Luxury: by 2030, almost 40 per cent of purchases will be made via AI
According to the report “When AI meets desire”, AI agents could facilitate up to 5,000 billion dollars’ worth of global consumer trade over the next four years. And although those who already use them say they are very satisfied, there is no shortage of concerns and risks
By 2030, AI agents could facilitate between 3,000 and 5,000 billion dollars’ worth of global consumer trade, including that involving the luxury sector. Furthermore, within the next four years, luxury consumers estimate that 39 per cent of their luxury purchases will be facilitated by AI agents, whilst 47 per cent of luxury retailers anticipate an increase in customer interactions and transactions facilitated by such agents. This is according to the report “When AI meets desire: Innovating human-centred luxury experiences in the agentic age”, compiled by McKinsey. The report is based on a survey of 90 retailers and 300 consumers worldwide, designed to investigate their attitudes towards generative and agentic AI in shopping and its adoption.
Making use of artificial intelligence tools could offer a valuable and profitable additional service for brands and companies: for high-spending customers, in fact, AI can enhance the interaction with sales assistants in boutiques, extending it beyond the shop’s walls; for younger customers or those with a lower spending capacity, who generally cannot benefit from this in-person assistance, AI offers the opportunity to do so.
One of the most significant findings of the report is that luxury consumers are already using AI – and are satisfied with it: the McKinsey survey finds that 85 per cent of luxury consumers use a multi-purpose AI assistant, such as Google’s AI Mode or Perplexity, to support purchasing decisions, with 52 per cent reporting frequent use. 74 per cent have used visual search (such as uploading a photo to find a product or emulate a style), with around half stating they use it frequently; and 55 per cent have used virtual try-on tools, with 15 per cent using them often.
83 per cent of luxury consumers report a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ level of satisfaction with AI-powered shopping tools, and only 4 per cent are dissatisfied.
When asked about their willingness to involve an agent at different stages, luxury buyers report a significant level of comfort during the discovery and selection phase (50 per cent), and an even higher level when carrying out the transaction (58 per cent), but this comfort drops sharply during the support phase (39 per cent) – the moments when reassurance, service and relationship management define the experience. The same trend emerges when asked to indicate the extent to which buyers would generally delegate: only 9 per cent prefer a completely ‘self-directed’ approach, whilst the majority prefer ‘guidance’ (32 per cent), ‘curation’ (31 per cent) or ‘authorisation within certain limits’ (28 per cent). In other words, luxury consumers are not rejecting agents, but are defining the terms on which they will use them.
