For years, if you wanted to research a product, compare brands or find the best skin care serum, laptop or robot vacuum, you probably started with Google.
Now, more Australians are skipping the search engine altogether and asking AI instead.
Questions like “What’s the best smartwatch under $500?”, “Which vitamin C serum is worth buying?” or “What’s the safest password manager?” are increasingly being directed to ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity. Rather than presenting a list of websites, these tools generate a curated answer – often recommending specific brands before you’ve clicked on a single webpage.
It’s convenient, fast and feels surprisingly personal. But it also raises an important question: who decides which brands AI recommends – and is the information always accurate?
According to new analysis from Australian growth consultancy Atlas Digital, AI is rapidly becoming a major gateway between businesses and consumers. The company found AI referral traffic to Australian websites has increased by more than 1,200 per cent over the past year, while around half of Australians have already used generative AI.
For consumers, this represents a fundamental shift in how we discover products and services.
AI is shaping first impressions
Traditionally, businesses worked hard to climb Google’s search rankings. Today, AI is increasingly doing the research on our behalf, summarising brands, comparing products and narrowing down recommendations before we ever visit a website.
“By the time customers reach a company’s website, AI has already shaped their shortlist,” says Alla Lvovich, AI search specialist at Atlas Digital.
“If you’re absent from that list, or AI is relying on inaccurate information, you can be ruled out before any human conversation begins.”
Think about your own habits. Instead of opening ten browser tabs to compare noise-cancelling headphones or researching the best meal delivery service, it’s much easier to ask AI for recommendations and trust the summary it provides.
The problem? Those summaries aren’t always correct.
AI doesn’t always get it right
Atlas Digital audited businesses across the SaaS, technology and financial services sectors to see how accurately AI platforms represented them. The results were eye-opening.
The company found factual errors in AI-generated responses for 72 per cent of brands, while AI failed to recommend 70 per cent of brands in their own category, despite their strong Google rankings.
In one case, ChatGPT was only 44 per cent accurate when describing a technology company’s market positioning.
For consumers, inaccurate information doesn’t just affect businesses – it can influence purchasing decisions.
If AI incorrectly describes a product’s features, pricing or reputation, shoppers may overlook brands that better suit their needs or make purchasing decisions based on outdated information.
Real-world consequences
This isn’t simply a hypothetical problem.
Earlier this year, Air Canada was held liable after its chatbot gave a customer incorrect information about fare policies. In the United States, solar company Wolf River Electric has launched legal action against Google after alleging its AI Overview falsely linked the business to legal proceedings.
As AI becomes a trusted source of information, these mistakes carry increasingly real consequences.
“When AI becomes a source of business advice and recommendation, accuracy matters,” says Lvovich.
What does this mean for shoppers?
The good news is that AI remains an incredibly useful research tool. It can save time, simplify complex topics and help compare products in seconds.
However, it’s worth treating AI recommendations as a starting point rather than the final word.
If you’re making an expensive purchase – whether that’s a new laptop, home appliance or financial service – it’s still worth checking a company’s website, reading independent reviews and confirming important details directly with the brand.
AI is designed to generate the most helpful response based on the information available to it, but it doesn’t independently verify every fact.
The future of shopping is conversational
For businesses, the challenge is learning how AI interprets and presents their brand. For consumers, it’s understanding that the answers AI provides are becoming just as influential as traditional search results.
As AI continues to evolve from a productivity tool into a personal shopping assistant, the way we discover products is changing just as quickly.
The next time ChatGPT recommends your next beauty buy, travel destination or piece of tech, remember that the conversation may feel human – but it’s still worth doing a little homework before adding to cart.
