The Bifurcation Gap: What Affiliate Leaders Need to Know About AI Shopping in 2026

The AI shopping market is splitting, not growing. New proprietary research from Rakuten Advertising reveals what that means for affiliate programs and where the real opportunity lies.

AI shopping isn’t growing the way the headlines suggest. It’s splitting.

Rakuten Advertising surveyed 2,000+ online shoppers across two waves to uncover what’s really happening at the intersection of AI and affiliate marketing. The findings challenge the conventional wisdom and point to a clear path forward for affiliate leaders who know how to read the data.

Inside the report:

• Why AI shopping adoption actually contracted between November 2025 and March 2026 and what it means for your program.
• The power user profile: older, higher-income, and the highest-intent shoppers in the market.
• How tool fragmentation (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity) is reshaping the affiliate verification step.
• The categories where AI is weakest and affiliate commissions are highest.
• A practical affiliate action plan for short-, mid-, and long-term strategy.

Powered by Rakuten Advertising proprietary research and Similarweb behavioral data.

Research based on surveys of 1,000 and 1,000+ U.S. online shoppers conducted in November 2025 and March 2026. Behavioral data sourced from Similarweb.