77% of back-to-school shoppers plan to use AI — and the brands that understand how will win the season.
The traditional shopper journey as brand marketers once knew it is going away. This is a significant moment in history, similar to how COVID shifted everyone online and accelerated the rise of creator commerce.
Today the shift is being driven by inflation, higher prices, and readily available AI tools that are making shoppers far savvier in how they evaluate what they buy. Value is now the top purchase factor, and they have the help of AI to make much smarter, more personalized decisions.
In every AI shopping conversation a consumer has, the entire journey can and most often does happen. Discovery, consideration, intent, and reassurance before conversion can all occur in any single exchange. Marketers need to understand these conversations and identify how they can participate in each one.
Back-to-school season is a clear example of how this is already playing out as one of the most competitive windows in retail. Shoppers are motivated to find the absolute best value.
This year, they have a new tool helping them do it:
- Fresh research from Minty showed that 77% of back-to-school shoppers plan to use AI to shop, and they are using it in ways most businesses have not yet prepared for.
- Shoppers are using AI to hunt for deals, compare products, validate prices, and stack savings at every stage of the purchase journey.
These are the nine conversations consumers are having with AI as they shop, and what each one means for the brands trying to reach them.
Conversation 1. Comparison Analysis - "Help me decide between options.”:
More than two-thirds of AI shoppers use AI to help settle a debate. They’re asking questions, like, "which is better for my situation, Hoka or Nike running shoes,” or "what are the best options for quality dorm bedding that are under $100."
These shoppers don’t want a spec sheet from a website. They seek honest pros and cons and judgments that account for total value based on the needs that are important to them, with price as a key component.
In the case of the shoes, the cheapest pair may not be the recommendation. One pair might fit certain criteria and last longer, ultimately being the best value for the shopper.
Brands that want to show up here need rich, detailed product descriptions that go beyond specs and capture use case, fit, and lifestyle context. What people say about your product across reviews, third-party coverage, and best available price matters as much, if not more than what a brand says about itself.
Conversation 2. Optimize Product Search - “I want something, help me get it smarter":
Once a shopper has a product in mind, AI has become the tool to help them get the most value. Searches like "best price for iPad Air with student discount" or "find this backpack in olive green under $60" signal high intent, but also high expectations. The shopper already knows what they want.
Brands that want to show up here at a time when buyers know what they want, need pricing that updates in real time, inventory that reflects what is available, and promotional offers structured in a way that LLMs can read and cite. Stackable savings, a promo code layered with cashback, are increasingly part of what AI surfaces.
Conversation 3. Discovery Deal Search - "Help me find broad value":
This is the conversation closest to traditional search, but the expectations have shifted. Shoppers that once searched, "top back-to-school sales for college students," or "best deals on laptops right now," want more than a list of links.
They are asking and getting aggregated, ranked value with promo stacking and cashback already factored in. Brands that rely on paid search alone will not make the shortlist.
Conversation 4: Shopping Education - "Teach me how to shop smarter":
Not every AI shopper is ready to buy. Some are asking: "Is it better to buy a laptop now or wait for Labor Day?"
This is a trust-building moment, and it leads to downstream conversion. Brands can show up here by publishing clear, informational content around buying timing, category guidance, and promotion cycles, including blog posts, FAQs, and product pages that answer "when should I buy" type questions directly.
Treating content as infrastructure rather than just marketing helps get your brand surfaced when a shopper asks AI for advice early in the process.
Conversation 5: Personalized Curation - "Help me choose what fits me":
This is where AI can really outshine traditional shopping platforms, which return hundreds of results with no meaningful filtering. Instead of infinite scroll, shoppers want a short, well-reasoned list that accounts for their lifestyle, budget, and preferences.
"Best backpack for a 7th grader who carries a laptop, has back problems, and a $60 budget" is not a search query, it’s a brief. More than 60 percent of AI shoppers are now shopping this way and are comfortable with AI making personalized recommendations based on their shopping behavior.
The expectation for relevance has fundamentally shifted. Brands that want to show up as solutions for these conversations need rich, detailed use case testimonials with fit, and lifestyle context. The more clearly a product is represented in use-case human terms, the more likely AI is to match it to the right shopper at the right moment.
Conversation 6: Purchase Optimization - "I already found something, make the purchase better":
Even after a shopper has identified a product, the decision is in the details. "What added savings exist for this outfit?" or "can I get cashback on this laptop?" or "where else is this sold cheaper?" are all signals of a shopper who has decided what they want but wants the most optimized transaction.
Bonus offers, loyalty incentives, and cashback partnerships need to be in place and promoted. Even when your price is competitive, an added bonus offer can tip the decision in your favor over a competitor who offers nothing extra.
Conversation 7: Budget Optimization - "Optimize my total spend":
This is AI at its most practical. A shopper arrives with a fixed number, say $1,000 for a college wardrobe, and asks AI to build the list based on their preferences. Multi-item logic, quality versus price tradeoffs, split purchases between retailers based on their incentives and bundling strategies to hit free shipping thresholds are all in play. How products are categorized, described, and priced relative to competitors determines whether they make the cut.
Conversation 8. Deal Validation - "Is this actually a good deal?":
Even after a shopper decides to buy, AI gets one more check-in. "Is 30% off at Nike actually a good sale?" or "has this backpack been cheaper before?" are questions that pressure-test the deal before checkout.
Price history context, urgency guidance, and deal quality assessment all factor in. Any offer can be validated, compared, and contextualized in seconds, which means brands need to make sure their promotions are genuinely competitive, not just visually convincing.
Conversation 9. Dupe Search - "Get me the same look for less":
What started as a TikTok trend has gone to a whole new level. Driven heavily by Gen Z and accelerated by fast fashion culture, this lane is about getting the look or the function at a fraction of the price. "Lululemon belt bag dupe under $25 for back to school" or "college dorm bedding that looks like Pottery Barn Teen for less" are queries that AI handles with visual and style matching, price compression, and quality guardrails.
This is a structural shift in how value is being defined by a generation of shoppers who have grown up comparison shopping by default. Premium brands need to be part of that conversation, making sure their product descriptions speak to materials, construction, and quality so AI surfaces them as the smart choice rather than just the expensive one.
What will the back-to-school shopping season teach us?
These nine conversations are where AI-powered back-to-school shopping is today. But the data points to where it is going. Among AI shoppers, sixty-nine percent said they would have a cashback app make a purchase on their behalf, forty-two percent say an AI agent has already made a purchase on their behalf and fifty-two percent expect that to happen within the next six months.
The back-to-school shopper of the near future will not always be a parent at a keyboard comparing options. It will be an agent acting on their behalf, with the list already made and the decisions already set. And those agents are already in motion. Don’t believe that? This past week, for the first time in the history of the Internet, bots visiting websites surpassed human visits.
What started as a few weeks of frenzied back-to-school shopping has become a digital spending marathon, and AI is now directing the traffic. Brands must be findable, credible, and specific in AI. And those that win back-to-school will be set up to win AI recommendations when the holiday shopping season arrives.
