LONDON — Britain’s John Lewis is turning to artificial intelligence as it confronts a difficult consumer environment, betting that the next generation of shoppers may increasingly discover what to buy through AI agents rather than traditional search engines.
The UK’s largest employee-owned retailer says AI-driven searches for its products have surged to 2.5% of product searches, up from just 0.3% a year earlier — a dramatic increase that management believes could signal a major change in how consumers shop online.
Peter Ruis, managing director of John Lewis department stores, described the shift as accelerating across age groups as AI increasingly becomes part of the shopping journey.
But John Lewis is not simply waiting for AI platforms to find its products. The retailer is changing the way it creates and distributes content in an effort to make its products more visible to both consumers and the AI systems influencing their purchasing decisions.
The company has opened a new studio at its flagship Oxford Street store where influencers can produce content on a daily basis. It is also developing its own video programming, including a celebrity-led mini-series.
The strategy reflects a new reality in digital retail: being visible on an AI platform could become as important as ranking highly on Google once was.
From search engines to AI shopping agents
The shift is part of a broader transformation in online shopping.
Traditional e-commerce requires consumers to search, compare products, open websites and eventually complete a purchase. AI shopping agents are designed to compress much of that process by helping shoppers identify products, compare options and make recommendations based on their preferences.
John Lewis began preparing for this change earlier in 2026. In March, the company announced plans to make its products increasingly discoverable through AI platforms including ChatGPT and Google Gemini, with the eventual goal of allowing customers to move from product discovery toward purchasing through those platforms.
The initiative forms part of John Lewis’ £800 million multi-year transformation programme.
The retailer has also expanded beyond its own website. It launched a 90-day TikTok Shop pilot focused initially on beauty and gifting products and expanded an Uber Eats trial, allowing customers in selected areas to order thousands of products across home, beauty and technology categories for rapid delivery.
That combination — AI discovery, social commerce and rapid delivery — suggests John Lewis is trying to make its products available wherever consumers increasingly spend their digital time.
The economic problem behind the AI push
The technology investment comes at a challenging moment for British retailers.
Ruis said consumers are being cautious about discretionary spending as inflation and higher interest rates continue to influence household finances. While some categories performed strongly during the summer — including air conditioners and garden furniture during periods of hot weather — the wider retail environment remains difficult.
John Lewis is due to release its half-year results on September 10, giving investors and employees a closer look at whether its transformation programme is translating into stronger performance.
The retailer has also been warned internally about tough trading conditions, according to reporting cited by Reuters.
For John Lewis, therefore, AI is not simply a futuristic experiment. The company is trying to find new ways to attract customers at a time when many households are becoming more selective about what they spend.
Why AI visibility could become the new retail battleground
The significance of John Lewis’ move extends beyond the company itself.
McKinsey says 38% of European consumers actively use AI to research products or inform purchasing decisions, while a smaller but growing share have already made purchases through AI platforms.
That points toward a fundamental change in e-commerce: consumers may increasingly ask an AI assistant what they should buy instead of starting with a retailer’s website or a traditional search engine.
For retailers, that creates a new challenge.
In traditional search, brands compete for rankings, advertisements and clicks. In AI-powered shopping, the system may instead select a small number of products to recommend directly to the consumer.
That means product information, reviews, digital content, brand authority and online references could increasingly influence whether an AI agent recommends one retailer over another.
John Lewis appears to be positioning itself early for that battle.
Other retailers are moving in the same direction
John Lewis is not alone.
Anthropic recently introduced blueprints designed to help retailers build shopping and merchant AI agents, reflecting the growing interest in conversational shopping ahead of the holiday season.
The company said shoppers are increasingly using AI to compare prices, check availability and obtain recommendations. It also cited data showing that AI-driven retail traffic can convert at higher rates than traffic from other sources.
Amazon, meanwhile, has continued developing AI-powered shopping tools designed to help consumers discover and evaluate products through conversational interactions.
The competition is therefore moving beyond simply having an online store.
Retailers increasingly need to make their products understandable not only to humans, but also to the AI systems that may sit between consumers and retailers.
The bigger question: Who controls the shopping journey?
John Lewis’ experiment raises a much larger question for the retail industry.
If consumers increasingly ask AI assistants to decide what products they should consider, who ultimately controls the customer relationship — the retailer or the AI platform?
That could become one of the defining battles of the next phase of e-commerce.
John Lewis has already taken steps to put its catalogue in front of AI users, while simultaneously expanding into platforms such as TikTok Shop and rapid-delivery services.
But the strategy carries a major test: investment in content, technology and new channels must ultimately translate into customers and sales.
The retailer’s September 10 results could provide an early indication of whether its transformation is beginning to pay off.
For now, John Lewis is making a clear bet: the future shopper may not search for a product at all. They may simply ask AI to find it for them.
WWC ONE MEDIA MJE
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