A.I. is changing which brands consumers buy

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how consumers discover and choose products, with a new study finding that brands frequently mentioned by AI platforms are not necessarily those ultimately recommended to shoppers.

The study, titled AI Shelf: The New Shelf for Brands, was conducted by TrendValue and presented by the Mexican Internet Association ahead of El Buen Fin 2026, Mexico’s annual shopping event.

Researchers examined five consumer categories: televisions, skin care, sneakers, laptops and travel, across eight AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek and Grok.

The findings suggest that AI recommendations depend heavily on consumer priorities, such as price, quality and functionality, as well as information published by retailers, specialized media and other third-party sources.

According to the Adyen Retail Report 2026, cited in the study, 42 percent of Mexican consumers already use AI assistants during their shopping journey. Among these users, 69 percent said the tools save time, while 65 percent said they reduce information overload.

TrendValue CEO Zeus Portillo said the study distinguishes between brand visibility and actual recommendations.

A brand may appear frequently in AI-generated answers but still lose the final recommendation to a competitor, he explained.

Key findings

In the television category, Samsung appeared in 68 percent of responses prioritizing quality, but LG secured 35 percent of final recommendations, compared with Samsung’s 19 percent.

For skin care, CeraVe led price-focused recommendations with 43.8 percent, while La Roche-Posay dominated quality-focused responses at 71.9 percent.

In the sneaker category, AI platforms mentioned an average of 5.5 brands when asked about footwear for university students. That number dropped to 2.5 when price became the deciding factor.

The laptop category revealed the influence of third-party information. Of 1,872 citations from 490 domains, only 7.1 percent came from manufacturers’ official websites, while 85.3 percent originated from external sources, including retailers, technology publications and online communities.

Travel recommendations also shifted significantly when prompts mentioned El Buen Fin. Of 102 hotels recommended in a second round of queries, 64 had not appeared in the initial results.

Implications for businesses

The findings highlight the growing importance of how AI platforms interpret product information and evaluate competing brands.

Iván Marchant, strategic adviser and partner at TrendValue, said companies should measure not only how often their brands appear in AI responses but also when, where and why they receive recommendations.

Meanwhile, David Pizaña, vice president for e-commerce at the Mexican Internet Association, urged businesses to maintain accurate product descriptions, prices, inventory information and promotional details.

The report suggests that as AI becomes more influential in shopping decisions, companies may need to look beyond traditional advertising and their own websites to strengthen their visibility across the information sources used by AI systems.