Analyzing nearly half a million AI-generated shopping recommendations, researchers found AI consistently steers consumers toward major retailers—even when shoppers never ask for them
AI chose a national retailer over a smaller competitor up to 94% of the time in head-to-head shopping recommendations
Half of consumers already use AI when shopping—and 50% say they’d shop locally more often if AI made independent retailers easier to discover
Researchers say shoppers can improve their chances of discovering local businesses by asking AI for ‘independent’ retailers explicitly in their shopping prompts
As generative AI rapidly becomes a new gateway for online shopping, one of the largest independent studies of AI-powered retail discovery has found the technology overwhelmingly directs shoppers toward major retailers—even when consumers never asked for national chains. The findings raise new questions about how independent businesses will compete as AI increasingly shapes where people shop.
AI research consultancy Vaer AI conducted the study on behalf of Lightspeed Commerce Inc., (NYSE | TSX: LSPD) (“Lightspeed” or the “Company”) the unified omnichannel platform powering ambitious retail, golf and hospitality businesses in over 100 countries. Among the largest independent analyses undertaken into AI-powered retail discovery, the research analyzed nearly half a million AI-generated shopping recommendations and more than 2.4 million links across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview and Gemini, leveraging more than 20,000 shopping prompts spanning different products, categories and retailer comparisons.
Across the study, AI consistently favored larger retailers over smaller competitors. In head-to-head comparisons between a national chain and a smaller retailer, AI selected the larger retailer 90–94% of the time when relying on its own training data. Even with live web search enabled, national chains remained the dominant recommendation, accounting for 46–58% of responses.
The research also found the bias became more pronounced as shoppers moved closer to making a purchase. While local retailers appeared as the top recommendation in roughly one-third of broader shopping searches, that fell to as little as one in ten for specific product searches. Google AI Overviews demonstrated the strongest preference for larger retailers, recommending no local store in 68% of shopping responses. By comparison, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode surfaced a local retailer in roughly 70% of responses.
Tom Wells, Founder and Principal Consultant at Vaer AI, said: “This is one of the first large-scale attempts to measure how generative AI influences retail discovery, and the findings suggest AI is already reshaping competition between retailers. The bias toward national retailers begins in training, and while live search introduces more variety, it doesn’t eliminate the problem. As more shoppers turn to AI as a starting point for discovery, visibility within these systems will become just as important as search engine rankings have been over the past two decades.”
Consumers Are Using AI—But Want It to Better Support Local Businesses
The AI audit is reinforced by a companion survey of 2,000 North American consumers, conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by Lightspeed Commerce, suggesting the issue extends beyond how AI recommends retailers to what shoppers expect from the technology. While AI is already influencing shopping decisions for millions of consumers, many believe it should do a better job helping people discover local businesses.
- 56% have already used AI to help make shopping decisions.
- Adoption rises to nearly three-quarters among consumers under 35.
- 41% trust AI shopping recommendations, rising to nearly 60% among consumers aged 25–34.
- 50% say they’d be more likely to shop locally if AI made nearby independent retailers easier to discover.
- 33% believe AI should prioritize small or local businesses in shopping recommendations, compared with 13% who think large brands should receive priority.
Dax Dasilva, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightspeed Commerce, said: “Search transformed how retailers competed online, and generative AI has the potential to reshape that dynamic all over again. As consumers increasingly rely on AI to decide where to shop, visibility within those recommendations will become a critical driver of growth for retailers of every size. Businesses that aren’t visible in AI recommendations risk becoming invisible to the next generation of shoppers. Consumers have a role to play too: when using AI to shop, explicitly asking for ‘independent’ or ‘locally owned’ businesses can help ensure smaller retailers aren’t overlooked.”
One Simple Change Can Help You Discover More Local Businesses
Consumers can also take simple steps to broaden the retailers AI recommends. Rather than simply asking where to buy a product, shoppers can ask AI for independent businesses, explicitly adding ‘independent’ to their prompts to help surface retailers that might otherwise be overlooked.
In a controlled follow-up, Vaer AI tested whether the words a shopper adds to a prompt changes the result. Adding a single word—‘independent’—cut the share of AI recommendations going to large national chains from about 44% to as little as 9%, and more than doubled the small and local stores the AI named. The takeaway for shoppers is specific: ask for ‘independent’ or ‘locally owned’ stores explicitly.
Ron Thurston, Senior Retail Advisor and Host of Retail In America, shared: “Retail’s oldest rule was location. Today, the first location many shoppers visit is a chat window, and this research shows AI is steering them to the biggest names by default. That should matter to anyone who loves independent retail, because the local store is where you still find someone who knows the product and knows your name. While AI might decide who gets found, consumers still have the power to choose. By putting hard data behind this gap, and giving shoppers a small change to how they research, Lightspeed is giving independent retailers a real shot at both.”
To help retailers become more visible as AI reshapes consumer discovery, Lightspeed is launching a public awareness campaign focused on AI visibility. The campaign will begin with an interactive storefront activation that demonstrates—in real time—how AI generates shopping recommendations, while also providing independent businesses with practical guidance on improving their visibility in AI recommendations and encouraging consumers to discover and support local retailers.
This comes as Lightspeed continues to expand its own suite of AI products, including Lightspeed AI, AI Blog, and AI Showroom. These AI-driven initiatives help retailers to make smarter decisions without navigating complex dashboards or reports, tap into new revenue opportunities, and create compelling consumer content with ease.
About Lightspeed
Lightspeed is the POS and payments platform powering businesses at the heart of communities in over 100 countries. As the partner of choice for ambitious retail, golf and hospitality entrepreneurs, Lightspeed helps businesses accelerate growth, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and run smarter across all channels and locations.
With fast, flexible omnichannel technology, Lightspeed brings together point of sale, ecommerce, embedded payments, inventory, reporting, staff and supplier management, financial services, and an exclusive wholesale retail network. Backed by insights, and expert support, Lightspeed helps businesses run more efficiently and focus on what they do best.
Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) (TSX: LSPD), with teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
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About Vaer AI
Vaer AI is a research-led enterprise consultancy specializing in AI search. Founded by Tom Wells, who has previously played a leading role in research at market leaders including Semrush and Peec AI, Vaer combines large-scale measurement with senior strategic interpretation to help brands understand and improve their visibility across AI search.
Vaer was built to bridge the gap between GEO platforms that only monitor performance and consultancies that only interpret it. Its model brings measurement, competitor and citation analysis, custom research workstreams, and senior strategic counsel into a single engagement, giving enterprise teams a deeper understanding of how their market is evolving and what drives visibility in AI search.
Methodology
Vaer AI, led by Tom Wells, tested whether AI shopping assistants favour large national retailers over smaller and local independents. A fixed set of 20,000 realistic shopping prompts, spanning 10 product categories across Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Montreal, was run through leading AI systems in two conditions: from the model’s own knowledge (no web search) and with live web search on, across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews. That produced roughly 460,000 AI responses (200,000 without search, 260,000 with).
In the main study, no prompt mentioned size, “local,” “independent,” or “big chain,” so any skew toward large retailers emerged unprompted. A third stage then re-ran a matched set of prompts with the words “local” or “independent” added, measuring how much each shifted the retailers AI names and cites.
Every retailer was sorted into large, mid, or small using one consistent classifier, validated against a hand-built answer key and a second, independent AI model that agreed on the large-versus-small split about 99.5% of the time. All headline figures carry 95% confidence intervals. Analysis ran June to August 2026.
