Artificial intelligence didn’t just turbocharge Black Friday shopping this year — it quietly became retail’s most influential middleman.
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As more consumers lean on AI for product discovery and deal-hunting, a spate of technology-focused ETFs are poised to gain.
The iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSE:IYW) holds Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), placing it at the center of this shift due to the dominance of these firms in cloud, AI search and recommendation engines. The Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (NASDAQ:AIQ) provides exposure to Alphabet, Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), suppliers of the AI models behind comparison bots and shopping assistants.
Internet and innovation funds such as First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index Fund (NASDAQ:FDNI) is well placed to capture the retail funnel. With names like Amazon, Meta, and Shopify Inc (NASDAQ:SHOP), the FDNI captures the platforms increasingly shaped by AI-driven product placement.
Also Read: 81 Million Shoppers Fuel Shopify’s Record $14.6 Billion Holiday Haul
Record Online Spending Driven By AI Tools
This ETF focus coincides with a record-setting Black Friday. U.S. online spending surged to $11.8 billion, up 9.1% from last year, Adobe Analytics data showed, cited by Reuters. E-commerce grew 10.4%, far outpacing the 1.7% rise in in-store sales. AI-driven traffic to retail websites soared more than 800%, underscoring how deeply price-comparison bots and recommendation engines influenced consumer behavior amid tariff concerns and a softer labor market.
Worldwide, AI agents accounted for $14.2 billion in online Black Friday spend, including over $3 billion in the U.S., according to Salesforce. Shoppers gravitated toward items like LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, gaming consoles and AirPods — often guided by AI-generated suggestions and auto-curated lists of deals that shortened the time between browsing and checkout.
Despite strong spending, shoppers purchased fewer items per order as higher prices cut into budgets. Discount levels remained flat compared to last year, and continued inflation and unemployment concerns kept consumers thoughtful about overspending.
But with Cyber Monday expected to set new records, one takeaway is clear: AI has become retail’s most persuasive salesperson — and ETFs holding the companies behind those algorithms may be this season’s quiet outperformers.
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