Parents who shop with AI tools spend far more per child than those who use none, Deloitte found. Overall back-to-school spending stayed flat year over year. Parents using social media, search and AI plan the highest outlay per child. Adding AI to social and search alone lifts planned spend sharply. Epsilon reports that price comparison is the top use of AI this season. Parents also use it to find deals, do early research, build shopping lists and compare brands. Loyalty programme use rose as inflation worries grew. Marketers still lack a standard way to measure brand visibility inside chatbots. The Interactive Advertising Bureau found little consistency across more than 20 AI measurement vendors. HarrisX and Allison Worldwide report that teenagers strongly shape their parents' brand preferences.
What changed
Back-to-school deal hunting relied mainly on circulars, search and loyalty offers.
What it unlocks
Segmenting back-to-school audiences by how many digital tools they shop with.
- $557 average spend per child
- $737 for social, search and AI users
- $381 for non-tech users
- 46% of parents use AI on price
Sources