88% of Southeast Asian consumers rely on AI for purchase decisions - study

E-commerce giant Lazada said its new study has found that a huge majority of its users in Southeast Asia are using artificial intelligence (AI) to make purchasing decisions.

Lazada revealed the results in its inaugural Artificial Intelligence Adoption in eCommerce in Southeast Asia whitepaper.

The study, jointly developed with Kantar, surveyed 6,038 shoppers across six Southeast Asian markets—Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines—to comprehend usage and adoption of AI on e-commerce platforms by analyzing awareness, trust and preferences, shopping behavior, and consumer pain points.

A total of 1,001 respondents are from the Philippines.

Lazada said the whitepaper examined consumer behavior when it comes to online shopping to evaluate how e-commerce players can better leverage AI to cater to shoppers’ priorities and needs.

Among the salient findings of the study was that 88% of survey respondents admitted to making purchasing decisions using AI-generated content and product recommendations.

Moreover, the study found a significantly high level of trust towards AI-powered platforms, with the majority of respondents relying on AI for personalized recommendations (92%) and product summaries (90%).

Lazada said the whitepaper also explored consumer motivations for leveraging AI in online shopping, where more than half of respondents (52%) cited convenient shopping as a top reason for embracing AI in their personal lives.

A similar proportion of respondents (51%) view product and seller reviews as a key feature they prioritize, spotlighting the opportunity to introduce reviews with more depth, relevance, and authenticity using AI technology.

Lazada said its study further revealed that nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) believe AI is widely adopted in online shopping, with over half of the respondents identifying AI chatbots (63%), translations (53%), and visual product searches (52%) as key recognized AI features in e-commerce.

In terms of actual adoption, the usage for these features hovers below 50% for AI chatbots at 47%, visual product searches at 40%, and translations at 40%.

A huge majority of shoppers have also expressed their willingness to pay more for AI-powered shopping experiences, at 83%.

This can be attributed to the beneficial outcomes for shoppers, with close to half of the respondents at 49% expressing that AI improves discovery, customer service, and increases enjoyment during online shopping, Lazada said.

With 80% of respondents using AI features on e-commerce apps at least once a week, Lazada said e-commerce platforms can deepen their AI integration efforts to deliver more holistic and exceptional shopping experiences.

According to Lazada, 44% of the respondents are men and 56% are women, with ages ranging from 18 to 60. Of those surveyed, 32% are single and 67% are married. —VBL, GMA Integrated News