Forget TikTok trends. The real influencer is AI—deciding what customers trust, click and buy.
The Gist
AI takes the influencer crown. Where TikTok and Instagram creators once shaped decisions, AI is now the most powerful influencer in commerce and trust.
Search traffic is shrinking. Google’s AI summaries cut clicks in half, and brands are already seeing 10–25% drops in referral traffic.
Commerce inside chat. OpenAI’s Shopify tie-up signals native checkout in ChatGPT, collapsing recommendation and purchase into a single interface.
Not long ago we thought of influencers as people, creators on TikTok or Instagram shaping what we buy. The real shift today is that the most powerful influencer is artificial intelligence.
If you have used ChatGPT recently, you may have noticed it transforming from a productivity tool into something much more potent. OpenAI’s ongoing relationship with Shopify signals a major change. Soon you may be able to ask about a product and complete the purchase without ever leaving the AI interface.
That is not just an app. That is influence embodied.
Influence means capturing attention, building trust and shaping decisions. Now imagine a system like ChatGPT doing that at scale while personalizing recommendations, comparing products and eliminating friction in the purchase path. That is why I call AI the next mega influencer. Every chatbot interaction can nudge a decision without the user leaving the conversation.
Search Traffic and Click Declines
This shift is already affecting web traffic. Google’s AI generated summaries deliver answers but reduce click through rates dramatically. According to a Pew Research Center study released a month ago, about 8% of users whose query triggered an AI summary clicked a link, compared to 15% when no summary appeared. And sessions ended far more often (26% versus 16%) with just 1% of users clicking on source citations.
Brands and publishers are seeing real consequences. Referral traffic from Google Search dropped a median of 10% YoY in May and June, and some sources report declines of up to 25%.
The OpenAI‑Shopify tie‑up is a game changer. Code strings like buy_now, product shipping fields and shopify_checkout_url have been found in ChatGPT’s interface, signaling an embedded purchase flow. This suggests ChatGPT is on its way to becoming a full funnel shopping tool, not merely a recommendation engine.
Other reports confirm that ChatGPT will soon allow browsing product cards—complete with prices, images, reviews and a Buy Now button—all within the chat.
OpenAI is reportedly working to integrate native checkout into ChatGPT, allowing in‑chat purchases. Early versions have been shown to brands and financial terms are under discussion. This move will open a new revenue stream, as OpenAI plans to take a commission on sales completed inside ChatGPT.
Why This Matters Now
This is not in the distant future. Here are the signals that make it urgent:
Search visibility and referral traffic are already declining.
Consumers expect instant contextual answers, not multi-step journeys.
AI is becoming the gatekeeper between trust and purchase.
If AI is the new influencer, brands must become visible within the AI environment and maintain attribution.
Brands are rethinking digital strategies as AI shifts influence. Declining search traffic and rising AI-native commerce push companies to improve brand visibility, streamline purchases, and measure AI’s role in conversions.Simpler Media Group
Human Influencers Meet AI
This does not spell the end of human influencers. Instead, I believe there is convergence ahead. Imagine asking an AI for a skincare recommendation and getting not just your brand but a trusted creator’s testimonial, all embedded within the AI conversation.
Brands now face not just questions of whether to collaborate with influencers but how to ensure AI itself is an advocate for the story they want to tell.
Entity visibility: AI only knows what it can read. Most of its signals about brand credibility still come from editorial sources—about 61%—from trade publications, industry outlets, and reviews, not just websites or ads. That means unlinked brand mentions, consistent media coverage and structured data are now powerful signals that help large language models recognize and recommend you. Brands that show up in authoritative contexts see up to three times more inclusion in AI-generated answers compared to those relying only on SEO or keyword spend. In practice, this is the difference between being one blue link on page two of Google and being the answer itself inside an AI conversation.
Seamless linking: Every extra step between recommendation and purchase erodes intent. Studies show conversion rates drop by two-thirds when customers hit a broken deep link, a login wall, or an extra app redirect after an AI-driven suggestion. The opposite is also true: clean app-to-app routing and deferred deep linking can lift completion rates 30-60%, making the journey from AI to checkout feel invisible. The takeaway is simple, if the path breaks, the sale breaks.
Commerce readiness: AI-native shopping is not coming someday, it is already here. Traffic to US retail sites from generative AI sources jumped more than 1,200% between July 2024 and February 2025. Shoppers who use conversational AI are four times more likely to buy, converting at 12.3% versus 3.1% for standard sessions. With pilots like OpenAI and Shopify embedding buy buttons directly into chat, early brands that test and learn now will not just get more engagement, they will gain the first-mover advantage in understanding how AI-native commerce affects attribution, inventory and customer experience.
Attribution innovation: Click-based reporting cannot keep up in a world where AI influences decisions long before the final conversion. Nearly half of product citations in AI overviews come from newly updated sources, which shows recency matters, but those impressions rarely get credited when the sale happens later through another channel. To close the gap, marketers are beginning to test AI-specific referral tags, advanced multi-touch models and even consumer panels. The goal is not just to measure the click, but to finally see the assist that AI gave along the way.
Get in the AI Experience Game
AI is no longer sitting on the sidelines, it is stepping into the spotlight. It is not just answering questions, it is shaping choices, guiding spending and deciding which brands make it into the conversation.
The companies that lean in now will shape how people experience AI, making sure their products show up when it matters, earning trust and removing friction from the path to purchase. In this new era of influence, the loudest voice will not come from a social feed, it will come from the AI that people turn to first.
Brian Klais, founder & CEO, URLgenius. Brian is a distinguished entrepreneur, creator economy evangelist, and award-winning mobile strategist renowned for founding URLgenius, the premier, patent-protected global app-linking platform that empowers marketers and creators of all sizes to create fluid app-to-app linking experiences to enhance engagement, conversions, and affiliate commissions. Connect with Brian Klais:
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