At Shoptalk 2026, Envision Horizons CEO Laura Meyer sat down with Kait Stephens, Co-Founder of Brij, to unpack one of the most pressing questions in ecommerce right now: how is AI changing the way consumers shop, and what do brands need to do about it?
Drawing on findings from Envision Horizons’ own AI consumer survey, Laura and Kait covered the rise of the AI consumer journey, the emergence of AEO/GEO (answer engine optimization / generative engine optimization) as the new search frontier, and why having a strong first-party data strategy has gone from a nice-to-have to one of the most important assets a brand can own in an AI-driven world.
Prefer to watch? Catch the full conversation below.
From Search Terms to Answers: How AI Took Over the Purchase Journey
The consumer journey used to follow a relatively predictable path. Awareness, consideration, purchase. Maybe a Google search or two in the middle. That path no longer exists in any reliable form.
According to the Envision Horizons AI Consumer Survey (2026), 63% of consumers are already using AI in their shopping process, with many of them using it multiple times a week. And AI is not just helping them discover products. It is actively influencing whether they buy at all.
Nearly 51% of shoppers abandoned a purchase after AI flagged a concern about a brand (Envision Horizons AI Consumer Survey, 2026), whether that was due to questionable claims, thin content, or simply a lack of credible information available.
A big part of what AI is drawing on to form those judgments is reviews. According to Kait, reviews have always been a driver of search on Amazon, but the dynamic has shifted. Consumers are no longer just searching for terms. They are looking for answers. And reviews, along with Reddit threads and other conversational content from real customers, are exactly where LLMs go to find them. Brands that are not actively managing that content layer are more exposed than they realize.
AI Is Not Just Influencing Purchases. It Is Redirecting Them
Nearly 80% of shoppers switched brands as part of their AI-assisted shopping journey (Envision Horizons AI Consumer Survey, 2026). And they are not switching passively. Consumers are actively asking AI who else they should buy from when a brand does not clear the bar, and AI is answering with a specific competitor recommendation.
This creates a conquesting opportunity that most brands have not yet moved on to. Every era of commerce has had its arbitrage. Poppi built a category-defining brand not because sparkling water is differentiated, but because Allison Ellsworth was exceptional on camera, and they ran the influencer playbook before everyone else caught on. The same window exists right now in AEO/GEO. The brands that optimize for AI search today, before it gets crowded, will be the default recommendations when their competitors are still figuring out where to start.
There may even come a point where a strong AI program does more for brand growth than a multimillion-dollar awareness campaign.
The AI-to-Amazon Funnel Is Already Here
Of shoppers using AI in their discovery process, 51% are completing their purchase on Amazon, while less than 8% are transacting on a brand’s DTC website (Envision Horizons AI Consumer Survey, 2026). The AI-to-Amazon funnel is real, and it tells brands something important about how these two channels now work together. AI is doing the personalized, high-consideration research work that the Amazon SERP was never designed for. Shoppers use AI to figure out what they actually want, then complete the purchase on Amazon because of the speed, trust, and logistics it delivers.
Amazon has become the winner in consumer experience. AI is how you discover the brand, and Amazon is how you transact. You get the right product recommendation from AI, and you get it to your door in one or two days from Amazon.
For brands, this means the question is no longer Amazon versus AI. It is how to show up well in both, because losing in one is starting to mean losing in the other.
First-Party Data Is How Brands Stay Close to Their Customer
The consumer journey is fragmented across more channels than ever – online, in-store, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and now LLMs. But the consumer does not care about any of that. They buy wherever it is most convenient.
The burden of keeping up with that fragmentation falls entirely on the brand. That is exactly what Brij is built to solve. Brij helps omnichannel brands acquire, analyze, and activate first-party data across every channel they sell and meet their customers wherever they choose to shop. And as LLMs create yet another layer of distance between brands and their customers, owning that direct data relationship has never mattered more.
AEO/GEO Is the New Search Playbook
From a search perspective, AEO/GEO (answer engine optimization / generative engine optimization) is where brands need to be focused right now. The terminology has not fully settled, but the underlying principle is the same. Brands need to be structuring their assets, their data, and their content in a way that is optimized for AI-generated answers, not just traditional search rankings. The tools to support this are emerging, and the brands that move on it early will have the same advantage that early SEO adopters had a decade ago.
The IRL Shift Is Real, and First-Party Data Bridges It
Even as AI accelerates digital commerce, consumers are pulling back from screens. Brands are responding with IRL pop-ups and in-store experiences as a way to cut through digital fatigue. But this is not a retreat from the AI story – it is a reminder of how fragmented the consumer journey has become.
A customer might discover a product through an LLM, walk into a store to experience it, and complete the purchase on Amazon. Without first-party data that travels across those touchpoints, brands are left with an incomplete picture of how their customers are actually shopping.
AI Visibility Is the Next Frontier, and the Data Foundation Comes First
LLM visibility is still unpredictable. One week, a brand might see a dozen leads come through ChatGPT, and the next week, zero. Unlike the Amazon or TikTok algorithm, which brands can study and develop a playbook around over time, LLMs are changing every single day. That volatility is not an argument for waiting. It is an argument for building the right infrastructure now so that when the patterns stabilize, brands are already positioned to benefit.
That starts with the data foundation. Understanding what queries consumers are entering into LLMs, feeding that natural language back into listings and copy, and ensuring that accurate, high-integrity product information is being surfaced by AI systems – these are the building blocks of an AI visibility strategy. Content is what feeds these engines, and the brands that treat it as infrastructure rather than an afterthought will be the ones AI consistently recommends.
Envision Horizons is building an AEO visibility tracker directly into myHorizons, the agency’s proprietary analytics suite, to give brands real-time insight into what is happening in the LLM ecosystem and connect those signals directly back to Amazon performance.
Brij helps omnichannel brands acquire, analyze, and activate first-party data across every channel they sell, giving brands the direct customer relationships they need to compete in an AI-driven world. To learn more, visit brij.it.
Envision Horizons helps brands navigate AI-driven commerce, from content strategy and marketplace visibility to full-funnel growth. To learn more, get in touch with Envision Horizons.
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