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11/07/2026 8:24 pm
TL;DR: AI is now embedded in shopping behaviour, with 73% of consumers using it in some part of the journey and 58% planning to use it for holiday gift shopping, according to Riskified. That shift creates a new peak-season fraud surface across identity verification, account integrity, payment flows, and post-purchase claims.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Riskified: Get ready for the most AI-powered holiday season yet
By the numbers:
- 73% of consumers are using some form of AI to assist their shopping journey.
- 58% plan to use AI tools for holiday gift shopping.
- 45% use ChatGPT for product inspiration, 37% for review insights, and 32% for price comparisons.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should merchants handle fraud risk when shoppers use AI to assist purchases?
A: Merchants should treat AI-assisted shopping as a trust classification problem, not a binary fraud flag.
Q: Why does AI-assisted shopping complicate identity verification for ecommerce teams?
A: AI-assisted shopping compresses the customer journey, reduces visible browsing signals, and can make legitimate and fraudulent behaviour look more similar.
Q: What do security teams get wrong about holiday fraud prevention?
A: They often focus too heavily on payment authorization and not enough on the full customer lifecycle.
Practitioner guidance
- Tighten identity checks on high-risk shopping paths Apply step-up verification to account recovery, first-time checkout, unusual shipping changes, and high-value post-purchase claims.
- Separate fraud controls for checkout, returns, and disputes Build different decision rules for payment authorization, return abuse, and customer service claims so one weak point does not expose the entire lifecycle.
- Re-tune trust models for AI-assisted traffic Review behavioural scoring to account for faster product discovery, shorter sessions, and reduced browsing depth.
What's in the full article
Riskified's full analysis covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Survey breakdown of how consumers use AI across product discovery, review evaluation, and purchase behaviour.
- Seasonal abuse patterns seen in dark web discussion leading into Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Practical considerations for merchants balancing conversion, fraud review, and customer experience.
- Holiday preparedness framing from checkout through post-fulfilment claims and disputes.
👉 Read Riskified's analysis of AI-driven holiday fraud and merchant exposure →
AI-driven holiday shopping and fraud exposure: what merchants must watch?
Explore further
11/07/2026 8:53 pm
AI-assisted shopping is becoming an identity and fraud governance problem, not just a commerce feature. The article shows that consumer AI use changes how intent is expressed, how transactions are initiated, and how merchants interpret trust. That creates a governance boundary between convenience and verification that fraud teams, IAM leads, and identity verification teams need to manage together. The practitioner conclusion is that AI-mediated commerce must be treated as a distinct trust tier.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How do merchants balance convenience with stronger fraud controls?
A: Merchants should use risk-based controls that add friction only where evidence warrants it. That means preserving low-friction checkout for trusted customers while escalating verification for unusual device signals, abnormal fulfilment changes, repeated support contacts, and high-risk claim patterns.
👉 Read our full editorial: AI-driven holiday shopping raises fraud and identity risk
