AI helps drive record 11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending

AI helps drive record $11.8 billion in Black Friday online spending People line up outside of a store during Black Friday in Woodbury, New York, on Friday. Although some shoppers queued up, many others used AI-powered shopping tools to help drive a surge in online spending on Black Friday. AI-powered shopping tools helped drive a surge in U.S. online spending on Black Friday, as shoppers bypassed crowded stores and turned to chatbots to compare prices and secure discounts amid concerns about tariff-driven price hikes. U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online, up 9.1% from 2024 on the year's biggest shopping day, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion visits that shoppers make to online retail websites. The holiday shopping season arrives amid tighter budgets, unemployment nearing a four-year high, U.S. consumer confidence sagging to a seven-month low and price tags that have shoppers watching every dollar. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.