AI Growth and Mix Relevance across 84 Retailers, Brands, Travel, and Transports: Feb Update

By David Schick and Jonathan Feeney and David Katzman and Jack Hermann Published on February 22, 2026 PDF

We update our analysis of both the importance of AI (mix of engagement driven by AI) and the growth of AI engagement across 84 consumer names (see Figure 1). AI platforms are increasingly driving consumer choices (see Figure 9).

Key Callouts: BBY leads in importance while DG leads in inflection. DG, WSM, LZB, GME show high inflections while BBY, HBI, W, HD show high importance. HBI, MLKN, AZO, EXPE are brands with negative inflections but higher importance. AMZN continues to show both low inflection and importance of AI-driven traffic. In the below charts, we rank AI inflection and importance across 84 names in Retail, Restaurants, Leisure / Travel, Autos, and Apparel. NKE (recently called out in our Sports Ecosystem launch) is showing both strong inflection and importance of AI.

Categories: Apparel & Golf leads (led by WWW, AS, COLM), followed by Retailers (BBY, M, WSM), Automotive (AAP, F, TSLA) and Leisure, Accommodations, & Travel (RCL, NCLH, H). Automotive and Leisure, Accommodations, & Travel have negatively inflected (see Figure 2).

Consumers are increasingly using AI platforms, and we note decreased but stabilizing growth after deceleration since August (see Figure 9). 74% of the age 18-29 cohort use AI “at least several times a week” compared to 46% of the 65+ cohort, according to Pew Research (see Figure 8). We also believe traction in AI can imply other strengths (on trend, marketing, digital capabilities). The opposite may also be true.

Figure 1: Measuring Inflection and Importance of AI Across Consumer

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 2: AI Inflection * Importance by Category

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 3: Top 10 AI Inflection * Importance

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 4: Retailers

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 5: Leisure, Accommodations, & Travel

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 6: Automotive

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 7: Apparel & Golf

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

Figure 8: Demographics of AI Consumer Use

Source: Pew Research

Figure 9: AI Chatbot & Tools Digital Visits

Source: Optimal Advisory analysis, Similarweb

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