Rakuten Survey: 54.3% of Gen Z Use Artificial Intelligence While Shopping
A new study conducted by Rakuten revealed that Gen Z is increasingly using generative artificial intelligence tools in the process of purchasing products and services. According to the survey, 54.3% of young consumers use generative artificial intelligence before shopping or during the purchasing process. The findings provide up-to-date data on the use of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and retail shopping experiences.
Gen Z’s AI Usage Rate Stands Out in Rakuten Survey
The survey, which included 637 “Rakuten Gakuwari” users aged 15-25 across Japan, was conducted between July 1 and August 3, 2026. A total of 38% of participants reported using generative artificial intelligence almost every day. In terms of usage purposes, education and learning ranked first at 62.6%, followed by searching for information about hobbies at 47% and getting recommendations at 30.9%.
Among those who use artificial intelligence in e-commerce shopping, 3.6% stated that they always use the technology, 13.2% use it frequently, and 37.5% use it occasionally. A total of 44.4% of users use AI tools to narrow down the products they want to compare, 27.8% use them to find the product or service they want to purchase, and 11.3% use them while conducting research directly on an e-commerce website.
Search Engines Rank First in Terms of Trust
Despite the increasing use of artificial intelligence, search engines remained the most trusted source of information in the shopping process, at 42.1%. Rakuten’s research showed that consumers use AI tools particularly to filter product options and make the comparison process easier.
In the survey, the proportion of respondents who had a positive attitude toward companies using AI in their services was measured at 31.7%. The proportion of respondents who described these companies as “forward-thinking” was 43.6%, while 26.7% considered them “open to innovation” and 17.4% viewed them as suitable for their generation. Meanwhile, the proportion of respondents who had a positive attitude toward Rakuten improving its services through the use of generative artificial intelligence reached 40.8%.
AI-Powered Product Discovery in E-Commerce
Since December 2025, Rakuten has been offering an agentic AI-based shopping assistant within the Rakuten Ichiba shopping app. Users can receive recommendations from approximately 500 million products by providing information such as budget, purchase purpose, and usage scenario through text, voice, or images. In addition to product information and price comparisons, the system can also make use of up-to-date data from the web.
A total of 30.6% of survey participants reported using generative artificial intelligence to gather product information before using the company’s e-commerce services. Rakuten AI is among the tools developed to provide product discovery and personalized shopping experiences by engaging in dialogue with users throughout this process.