Almost half of Russians have used artificial intelligence at least once to choose products or services, and one in twenty does so regularly, according to a survey by the platform AIMonitor.pro shared with Inc. Among those who use AI tools, 32% said they now spend less, while 24% reported spending more.
The survey, which polled 2,000 people, found that 45% of respondents had used AI at least once while shopping. Only 5% said they turn to it regularly, several times a week, while 19% do so rarely and 21% had only tried it once or twice. The remaining 55% said they had never used AI for shopping.
Among those who use AI at least occasionally, 32% said they had started spending less, while 24% said the opposite. Researchers noted the figures reflect users' subjective impressions rather than a comparison of bank statements or receipts, and the methodology cannot separate the effect of AI from broader economic conditions, income changes or inflation.
A similar pattern emerged for unplanned purchases. Nearly half of users, 45%, reported no change in their behavior, while 21% said they made impulse purchases less often and 12% said more often.
Where Russians turn to AI most
Russians most often use AI to sort through large numbers of options quickly. Entertainment and leisure led at 27%, followed by electronics and appliances at 25%, online services and subscriptions at 24%, and travel and booking at 23%. AI was used less often for financial products, at 15%, clothing at 14%, and home goods at 8%.
The study tracked which tools people used rather than specific use cases. Voice assistants were the most common, used by 28% of AI users, followed by large language models such as ChatGPT and YandexGPT at 23%, online store chatbots at 17%, and marketplace recommendation systems at 32% among AI users.
Younger users lead adoption
Age proved to be a major factor. Among people aged 18 to 25, 61% said they had used AI while shopping. That figure was 47% for the 26 to 35 age group and around 36 to 37% for respondents over 35.
AIMonitor.pro co-founder and chief technology officer Kirill Vlasov said chat assistants more often help users narrow their choices than push them toward extra purchases. He said consumers spend less time comparing options, evaluate relevant offers more carefully, and more often make a deliberate purchase, marking a shift from impulsive consumption toward more targeted searching.
The researchers said they did not analyze how AI recommendations influence the choice of specific brands, noting that such data is collected through a separate company product based on analyzing the responses of AI models themselves, rather than user surveys.
