian personal AI agent users, 22% say their agent has bought an item that was too expensive. 20% have had their agent blocked from making a purchase, and only 36% report no major errors at all when shopping with an agent.

What the Canadian data tells us about holiday shopping with AI

• Canadians are the least keen on agents shopping for them. 53% are not interested in an agent browsing or buying on their behalf, the highest of the four larger markets (US 49%, UK 50%, Australia 42%). 5% have already let an agent make a purchase (US 12%), and 13% of Canadian agent users let their agent check out (US 21%, Australia 22%).

• Canada looks more like the US than its peers on agent awareness. 47% of Canadians know Meta Muse, close to the US (51%) and well ahead of Australia (28%) and the UK (23%) where the service is not available yet. 12% use it, the same share as in the US.

• AI rarely surprises Canadians with a new brand. Only 18% of Canadian AI shoppers say general AI assistants frequently introduce them to new brands, the lowest of the seven countries surveyed (Australia 42%, US 31%, UK 25%). 58% say it happens occasionally.

• Social shopping is still in its infancy in Canada. 21% bought through social media in the past three months, against 35% in the US, UK and Australia, and 9% expect to shop on social platforms this holiday season (US 22%). 75% expect to shop in physical stores, the highest of the four larger markets (US 68%, UK 68%, Australia 70%).

Source: Salesforce November 2026 Holiday Insights Survey, Canada (n=500). Questions about AI assistants and personal agents were asked of subsets of respondents. Comparisons with the US, UK and Australia are from the same survey.

This entry was posted on November 12, 2026 at 10:23 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Salesforce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.