Traditional search engines aren’t the destinations they used to be for younger shoppers — and their emerging habits show why Google, Amazon, ChatGPT and Perplexity all have agentic commerce plans in place for an era when artificial intelligence (AI) plays key roles in search and discovery.
In fact, all of these tech companies want to be part of the process all the way from the research phase to checkout.
Already, members of Gen Z — those born from 1997-2006 — have drifted away from search to social media platforms. That’s where 46% chose to begin searches instead of through Google, according to a 2024 survey by Forbes. Meanwhile, 47% of Gen Z is using generative AI on a weekly basis, an April 2025 Gallup report released by the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures showed.
These shifts have implications for the future of ecommerce, along with online retailers and their platforms.
What is AI’s role in the future of search?
Earlier this week at its I/O developer conference, Google shared its own vision for AI shopping alongside AI Mode, a chatbot-style tool that will bring the company’s own search experience closer to that of OpenAI‘s ChatGPT and the AI-powered search engine Perplexity. Notably, Google did not just show off how additional context, such as price, use cases and other factors would inform search results. It also presented an agentic checkout solution designed to act as a shopper’s autonomous assistant with the power to execute purchases based on permissions granted to it by its users.
A few days earlier, Perplexity’s agentic commerce ambitions expanded with the announcement that it would integrate PayPal’s commerce solutions for Perplexity Pro users. The news followed another Perplexity announcement, adding Firmly.ai’s native checkout technology. In doing so, the search engine paved a direct path to purchasing within its results.
ChatGPT monthly website visits
Elsewhere, OpenAI has forged earlier relationships with eBay and Etsy to use Operator, which is the ChatGPT owner’s own agentic AI solution.
Not to be left out, Amazon has also shown its agentic commerce ambitions, baking agentic AI technology into its Buy for Me shopping tool.
In each case, tech companies see online shopping evolving around new behaviors and expectations.
How will AI-powered search experiences be different from traditional queries?
For starters, users of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini are accustomed to engaging through conversational interfaces, filled with more nuance than the short words and phrases that have long defined keyword-driven search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for ecommerce companies and other website owners.
PayPal flagged this distinction in its May 14 announcement.
“We’re making it easy and secure to shop right in the chat when inspiration strikes,” said Alex Chriss, president and CEO of PayPal, when the payments platform detailed its Perplexity partnership. ”It’s a powerful step in making conversational commerce a reality.”
Of course, AI-powered search is not new as a concept. Companies have been using generative AI for years to craft more personalized search results. Wayfair, for instance, rolled out its new Muse tool in February. Google Cloud customers such as Victoria’s Secret and Levi Strauss & Co. also have access to genAI for improved results on their sites and apps.
Recently, the price-comparison startup Phia, ReFiBuy and others have also entered the fray, hoping to become intermediaries in discovery processes that are shortened and improved with AI.
Despite its historical search dominance — an advantage it still enjoys — Google now has to defend its relevance. Even within its legacy cohort of search engines, the Alphabet-owned company’s share was down to 89.7% in April 2025, according to Statcounter data. That share once reached as high as 93.4% in February 2023.
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