AI-generated search consequence summaries have modified how customers question for solutions and merchandise. The rise of “zero-click” search engine consequence pages might sign the approaching impact of AI buying and agentic commerce on product discovery and decision-making.
In March 2025, 900 U.S. adults shared their shopping conduct with the Pew Analysis Heart. Roughly 58% of these adults encountered an AI Overview when looking on Google. Solely 8% then clicked a standard itemizing. Conversely, 42% of Google searchers acquired no AI Overview; 15% then clicked on an inventory.
The fast impression — 8% vs. 15% — is materials and measurable. In accordance to eMarketer, zero-click searches have lowered site visitors to many web sites by 25% or extra. For ecommerce entrepreneurs, fewer clicks and visits already pose a big problem that may seemingly intensify in 2026.
However declining site visitors will not be the one concern.
The identical psychological forces driving zero-click searches might also form how buyers behave when AI recommends and completes their purchases.
Satisficing
The concept behind the Pew knowledge is easy sufficient. People cease looking after they obtain a (presumably) clear, readable reply. There isn’t a purpose to maintain wanting. The AI reply is satisfying. It’s additionally psychologically “satisficing” — accepting the primary reply that meets a minimal criterion slightly than optimizing for the very best.
When AI solutions are “ok,” why would somebody hold looking?
The hot button is whether or not satisficing will form future AI buying, because it now shapes search. When it evaluates choices, compares costs, and recommends a single merchandise, does an AI agent finish the patron’s journey?
In that case, the profitable product could be the first to satisfy the agent’s standards
Cognitive Ease
AI summaries dramatically cut back cognitive load.
The perceived good thing about many product-related queries (delivery instances, return insurance policies, primary comparisons) may not outweigh the psychological angst. Consumers can assume much less after they settle for the AI response.
Because it leads individuals to simply accept AI-generated solutions, cognitive ease might also affect their selections in agentic commerce, making easy acceptance the norm.
When it summarizes choices, filters trade-offs, and recommends a purchase order, an AI buying agent eliminates not simply clicks but additionally cognitive work. The patron now not compares specs, reads opinions, or weighs options; the choice feels easy.
Authority Bias
Google customers belief its search outcomes and AI solutions. The structured tone, impartial language, and prime placement add an air of authority, even when customers don’t scrutinize or evaluation the sources.
Psychologists name it “authority bias,” whereby individuals defer to perceived institutional experience. In apply, Google’s voice turns into the knowledgeable. However the broader tendency to belief specialists may improve in AI buying, as buyers usually tend to view AI suggestions as definitive steering.
When an AI agent recommends a purchase order, buyers typically deal with it as knowledgeable recommendation slightly than only a machine-generated suggestion. The platform’s authority and obvious sophistication sign belief and discourage second-guessing.
Completion Bias
Conventional search outcomes counsel unfinished work. Effort is required to click on the hyperlinks after which examine the following pages. AI summaries, in distinction, sign completion.
Searchers’ motivation drops sharply after they assume a job is full.
Consumers conclude the method when an AI agent evaluates the choices, narrows the alternatives, after which recommends a product. Options stay, however the urge to maintain looking ends.
Therefore completion bias may spur AI buying.
Ecommerce Advertising
Taken collectively, satisficing, cognitive ease, and authority and completion biases counsel that AI buying will shortcut the buying journey and decision-making.
This has the potential to maneuver ecommerce competitors upstream.
Product knowledge accuracy, pricing consistency, achievement efficiency, opinions, and coverage transparency turn into inputs into an AI agent’s logic, not simply reassurance for people. Thus success with AI promoting might rely much less on profitable clicks and extra on being legible, credible, and “ok” on the exact second a search is full.
