Joint research highlights the growing role of AI assistants, social platforms and online communities in consumer purchasing decisions

Emplifi, an AI-powered social media management platform, has released The Social Search and AI Visibility Report in partnership with Semrush, an Adobe company. The report combines consumer research with search, traffic and AI visibility data to examine how shoppers discover products, compare options and validate purchasing decisions across digital channels.

The findings suggest that product discovery is becoming less dependent on traditional search engines. Consumers increasingly move between social media, AI assistants, search engines and online communities throughout their buying journeys.

Nearly four in ten consumers rank social media among their top three product discovery channels, making it the highest-ranked source in the report, ahead of retail websites, search engines and email.

AI Becomes a More Prominent Product Research Tool

The report found that 66% of consumers have used AI tools to research products or discover gift ideas, while 11% now begin their product research directly with an AI tool.

Semrush's traffic analysis points to similar growth in AI-driven discovery. Estimated combined monthly visits from the United States to five leading large language model (LLM) platforms rose from approximately 2.3 million in June 2023 to 1.33 billion in June 2026, an increase of nearly 580 times.

AI referral traffic to a group of 30 major US retailers also increased 190 times over the same period. By June 2026, AI referrals accounted for an estimated 8% of the group's social referral traffic, compared with just 0.04% three years earlier.

These figures indicate that AI tools are becoming a more significant part of the product research process, although their contribution varies by platform and retailer.

Reddit Gains Influence in Purchase Validation

Online communities are playing a growing role in helping consumers evaluate products and verify information before buying.

According to the report, 85% of consumers trust product recommendations shared by other Reddit users, and 26% intentionally include the word “Reddit” in product searches to find customer opinions.

Semrush found that monthly US search referrals to Reddit have tripled since 2023, reaching 1.31 billion visits. AI-referred visits to the platform have increased 76 times over the same period.

The report also observed that broad product-research queries frequently triggered Google's AI Overviews, while queries explicitly including “Reddit” rarely did. This pattern suggests that consumers may turn to community discussions for perspectives that complement search results and AI-generated answers.

Social Commerce Varies Across Platforms

The research found differences in how consumers use social platforms to complete purchases. Among respondents who had made a purchase through social commerce, 47% had done so through Instagram, followed by Reddit at 18% and Pinterest at 17%.

The findings also highlight a limitation of click-based measurement. In a traffic-weighted June 2026 snapshot across eight major US retailers, TikTok accounted for approximately 0.5% of outbound social-referral visits. The report suggests that this figure illustrates how product discovery can occur within a platform without generating a corresponding referral click to a retailer's website.

Implications for Marketing and Measurement

The findings suggest that brands need to evaluate visibility across more than traditional search rankings. Social content, AI-generated responses and community discussions can all influence how consumers discover and assess products.

“Visibility has become far more complex than rankings on a search results page,” said Fernando Angulo, Senior Market Research Manager at Semrush, an Adobe company. He said marketers need to understand how consumers encounter brands across AI search, social media and trusted communities.

Susan Ganeshan, Chief Marketing Officer at Emplifi, similarly emphasized the need to combine AI-driven discovery with authentic human recommendations as consumers navigate multiple channels before purchasing.

The report recommends treating search engine optimization, social media and AI visibility as connected parts of a broader discovery strategy. For marketers, this means measuring brand presence across these channels and developing content that helps consumers discover, compare and validate products throughout the buying journey.