AI shopping is growing quickly, but it hasn't replaced traditional search.
Shopify's Q2 2026 commerce data shows AI-referred sessions increased 197% year over year, while organic search sessions also grew 12% from a much larger base. More importantly, organic search still sent Shopify merchants more sessions than all tracked AI platforms combined.
There is another interesting difference.
AI-referred shoppers performed particularly well for research-heavy purchases where people compare specifications, compatibility and other details. In those categories, Shopify says AI-referred visitors converted at around twice the rate of organic search visitors.
So perhaps we're asking the wrong question when we ask whether AI will replace Google.
For ecommerce, the two channels may currently be doing different jobs. Traditional search remains the larger discovery engine, while AI can deliver smaller volumes of highly informed shoppers further along the buying journey.
That's a much more interesting picture than “SEO is dead.”
Source: Shopify — AI and organic search are doing different jobs