AI curates your online store results, ignoring most options

Consumers are increasingly turning to AI assistants for shopping recommendations, not just for spelling corrections or dinner ideas. But a new study reveals a striking reality: when users ask an AI what to buy, the vast majority of online retailers are completely invisible in the results. Conducted by AI commerce firm Recomaze, the research tested six different purchase-intent queries across a dataset of 9,720 ecommerce sites. The findings indicate that AI systems tend to surface only a tiny fraction of available options, effectively curating the shopping experience by ignoring most stores entirely.

The study highlights a growing concern for online retailers. As AI-powered tools become the default gateway for product discovery, businesses that fail to optimize for these algorithms risk being left out of the conversation. Recomaze found that the top AI recommendations consistently favored a small group of well-known brands and platforms, leaving thousands of other merchants unrepresented. This dynamic shifts the balance of power in ecommerce, where visibility is no longer just about search engine rankings but about how well a store’s data aligns with AI training models.

For shoppers, this means the results they see are heavily filtered, even if they don’t realize it. An AI assistant might present a handful of options as the best choices, but in reality, it is drawing from a narrow slice of the market. The implications for consumer choice are significant, as this curated approach could reinforce brand dominance while stifling competition from smaller or niche retailers. Recomaze’s analysis suggests that unless online stores actively adapt their product feeds and metadata for AI consumption, they will remain effectively invisible to the growing number of shoppers who rely on these tools for buying decisions.