Key Points
- Retailers are creating massive amounts of content to train AI models.
- Some brands build “invisible” websites specifically for data scrapers.
- Traffic from AI is low but leads to higher sales rates. Amazon reports that Rufus AI users are 60% more likely to make a purchase.
- Companies use influencer transcripts to teach AI about their products.
This holiday season, stores aren’t just trying to catch your eye; they want to get noticed by your AI assistant, too. While companies usually dump millions into Google and Facebook ads to capture a slice of the projected $253 billion in holiday spending, the rise of chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini is forcing a massive change in strategy.
Since brands cannot yet simply buy a standard ad inside a chatbot, they are getting creative. They are flooding the internet with content to ensure AI models “learn” about their products. Brian Stempeck from Evertune.ai notes that some clients moved from writing three or four blog posts a month to churning out hundreds.
The goal is simple: make sure the AI recognizes the brand so it can recommend it to you. Some companies are even building hidden websites designed strictly for AI data scrapers to read, bypassing human eyes entirely.
Currently, the number of people coming to sites like Amazon or Walmart via an AI chatbot is small—less than 1% of total traffic. However, eBay notes that these specific shoppers are serious. When someone asks an AI for a “warm winter coat” or “best stocking stuffer” and clicks a link, they usually intend to buy immediately.
Brands like bed linen company Brooklinen are playing the long game. They are paying influencers to talk about their sheets on TikTok and YouTube, knowing that AI tools scrape video transcripts and reviews. If an AI hears “Brooklinen” enough, it becomes the top recommendation. Meanwhile, Amazon says users of its new AI tool, Rufus, are 60% more likely to purchase than the average shopper.
As Google and Amazon test new ways to integrate shopping directly into these bots, retailers know they must adapt. In this new era, if the robot doesn’t know you exist, the customer won’t either.
