Artificial intelligence (AI) integration may be creating angst within many organizations, but they probably have no choice adopting the technology because consumers and enterprises certainly are.
The proof is in the numbers, and two new surveys provide compelling evidence. Almost everyone, it seems, is lapping up generative and agentic AI.
During the holiday shopping season, Adobe Inc. observed the first material surge in GenAI traffic to U.S. retail sites: Traffic from GenAI sources catapulted 1,950% on Cyber Monday last year vs. the same day a year earlier. Notably, the trend has persisted beyond the holiday season, soaring 1,200% in February 2025 from July 2024, according to Adobe’s survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers, released Monday.
While GenAI traffic remains modest compared to other channels such as paid search or email, growth has doubled every two months since September, Adobe researchers revealed.
“Online shoppers are seeing benefits in using an AI-powered chat interface, as it shortens the time it takes for them to receive information that is personalized to their needs. In Adobe’s survey, we found that of those who have used AI for shopping, 92% said it enhanced their experience, with 87% saying that they are more likely to use AI for larger or more complex purchases,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst of Adobe Digital Insights, said in a statement. “This is reshaping how businesses think about customer engagement, especially with the arrival of AI agents that will be able to handle more complex tasks and make highly tailored recommendations.”
In Adobe’s survey, 39% of American consumers said they used GenAI for online shopping last year and 53% intend to this year. Their top use include research (55% of respondents), receiving product recommendations (47%), seeking deals (43%), getting present ideas (35%), finding unique products (35%), and creating shopping lists (33%).
What is equally compelling, Adobe said, GenAI use leads to greater engagement than non-AI traffic sources such as paid search, affiliates and partners, email, organic search and social media. GenAI traffic revealed 8% higher engagement as individuals linger on sites longer. The visitors browse 12% more pages per visit, with a 23% lower bounce rate, the survey found.
Enterprises, meanwhile, are seeing significant gains in their use of agentic AI, Cisco Systems Inc. concluded in a poll of more than 1,000 Webex customers worldwide.
Nearly one-third (31%) noted a reduction in self-service operational costs through Webex AI Agent.
The use of AI Assistant for Webex Suite saved at least five hours of work each week on employees tasks like note taking, finding critical information and creating content.
Customers across eight industries in a dozen countries also said they were able to collaborate on device deployment three times faster with agentic AI than with other technology solutions.
