American shoppers turned to artificial intelligence (AI) in unprecedented numbers this Black Friday , helping push online spending to a record $11.8 billion as many consumers chose to avoid crowded stores and shop from home.

On the year’s busiest shopping day, US online spending surged 9.1% from last year, and Americans increasingly relied on AI-powered chatbots to compare prices and track deals, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.

This year saw an 805% spike in AI-driven traffic to US retail websites compared with 2024, when tools like Walmart’s “Sparky” or Amazon’s “Rufus” were not yet available.

“Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” Suzy Davidkhanian, an eMarketer analyst, told Reuters. “Gift giving can be stressful, and [large language models

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