U.S. Black Friday online sales hit record $11.8 billion, driven by AI-powered deal hunting

Black Friday used to be about long lines, packed aisles, and shoppers rushing through store doors at dawn. This year told a different story. Consumers skipped the crowds and leaned heavily on AI assistants to hunt for deals, pushing U.S. online spending to a fresh record. At the same time, inflation and tariff worries continued to shape holiday behavior.

Reuters, citing Adobe Analytics data, reported that online shoppers spent $11.8 billion on Black Friday, a 9.1% increase from last year. The figure points to a clear shift in how Americans approach holiday shopping, with AI tools now playing a growing role in how people search for and choose deals.

The surge landed at a tense moment for households. Budgets are tight. Unemployment is near a four-year high. Consumer confidence is stuck at a seven-month low. Prices are still elevated enough that many families are counting every dollar. Yet the appetite for deals didn’t fade. It simply moved online, where tools are doing the heavy lifting.

Salesforce’s data shows the same pattern. Its analysis, which includes necessities like groceries, found that U.S. online spending totaled $18 billion, up 3% from a year ago. E-commerce outpaced in-store sales by a wide margin. Mastercard SpendingPulse said online shopping grew 10.4%, compared to a 1.7% rise in physical stores.

A major force behind the digital rush: AI shopping systems.

Inflation Didn’t Stop Shoppers: AI Helps Push Black Friday Online Sales to $11.8B

Traffic to U.S. retail sites driven by AI soared 805%, Adobe said. A year ago, systems like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus didn’t exist. Now they’re influencing purchasing decisions at scale. “Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” said Suzy Davidkhanian of eMarketer. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.”

The top sellers reflected familiar holiday staples: LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, gaming consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, Apple AirPods, and countertop favorites like KitchenAid mixers.

The trend extended beyond the U.S. Salesforce estimates that AI agents influenced $14.2 billion in global online sales on Black Friday alone, with $3 billion coming from U.S. shoppers.

“Globally, AI and agents influenced $14.2 billion in online sales on Black Friday, of which $3 billion came from the U.S. alone,” Reuters reported, citing data from software firm Salesforce.

But the picture isn’t all rosy. While people spent more dollars overall, they walked away with fewer items. Higher prices—driven by tariffs and stubborn inflation—played a clear role. Order volumes slipped 1%, average selling prices jumped 7%, and units per transaction dropped 2%, Salesforce said.

“There are two things driving up the average selling price in the United States,” said Caila Schwartz, Salesforce’s director of consumer insights. “The first is absolutely the impact of tariffs, especially on those discretionary categories where we’ve seen a lot of growth in selling price. The other is the fact that we’re seeing a much stronger higher-income earner than average-income earner, evidenced by the strength in the luxury category.”

Discounts also felt weaker. While retailers advertised plenty of promotions, the final prices didn’t stretch as far as shoppers expected. “Promotions and discounts may not feel as sharp as last year due to higher product costs driven by inflation and tariffs,” Davidkhanian explained.

This mix—strong spending, fewer items, higher prices—captures the strange reality of the season. Consumers are stretching but still buying. Retailers are offering deals but protecting margins. And AI-driven search is reshaping how people shop faster than analysts expected.

The momentum points to a packed Cyber Monday. Adobe projects $14.2 billion in sales, which would make it the biggest online shopping day of the year. Electronics are expected to see the best markdowns, with price drops reaching 30%, along with substantial discounts on apparel and computers.

In physical stores, the energy was far more muted. Some shoppers said rising prices, trade-policy uncertainty, and a soft labor market kept them cautious, even with promotions plastered across storefronts.

Still, the record Black Friday numbers suggest consumers haven’t walked away from holiday spending—they’ve changed how they approach it. And AI is now sitting at their side, pushing them straight to the deals they feel good about.