Klaviyo’s global consumer research identifies four distinct AI consumer personas and reveals sharp divides across gender, generation, and region

BOSTON, MA — March 10, 2026: Klaviyo today released its AI Persona Research that examines how consumers use and trust AI. The report identifies four distinct AI consumer personas: Enthusiasts, Evaluators, Skeptics, and Holdouts.

The global study of nearly 8,000 consumers found that AI is already influencing purchasing behavior with 41% having purchased a product recommended by AI in the past six months and more than one in five now starting with AI tools when making decisions, learning something new, or solving a problem. Adoption is continuing to grow at a fast rate – 60% use at least weekly – but full trust remains limited at 13% indicating that consumers will continue to value the quality of those interactions.

Consumers are also engaging with AI in more personal ways. 78% include emotional or personal context at least some of the time, and 30% use eight or more words in AI searches, signaling a shift from traditional short-form keyword queries to conversational decision making.

Trust, however, is not evenly distributed. Men are 60% more likely than women to completely trust AI, and Millennials and Gen Z are 75% more likely than baby boomers to do the same.

The findings suggest consumers are grouping themselves in new ways - not just by age or income, but by how they feel about AI.

How people use AI shapes how they want AI to communicate with them.

AI Enthusiasts and Evaluators together represent nearly 70% of global consumers. They use AI regularly and see value in it. Skeptics and Holdouts, nearly one-third of global consumers, remain wary.

But the divide is not simply between users and non-users. It cuts across gender, generation, and geography.

That broader trust divide plays out clearly within the personas. Enthusiasts skew male, with 63% identifying as men, while Skeptics (61%) and Holdouts (60%) skew female. Likewise, regional differences also emerge with European consumers being more likely than their US and Australian counterparts to completely trust AI, signaling that comfort with AI adoption varies across the globe.

Generational differences add another layer. Younger consumers are more likely to fall into the Enthusiast and Evaluator personas and tend to use longer, more contextual prompts than baby boomers, which may reinforce stronger outputs and greater confidence.

“AI isn’t just changing how brands operate, it’s also reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate brands,” said Jamie Domenici, CMO of Klaviyo. “What’s new is that AI trust now influences strategy. Two audiences with similar demographics can respond very differently depending on how they feel about AI. Some expect deeply personalized, agent-driven experiences. Others see that same experience as intrusive or inauthentic. The opportunity isn’t simply to adopt AI; brands must calibrate how they use it based on their customers’ trust levels and expectations. Consumers want the brands they love to reinforce their trust in this technology instead of breaking that trust.”

Immediate benefits from using AI for shopping outweigh perceived risks.

AI’s influence on shopping is no longer theoretical. Klaviyo platform data shows traffic from AI-referred sources like ChatGPT and Gemini surged 1,936% year-over-year. This complements the report findings that reveal 41% of global shoppers have purchased an AI-recommended product in the past six months and another 27% say AI introduced them to products they later researched further.

As consumers increasingly turn to AI for product discovery and decision-making, brands are also exploring AI-powered customer engagement tools including conversational agents that help shoppers get answers, discover products, and resolve issues faster. AI-powered tools such as predictive segmentation, personalized messaging, and intelligent send-time optimization are also being used to tailor experiences based on customer behavior and preferences.

Among AI Enthusiasts, who represent 26% of consumers globally, 43% report purchasing multiple products they didn’t previously know about based on AI recommendations. This group trusts AI the most but they also expect it to deliver.

Heavy AI users are the harshest critics.

Consumers that heavily use AI are also the most critical. 40% of AI Enthusiasts say they notice low-quality or generic “AI slop” from brands multiple times per week and nearly one in five notice it weekly.

At the same time, consumer perception is shifting. While 46% of respondents say they are confident they can distinguish AI-generated content from human-created content, more than 30% incorrectly identified a human-written customer service response as AI-generated. More than half assumed a real image was AI-generated when it was not.

For Skeptics (10% of consumers) and Holdouts (21%), that perceived automation further erodes trust. In other words, how consumers use AI may influence how much they trust it.

"Consumer perception around AI is evolving quickly, and that shift is forcing brands to be more intentional about how they engage their customers,” said Andrew Katz, CMO of Athletic Brewing Company. “AI gives us better insight into what’s actually resonating in the attention economy. But creativity is still human. If you let AI do all the thinking, it feels inauthentic, and consumers can tell. For us, AI is a tool to listen, learn, and adapt faster — but the ideas and storytelling come from our teammates."

To learn more, download Klaviyo’s AI Persona Research here.

Methodology

Klaviyo’s AI Persona Research is based on a 28-question survey of 7,998 consumers across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, and Singapore, conducted between November 30 and December 22, 2025, via Pollfish, a market research provider. Respondents were aged 18 and older and represented a broad cross-section of global consumers.