Published by software provider Akeneo, the report highlights the scale of this recent shift, showing that most Google searches now end without users clicking through to retailer websites.
This trend intensifies when AI-generated summaries are displayed, with around 80% of searches ending without an external click.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The report, The Invisible Shelf, also introduces the concept of “Invisible Shelf” products, which are digitally available but effectively hidden from AI recommenders due to unstructured or insufficient information.
Rather than guiding consumers to visit ecommerce sites, AI-powered tools are recommending products within search results, dramatically altering the visibility landscape for brands and retailers.
This marks a departure from traditional search engine marketing. Rather than directing traffic to homepage storefronts, AI looks for individual solutions, making every buying decision a race at the product level.
A critical concern raised by Akeneo is the risk of products being overlooked if their information is incomplete or not formatted for easy interpretation by AI.
When product data is missing, hidden inside PDFs or structured in ways machines cannot easily process, AI assistants may exclude those products from recommendations altogether.
Research cited in the report points to hallucination rates in AI models, where systems generate incorrect or invented details, ranging from 15% to 52% when structured data is absent.
In such cases, AI can either attempt to infer missing information or recommend a competitor’s product that offers a richer data set.
The impact on digital visibility is already apparent, with 47% of citations within AI-generated overviews coming from sources that rank below the top five positions in standard search results. This emphasises that high-quality, structured product information can drive recommendations even without top search placement.
McKinsey predicts that AI-driven search will impact as much as $750bn in US consumer spending by 2028.
Akeneo EMEA North sales VP Justin Thomas said: “The next battle for visibility won’t be fought on search engine results pages. Increasingly, products will be recommended directly by AI systems.
“If AI cannot understand, verify and trust your product information, your products risk becoming invisible during one of the fastest-growing stages of the buying journey.”
Akeneo advises brands and retailers to approach AI discoverability not as a marketing challenge, but as a product data problem.
The company argues that while Answer Engine Optimization tools can track product appearance, lasting visibility will depend on how well retailers structure and govern their underlying product data.
Looking ahead, Akeneo suggests the stakes will rise further as AI evolves toward ‘agentic commerce’, a shift where AI agents will autonomously compare, select, and potentially make purchases for consumers.
