MarTech: How AI agents shaped the record-breaking 2025 holiday season

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech. Read the full article here.

Salesforce data shows where AI agents drove growth, conversion and efficiency during the holidays — and what marketers should do next.

The 2025 holiday shopping season set new records, according to Salesforce data, with $1.29 trillion in global sales driven by a definitive shift toward AI-driven agentic shopping. A resilient consumer base drove global online sales up 7% from last year, with U.S. sales at $294 billion, up 4% from 2024. 

Brands that deployed their own AI agents saw significantly higher growth than those that did not. Consumers remained resilient amid higher prices, leaning heavily on mobile devices and AI agents to find the best deals.

Let’s look at three big takeaways and what they mean for marketing leaders in the months ahead, not to mention this year’s holiday shopping season.

Agentic commerce is here from chat to operations

The season’s data confirmed that AI agents have moved beyond handling basic customer service queries to becoming fundamental drivers of revenue while supporting more streamlined operations.

AI agents influenced 20% of global retail sales, and traffic from AI-powered searches, such as on ChatGPT or Perplexity, showed incredibly high intent, converting nine times more often than traffic from social media referrals. Additionally, companies deploying their own agents, such as Pandora and SharkNinja, experienced a 59% higher growth rate than those that did not.

As Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce, put it, “Agents didn’t just drive $262 billion in sales through high-intent discovery. They became the operational heroes of the season.”

This article was written by Greg Kihlström for MarTech. Read the full article here.