Holiday shopping has always been a test of consumer patience, retailer preparedness, and payment system resilience, but Mastercard’s latest Shopper Snapshot reveals a fundamental shift: AI is no longer a feature of the shopping experience; it is becoming the experience itself.
According to the report, more than four in ten consumers already use AI tools when they shop, including 61% of Gen Z and 57% of millennials. Younger consumers are now outsourcing significant parts of their decision-making to intelligent systems and they’re comfortable doing so. In fact, 50% of Gen Z and 49% of millennials say they would let AI handle all of their gift-buying if it meant reducing stress.
What makes this shift especially notable is trust. A majority of young shoppers – 51% of Gen Z and 55% of millennials – believe AI offers more unique and thoughtful recommendations than they could find on their own. Their most common uses include receiving personalized product suggestions, checking whether they’re getting the best deal, and summarizing thousands of reviews instantly. This is no longer a novelty; it’s becoming an expectation.
Retailers Enter an AI Arms Race
The 2025 holiday season highlights a new competitive reality: retailers aren’t just competing on price – they’re competing on intelligence.
Walmart’s new partnership with OpenAI marks one of the boldest moves yet. Shoppers can now browse Walmart directly through ChatGPT, blending conversational shopping with the retailer’s expanding ecosystem of smart tools. This is part of Walmart’s broader strategy to embed AI across the entire shopping journey – from discovery to fulfillment.
Gift guides are evolving too. Once editorial lists, they’re now sophisticated and dynamic discovery engines. Platforms like Lyst combine AI algorithms with human curation to offer recommendations tailored not just to demographic profiles, but to intent, context, and behavior. Consumers can describe what they want in natural language, and AI does the rest.
This signals a shift from search-and-scroll to ask-and-receive – a more intuitive and personal shopping experience, powered by context-aware AI assistants.
The Hidden Layer: Networks Powering Modern Commerce
But behind every seamless recommendation, instant price comparison, or real-time inventory update lies an often-overlooked component: the network infrastructure that keeps all these experiences connected.
Retailers are rapidly upgrading to cloud-based networks (SD-WAN) capable of handling large traffic spikes and synchronizing data across stores and warehouses. This infrastructure is what makes advanced retail features possible – from virtual fitting rooms and “magic mirrors” to in-store sensors and gamified shopping journeys.
The same networks support collaboration tools that let store associates communicate instantly, ensuring better customer support and smoother operations.
Why This Matters for Payments?
AI-driven retail is only as strong as the payment systems that support it. As shopping becomes more fluid, conversational, and personalized, the expectations for instant, secure, seamless payments rise accordingly.
For PSPs, banks, and merchants, the opportunity is clear:
The next generation of customer experience will be built on the intersection of intelligent AI and resilient payment infrastructure.
Source:
https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2025/holiday-shopping-technology.html https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/news-and-trends/stories/2025/mastercard-holiday-shopper-snapshot.html