ARTIFICIAL intelligence played a pivotal role in driving U.S. online spending to a record US$11.8 billion on Black Friday, as shoppers increasingly bypassed crowded stores in favour of digital tools that helped them compare prices and hunt for discounts.
The total represents a 9.1% rise from 2024, according to Adobe Analytics, which monitors roughly 1 trillion visits to retail websites.
Reuters cited today that the surge in digital commerce comes amid mounting economic pressures, including a near four-year high in unemployment, declining consumer confidence, and inflationary price increases that have prompted Americans to watch every dollar spent.
AI-powered shopping tools such as Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus have rapidly transformed the online shopping experience, with traffic driven by these tools up 805% compared with last year, Adobe reported.
Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer, explained the appeal of these innovations: “Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster.
Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.”
Popular items on Black Friday included LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, as well as Apple AirPods and KitchenAid mixers.
Globally, AI agents influenced an estimated US$14.2 billion in online sales, with US$3 billion generated in the United States, according to Salesforce.
The company reported that U.S. online purchases, including groceries and other non-discretionary items, totalled US$18 billion, a 3% increase over last year, with luxury apparel and accessories remaining particularly popular.
Despite rising overall spending, higher prices limited the number of items purchased. “There are two things driving up the average selling price in the United States,” said Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce.
“The first is absolutely the impact of tariffs, especially on those discretionary categories where we’ve seen a lot of growth in selling price. The other is the fact that we are seeing a much stronger higher-income earner than average-income earner, evidenced by the strength in the luxury category.”
Discount rates remained largely flat compared to 2024, with AI assisting shoppers in finding the best deals amid elevated price tags. Davidkhanian noted that “promotions and discounts may not feel as sharp as last year due to higher product costs driven by inflation and tariffs,” while Michael Ashley Schulman, Chief Investment Officer at Running Point, observed that “the real value of Black Friday bargains has slipped for consumers.”
Order volumes in the U.S. fell 1%, average selling prices rose 7%, and units per transaction dropped 2% year-over-year, according to Salesforce data.
The strong online performance sets the stage for an even larger Cyber Monday, projected to generate US$14.2 billion in sales, up 6.3% from 2024. Electronics, apparel, and computers are expected to see the deepest discounts, with reductions on some items reaching 30% off list prices, Adobe said.
In contrast, in-store bargain hunting was muted, as consumers weighed fears of overspending against ongoing inflation, tariff-driven uncertainty, and a soft labour market.
The combination of AI-driven efficiency and caution over household budgets appears to have reshaped Black Friday into a predominantly digital event this year. - November 30, 2025
