A record-setting Black Friday was fueled by a sharp rise in consumers using agentic AI, which steered shoppers toward both sale items and higher-end products.
According to Adobe Analytics, which tracks more than one trillion visits to U.S. retail websites, consumers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, up from $10.8 billion in 2024. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., online shoppers were reportedly spending $12.5 million every minute.
Adobe also noted that AI-driven visits to shopping sites rose more than 800% from last year. Consumers weren’t just using AI tools to find deals and compare products—shoppers who arrived on a site via an AI assistant were 38% more likely to complete a purchase.
Separate data from Salesforce estimated that AI assistants and digital agents contributed $14.2 billion of the $79 billion spent online worldwide on Black Friday. Of that, about $3 billion was spent in the U.S.
Altogether, these numbers reflect the accelerating shift toward online holiday shopping. According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, U.S. retail sales on Black Friday rose 10.4% for online purchases but just 1.7% for in-store sales.
Focus on Specific Stores
One of the most significant ways consumers are using new AI shopping tools is to uncover the biggest discounts. AI tools from Walmart and Amazon focus on making it easier for shoppers to seek out sales items with minimal effort. According to Christopher Miller, Lead Analyst of Emerging Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research, agentic AI may ultimately have the biggest impact on retailers that integrate these tools directly into their purchasing experience.
“The delivery of these artificial intelligence tools could come from a few stores, like Amazon and Walmart and Target,” Miller said. “It is unlikely that some single tool will actually know everything about you, will be able to handle all of the types of choices that you would have, and would actually be good at it.”
More Discounts, More Luxury Items
Whether shoppers relied on AI to guide their holiday buying or simply used traditional methods, it’s clear they were hunting for deals—and in many cases, willing to splurge. According to Adobe, several categories saw unusually steep Black Friday markdowns. Toy discounts peaked at 30% off list price, with electronics and apparel seeing similar reductions.
Adobe also reported that consumers are spending more on high-end items this season. AI isn’t just helping people find the best price—it’s helping them determine the best value. The share of units sold surged in premium categories, with electronics and sporting goods both rising more than 50%.
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