The news: In just one year, genAI has gone from retail’s sideline to its sharpest sales weapon, per new data from Adobe. Last year, AI traffic conversion lagged behind paid search and email by 38%. Now the situation is reversed—AI traffic conversion is 42% higher than that of visits from non-AI sources.

• In Q1 2026 alone, traffic from genAI sources to US retail sites surged 393% YoY.
• Session durations for AI-driven visitors are 48% longer than those coming from non-AI sources, and those users are also 12% more engaged overall.

But the reality is that 33% of homepages, product pages, and FAQs are currently unreadable by AI machines. “That presents another opportunity to meet that moment and not be flat-footed in how (brands) engage customers," Vivek Pandya, director of Adobe Digital Insights, told EMARKETER during this week’s Adobe Summit.

Brands falling behind in implementing generative engine optimization (GEO) for product pages are losing out on the discoverability opportunity from growing AI traffic.

Zooming in: What stands out is that AI traffic continues to convert better (e.g., visits leading to purchases) than non-AI channels like paid search and email marketing.

This “pre-qualified” traffic that’s readable by AI arrives deeper in the buying funnel. Because users have already engaged in conversational research with a large language model (LLM), they reach brand sites with higher intent and a clearer path to purchase, Pandya said.

Implications for brands: The transition from traditional SEO to GEO requires brands to move toward conversational depth and technical clarity.

• Prioritize machine readability: Audit your site for missing terms, ensure rigorous content structure with accurate metadata and clear taxonomy, and optimize for LLM crawlers.
• Monitor the broader ecosystem: LLMs source data from Reddit, social media, and review sites. Brands must maintain a high-quality presence across these secondary platforms to validate AI recommendations.
• Prepare for agent-to-agent commerce: As consumers lean on personalized AI assistants, brands must elevate their “concierge” capabilities, ensuring site content supports seamless agent-to-agent communication.