AI Didn’t “Show Up” This Holiday — It Started the Shopping Journey
PLUS: Customers are now letting AI do the “first pass” before they ever meet your brand.
📅 January 8, 2026 | ⏱️ 4-min read
Good Morning!
The Executive Hook:
We used to talk about “digital-first” service like it was a strategy. Now it’s just… gravity. Customers don’t “try” AI anymore — they bump into it everywhere, and they’ll happily use it when it saves time. But here’s the catch: the moment AI becomes the default, customers stop grading it on novelty and start grading it on trust.
🔍 THE DEEP DIVE: AI chatbots didn’t just help holiday shopping — they became how people started shopping
The Big Picture: Adobe’s latest numbers suggest AI-driven traffic played a real role in pushing U.S. online holiday spending to a record $257.8B (up 6.8% from last year).
What’s happening:
People are shopping “through” AI now. Adobe found traffic from generative AI chatbots to retailer sites jumped 693.4% from last holiday season. That’s not a feature. That’s a behavior shift.
Retailers saw it coming. FedEx reported 97% of U.S. retailers planned to use AI this season — including for customer service and pricing decisions.
Walmart’s basically saying the quiet part out loud. Forbes points to Walmart teaming with ChatGPT so shoppers can buy directly from the AI tool. The shopping journey isn’t just on your site anymore.
Customers are already forming habits. A poll Forbes cites says 52% already use AI tools to shop, and 49% start their shopping with AI-enhanced research.
And it’s not just chatbots. Salesforce says $229B in global online holiday sales were “influenced by AI and agents” through things like recommendations, targeted offers, and conversational support.
Why it matters:
Here’s the CX rub: when customers begin with AI, your brand gets “translated” before you ever get a chance to speak for yourself. Your return policy, delivery promise, product details — all of that gets summarized and served back in plain language. If your info is messy, inconsistent, or written like legal wallpaper, AI will unintentionally turn that into confusion… at scale.
The takeaway:
Treat AI like a new front door to your business. Make your policies simpler, your product info cleaner, and your “talk to a human” option easy to find — because when the AI is wrong (or just too confident), your trust takes the hit.
Source: Forbes
📊 CX BY THE NUMBERS: Retailers are moving from “pilot” to “production”
Data Source: NVIDIA State of AI in Retail & CPG survey
91% say their company is actively using or assessing AI. (Translation: “we’re past debating it.”)
90% plan to increase AI budgets in 2026. (AI is becoming a line item, not a side project.)
47% are using or assessing agentic AI. (AI that can take actions, not just answer questions.)
The Insight:
CX leaders should read this as a warning and an invitation: the “AI experience” is getting funded whether service teams lead it or not. If you don’t define how AI behaves with customers — tone, guardrails, escalation, and accountability — someone else will, and you’ll inherit the mess.
Source: NVIDIA Blog
🧰 THE AI TOOLBOX: ChatGPT Health
The Tool: OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health, a dedicated space inside ChatGPT for health and wellness conversations.
What it does:
ChatGPT Health is basically a sealed-off health workspace inside ChatGPT — built for the kind of conversations people have when the stakes are personal. It lets you:
Pull your health info into one place by connecting medical records (lab results, visit summaries, clinical history) and wellness apps.
Connect everyday tracking tools like Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, Function, and Weight Watchers (plus others) so answers can reference what’s actually happening in your life — not generic advice.
Upload files and photos, then ask for plain-English explanations (like “summarize my latest bloodwork” or “what questions should I ask at my appointment?”).
Spot patterns over time, like trends in cholesterol or sleep, so you can walk into a doctor visit more prepared.
Use regular ChatGPT features (search, deep research, voice/dictation) but with your health context available when it matters.
Set health-only instructions (what to focus on, what to avoid, how to frame answers) that apply only inside the Health space.
And behind the scenes, it’s designed to keep health separate: Health lives in its own area with separate memories, extra encryption/isolation, and OpenAI says Health conversations aren’t used to train their foundation models.
I’m intrigued — a dedicated space that can make medical info easier to understand could genuinely help people. But I’m also cautious. Once you connect records, you’re sharing your most personal data. OpenAI says Health is isolated with extra protections and that Health chats aren’t used to train their foundation models, which is reassuring.
Still, trust here will come down to simple controls, clear consent, and an easy “delete/exit” path — not just smart answers.
Source: OpenAI
⚡ SPEED ROUND: Quick Hits
LinkedIn briefly banned an AI “agent” startup — then reinstated it. A real reminder that outbound automation will get policed fast when it feels spammy or deceptive. (CX lesson: your AI can’t behave like a growth hack.) (TechCrunch)
Capgemini: shoppers want boundaries and explanations from AI assistants. 76% want to set boundaries; two-thirds trust AI more when it explains recommendations; 71% worry about how gen AI uses personal info. That’s your trust checklist. (Capgemini)
Microsoft + Bosch highlight AI-powered in-vehicle experiences at CES. The “digital cockpit” is becoming a service channel — voice, productivity, and safety layered together. The car is turning into a support surface. (Microsoft)
📡 THE SIGNAL: The new CX advantage is simple — “helpful, and honest about it”
What jumped out at me today is this: customers are getting used to AI being the first stop. Not because they love AI… but because it’s fast. And once that becomes the norm, the brands that win won’t be the ones that cram a bot into every corner. They’ll be the ones that make the experience feel safe: the AI explains itself, stays in its lane, and hands off to a human without making the customer fight for it.
Because in the end, customers don’t remember your model. They remember whether you made their life easier — without making them nervous.
See you tomorrow,
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📬 Feedback & Ideas
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The Signal is spot on, Mark. The brands that create safe AI environments with clear user controls are the ones that will earn trust and win over time.