For decades, the online shopping journey followed a consistent pattern. Shoppers would search, browse and compare products, which would eventually lead to selected ones being added to the cart and purchased. While online retail continued to expand rapidly, the mechanics of product discovery remained unchanged.
In a recent webinar, Euromonitor and Semrush examined the ways AI‑led discovery is fundamentally reshaping how consumers find, evaluate and choose products. This new digital interface is transforming product discovery from a keyword‑driven process to one that is conversational. This change in how discovery happens brings direct implications for brand growth, visibility and competitive advantage.
The funnel is structurally evolving
Previous waves of digital transformation – from mobile commerce to super apps and pandemic-era acceleration – increased speed and convenience, but they did not fundamentally alter the architecture of the shopping funnel.
Consumers were still responsible for navigating abundance: scrolling product grids, comparing specifications, reading reviews and manually filtering options. The burden of evaluation remained with the shopper.
The first meaningful shift emerged with social commerce. Algorithmic curation, creator ecosystems and engagement signals began surfacing products before a search was initiated. Recommendation started replacing exploration.
Generative AI is accelerating this shift at a materially faster pace. The consumer’s desire to shop online has not changed. The efficiency of how they are making decisions has.
From browsing to intent
Generative AI compresses the traditional funnel by reducing the cognitive load. Rather than navigating infinite choice, shoppers can articulate personal constraints like budget, preferences and sensitivities, and receive curated recommendations. This moves the journey from open-ended browsing to intent.
“AI referral traffic has seen a 40x increase in a year and a half.”
Fernando Angulo – Semrush
In conversational interfaces, only a limited number of brands are surfaced in response to a prompt. Visibility becomes selective and scale alone is no longer sufficient to guarantee presence.
AI as the new digital shelf
AI‑led discovery is not just changing how consumers find products, but it is redefining which products they find. In several FMCG categories, only 10% to 15% of brands appear in AI‑driven referrals. The majority are absent at the discovery stage.
This indicates a widening gap between the commercial performance and AI visibility. Brands with strong commercial foundations are not being surfaced by AI at anywhere near their market weight. Meanwhile, smaller or challenger brands are gaining faster AI visibility by aligning more closely with how AI evaluates information: they are built around ingredient transparency, clear problem solving and a strong presence on social media.
Where disruption hits first
The impact of GenAI is not evenly distributed. Early disruption signals in FMCG are emerging in categories with high information complexity, dense claims and elevated consumer anxiety, such as beauty, personal care and consumer health. Together, these categories account for the majority of AI referral traffic within FMCG.
“45% of all GenAI referral traffic for FMCG products flows into beauty and personal care.”
Rabia Yasmeen – Euromonitor
By contrast, habitual categories such as snacks show far lower exposure. In these cases, GenAI’s role is more likely to evolve towards automation and replenishment rather than persuasion as the technology matures.
What brand leaders should do now
AI‑led commerce introduces three immediate risks: platform gatekeeping leading brands to be cut out of the journey, erosion of brand control, and declining effectiveness of traditional advertising in conversational environments.
New strategies do not need to abandon brand building, but complement it with developing information architecture. Brands that clearly structure their claims, attributes and differentiation in ways GenAI systems can interpret will be better positioned on the new digital shelf.
Semrush’s platform is used by more than 10 million marketing professionals worldwide and provides large‑scale search and digital visibility data that helps organisations analyse consumer demand and competitive positioning.
For deeper insights and strategic guidance, watch the on‑demand webinar – From search to conversation: How AI is rewiring the traditional shopper funnel. Explore the data, category signals and strategic frameworks shaping the next era of commerce.