How AI agents shaped the record-breaking 2025 holiday season

The 2025 vacation purchasing season set new information, according to Salesforce data, with $1.29 trillion in international gross sales pushed by a definitive shift towards AI-driven agentic purchasing. A resilient shopper base drove international on-line gross sales up 7% from final yr, with U.S. gross sales at $294 billion, up 4% from 2024. 

Manufacturers that deployed their very own AI brokers noticed considerably larger development than people who didn’t. Shoppers remained resilient amid larger costs, leaning closely on cellular units and AI brokers to search out the most effective offers.

Let’s take a look at three large takeaways and what they imply for advertising leaders within the months forward, to not point out this yr’s vacation purchasing season.

1. Agentic commerce is right here from chat to operations

The season’s information confirmed that AI brokers have moved past dealing with fundamental customer support queries to turning into basic drivers of income whereas supporting extra streamlined operations.

AI brokers influenced 20% of world retail gross sales, and site visitors from AI-powered searches, reminiscent of on ChatGPT or Perplexity, confirmed extremely excessive intent, changing 9 occasions extra usually than site visitors from social media referrals. Moreover, firms deploying their very own brokers, reminiscent of Pandora and SharkNinja, skilled a 59% larger development charge than people who didn’t.

As Caila Schwartz, director of shopper insights at Salesforce, put it, “Brokers didn’t simply drive $262 billion in gross sales via high-intent discovery. They grew to become the operational heroes of the season.”

AI brokers are not passive informational instruments. They’re lively members within the commerce lifecycle. In the course of the vacation rush, there was a 66% leap in agentic AI-powered service conversations in December.

“AI is not a customer support software. It’s the most effective new engine for the purchasing cart and the definitive think about vacation development,” Schwartz stated.

Crucially, these brokers dealt with complicated duties autonomously. They managed a 142% surge in actions reminiscent of initiating returns and updating transport particulars, proving their worth in scaling operations throughout peak demand.

Dig deeper: When AI agents become the customer

2. Cell dominates discovery and buy

2025’s record-breaking vacation purchasing season wasn’t solely about AI. This yr, cellular units cemented their standing because the default for purchasing. In the course of the essential Cyber Week interval, 78% of world on-line site visitors and 70% of orders originated from cellular units, and this dominance prolonged via Black Friday, when practically 70% of world orders have been positioned through cellular.

Whereas tendencies had been pointing on this route for years, the purchasing journey is now overwhelmingly handheld, and with 74% of orders in 2025, up from 62% in 2024, it seems prone to stay that means for a while. With on-line site visitors rising 13% globally, customers are shopping closely earlier than shopping for, and they’re conducting nearly all of this analysis on their telephones, with 71% of site visitors coming from cellular units.

Fee behaviors are additionally shifting on cellular. Whereas “purchase now, pay later” utilization remained flat or declined in some areas, using cellular wallets, reminiscent of Apple Pay, elevated, indicating a choice for pace and friction-free checkout experiences.

Dig deeper: Mobile marketing with RCS: What you need to know

3. The high-cost, high-return economic system nonetheless produces winners

Whereas customers spent extra this vacation season, in addition they bought extra selectively, spending considerably extra time on ecommerce websites, up 35% within the U.S., conducting diligence earlier than committing to higher-priced objects.

Salesforce information present that the common promoting value rose 7% globally and within the U.S., accounting for a lot of the income development, whereas order volumes grew solely 3% globally and 1% within the U.S. This value improve means “U.S. consumers continued to really feel the chew of inflation,” Schwartz famous.

One other essential development for leaders to observe is the rising charge of returns. Some $181 billion in merchandise was returned, representing 14% of all purchases. Whereas customers remained resilient regardless of rising prices and extra discerning of their spending, with further time spent researching, returns nonetheless elevated by 10% in comparison with 2024.

On this high-cost, high-return economic system, customers seem keen to pay larger costs, but they’re equally keen to reverse these selections, inserting elevated stress on reverse logistics.

Dig deeper: How to balance customer experience and returns in ecommerce

What this implies for advertising leaders

This brings us to what leaders ought to do within the months forward and the way the 2026 vacation season needs to be deliberate, with three subsequent steps to strongly think about.

Deploy owned agentic AI 

Whereas there’s a parallel must deal with generative engine optimization to seem in AI-based searches, manufacturers mustn’t rely solely on third-party AI search engines like google. As an alternative, manufacturers should combine proprietary AI brokers into their digital storefronts to seize high-intent site visitors and shut gross sales with discerning customers. Retailers with their very own branded brokers noticed gross sales develop 32% sooner than these with out them.

Automate the post-purchase loop

With returns rising and repair calls for spiking, manufacturers ought to deploy AI brokers to deal with the rising variety of low-complexity, high-volume duties, reminiscent of tackle updates and return initiations. This will help shield margins and release human brokers to deal with extra complicated points which will have an effect on long-term buyer loyalty.

Optimize for cellular discovery and BOPIS

Guarantee cellular experiences are seamless, significantly for last-minute consumers who change to “purchase on-line, decide up in retailer” (BOPIS) within the last days earlier than the vacation. In the course of the 2025 vacation season, BOPIS peaked on Monday, Dec. 22, when 35% of all on-line orders have been positioned for in-store pickup.

Dig deeper: Building AI agents that move from conversation to conversion

From experimental AI to operational benefit

The 2025 vacation season signaled the top of the period of purely experimental AI and the arrival of operational AI. The first takeaway isn’t just the income quantity, however how that income was generated. Order quantity posted solely modest beneficial properties, with actual development fueled by larger common promoting costs and the strategic deployment of know-how. AI brokers and cellular commerce dominated retail in 2025, influencing product discovery, conversion and post-purchase service.

Schwartz summarized the season by saying that “the 2025 vacation purchasing season demonstrated that AI brokers at the moment are the spine of the retail ecosystem, appearing as each a brand new income engine for discovery and a essential useful resource for customer support.” 

The information present that retailers integrating branded AI brokers into their ecosystems considerably outperformed their friends, signaling that agentic capabilities at the moment are a aggressive necessity relatively than a novelty.

Dig deeper: How AI agents will reshape every part of marketing in 2026