New research commissioned by Trustpilot reveals that poor AI interactions are jeopardising around 6% of the UK’s e-commerce market
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Chatbots are the biggest offenders, with 40% of users reporting bad experiences
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More advanced AI tools, such as shopping assistants and automated checkouts, are driving higher satisfaction and trust
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Trustpilot’s 330+ million reviews give agentic AI systems access to genuine human judgement, helping businesses rebuild trust, retain customers, and reduce commercial risk
London, 31 October 2025: Artificial intelligence is reshaping how people make decisions with their money online, but consumers’ frustrations at unhelpful encounters with AI technology could be costing UK retailers billions.
New analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), commissioned by Trustpilot, the world’s largest independent platform for customer feedback, finds that negative AI experiences put £8.6 billion of UK e-commerce sales at risk in the past 12 months, equivalent to around 6% of the total market of online spending.
Of this total, an estimated £4.9 billion stems from immediate lost transactions, while an additional £3.7 billion reflects reputational damage as dissatisfied customers share their experiences with other potential customers - reinforcing the power of human voices in e-commerce. On average, each negative AI encounter is shared with two other people, with two thirds (65%) saying they reduced use of a business after a bad AI experience.
Smarter, newer AI applications deliver higher satisfaction
The analysis also included a survey of 1,000 UK adults, asking consumers to report on their usage of AI products and services while shopping online. Chatbots are the most commonly used - but the most problematic. Nearly four in five users (78%) in the UK have used them, of which 40% said they’ve had a negative experience.
Trustpilot conducted further analysis of over 330 million reviews on its platform, which support the findings. Consumer tolerance for bad AI experiences is low. Reviews mentioning AI average just 1.7 stars, compared with 3.7 stars for reviews without AI mentions. The main frustration is AI replacing or delaying access to human help. People value AI that helps them make quicker, better decisions, but not AI that gets in the way of good service.
By contrast, the research shows that AI summaries (62%) and AI product recommendations (57%) are also widely used but well-liked, with fewer than 16% reporting problems. Similarly, other more advanced agentic AI applications, such as automatic checkout agents, shopping assistants and fraud detection, show high satisfaction (above 90%), suggesting that the more sophisticated the AI, the more positive the experience.
UK consumers reporting higher AI adoption compared to US consumers
While the UK’s £9 billion at risk figure is significant, the US also faces a sizeable challenge, with over $37 billion in potential losses attributed to negative AI experiences (around 3% of the market). American consumers express stronger resistance to automated systems overall, with usage averaging 38% compared to 44% in the UK.
Across the male and female gender divide, the differences in the two markets are stark. In the UK, an equal number of men and women are using AI product recommendations (57%) and AI subscription managers (24%) when spending. For some services, women reported higher usage rates compared to men, such as chatbots (80% vs 77%) and automatic checkout agents (30% vs 28%). Female UK consumers on average also report fewer negative experiences.
Meanwhile in the US, across all AI use cases surveyed, men reported higher usage rates, with differentials as large as 17% compared to women.
Carrie Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer at Trustpilot said: “AI tools are making it easier than ever for consumers to discover, research and buy new products and services. But as our research shows, they can just as easily turn people away. In an AI-powered world, trust is the currency that powers every transaction. It’s vital that businesses invest the time and energy now in getting AI experiences right, using quality data sources and thoughtful design to build trust and reliability in the entire shopping experience.”
Trustpilot can play a vital role in helping businesses identify issues in their AI-assisted services through real customer feedback. Its data pool of 330+ million reviews can inform AI agents making consumer purchasing decisions, helping to reduce reputational harm. Getting this right now is crucial to protect sales and build the strong foundations needed for future agentic commerce applications.
In September 2025, Trustpilot launched Data Solutions, powered by TrustLayer™, a suite of data intelligence products that enable organisations to embed trust and consumer sentiment from over 330 million reviews into their strategies, operations, commerce and AI-driven experiences. TrustLayer is built on millions of authentic customer reviews to provide insight beyond ratings, helping businesses uncover trends, benchmark performance, and build confidence through AI decision-making.
Methodology
Research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) was conducted using a 10-question survey of 1,000 UK participants and 1,000 US participants. The cost figures can be interpreted as "sales at risk", meaning the volume of online retail sales potentially lost due to consumers reducing their spending in a shopping platform after having a negative experience with agentic AI.
To arrive at these figures, Cebr estimated the size of the online retail market linked to platforms using agentic AI. Cebr estimated online retail sales from Q4 2024 to Q3 2025 at $1,213,314 million in the US, and £140,816 million in the UK. This period coincided with the questions in the survey, which asked about the "last 12 months". Cebr then calculated the direct effect by combining the survey data on the usage of agentic AI, the incidence of negative experiences in the last 12 months, and the magnitude of reduced spending following these experiences. Following this, Cebr estimated the indirect effect by using the survey responses on how negative experiences are shared through word of mouth. By combining these with the direct effect data, the broader impact of negative experiences across consumer networks was estimated. This means that the estimated potential costs amounted to 3.1% of the US market and 6.1% of the UK market.
About Trustpilot
Trustpilot began in 2007 with a simple yet powerful idea that is more relevant today than ever — to be the universal symbol of trust, bringing consumers and businesses together through reviews. Trustpilot is open, independent, and impartial — we help consumers make the right choices and businesses to build trust, grow and improve.
Today, we have more than 330 million reviews and 60 million monthly active users across the globe, with 149 billion annual Trustbox impressions, and the numbers keep growing. We have over 1,000 employees and we’re headquartered in Copenhagen, with operations in Amsterdam, Denver, Edinburgh, Hamburg, London, Melbourne, Milan and New York.
Contact
Louise Bryant / Declan Proudfoot, Trustpilot
press@trustpilot.com
Tracey Foschini / Georgina Powley, Headland Consultancy
trustpilot@headlandconsultancy.com