Sixty-five per cent of Canadian retailers say they will be increasing their investment in AI this year, according to the sixth Connected Shoppers Report released by Salesforce. The report also found Canadian retailers are turning to AI agents to improve customer experiences and beat the competition, with 60 per cent of Canadian retailers saying AI agents will be essential to compete within a year.

The CRM management tech company’s report underscores the increasing importance of agentic AI that’s conversational, acts autonomously and reacts in the retail sector. The report also highlights how retailers can navigate changing consumer preferences amid increasing fragmentation, Salesforce says.

As AI agent adoption continues, customer service is the top use of the technology by retailers, followed by merchant assistance and marketing, according to the report. These uses of AI agents respond to an issue cited by 81 per cent of Canadian retailers that say inefficient processes and technology drain store associate productivity. AI agents can automatically respond to inquiries, track orders and manage returns so human reps can focus on higher-value interactions.

Beyond customer service, retailers expect AI agents to extend across many other tasks and departments – from optimizing websites and marketing campaigns to training store associates and managing inventory, Salesforce says.

Thirty-five per cent of Canadian shoppers also say they have used AI for product discovery, while 72 per cent are also interested in using AI for optimizing loyalty points and 67 per cent want questions answered for faster customer service. Globally, 63 per cent of Gen Z shoppers are interested in AI agents purchasing items on their behalf, the report found.

Shoppers say that trust is important for them in order to have AI agents making decisions on their behalf. To be trusted requires data privacy and security protections, ability to easily turn AI on and off, customer approval before a purchase, transparency over how data is used and the availability of human customer service backup.

Data in the Salesforce report is from two double-anonymous surveys conducted Nov. 27 through Dec. 26, involving 8,350 shoppers and 1,700 retail industry decision-makers across 21 countries in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, including 500 shoppers and 100 retail decision-makers in Canada.