Salesforce: agentic search as the first step of shopping grew 200% as AI chats reshape purchase journeys

#What happened

Salesforce released the Fourth Edition of its State of Commerce report on 30 September 2026. Use of agentic search — a question to an AI in an LLM conversation or an AI assistant on a retailer's site — as the first step of the purchase journey grew 200% year over year. Traffic referred from AI chats to commerce sites grew between 150% and 428% year over year in every quarter measured, while overall traffic grew only in the single to low double digits. The report draws from surveys of 3,450 commerce professionals, a consumer survey of 4,690 shoppers, and behavioral data from more than 1.5 billion global shoppers.

#The shift away from brand-owned search

Between August 2025 and May 2026, the rate of shoppers discovering products through brand-owned properties fell 7%, and traditional search fell 15%, while the rate choosing new channels — AI assistants, social media AI, and delivery apps — grew 38%. Singapore commerce leaders are already responding: 82% agree LLMs will be essential to product discovery within the next year, and the most common actions are improving product content quality (42%) and optimizing for conversational queries (40%).

#Why it matters

The data shows discovery is moving off brand-owned properties into AI chats — the exact lane AI agents from Meta, OpenAI and Google are racing to own. Fewer than a third (28%) of organizations say they currently use agentic AI, but 52% plan to adopt within six months; 86% of commerce leaders say AI is raising customer expectations, and 41% say meeting them is harder than ever.

#Sources

• Salesforce press release: https://www.salesforce.com/ap/news/press-releases/2026/09/30/shoppings-new-first-step-agentic-search-grows-200-as-purchase-journeys-start-in-ai-chats/ (primary + methodology confirmation)