Trustpilot and AI: A Partnership for the Future of Commerce

Trustpilot Teams Up with E-commerce Giants for AI

Trustpilot, the renowned online review platform, is forging strategic alliances with major e-commerce companies as AI-driven purchasing becomes increasingly common. Adrian Blair, CEO of Trustpilot, explained in an interview with Bloomberg News that AI agents, acting on behalf of consumers, require a vast amount of information about the businesses they interact with. Trustpilot, with its extensive data sets, positions itself as an essential partner for these systems.

Blair emphasized that the most effective AI systems will rely on data like that held by Trustpilot. The company aims to collaborate with major e-commerce sites to maximize the use of its data. Trustpilot anticipates that its operating margin will reach 30% by 2030, an improvement partly attributed to the use of its content by large language models (LLMs).

Exponential Growth in AI Searches

Traffic trends are beginning to reflect this shift towards AI. Clicks from AI-based searches have increased by 1,490% over the past year, largely due to Google's decision to make AI search the norm. Data from Promptwatch indicates that Trustpilot ranked as the fifth most cited domain globally in ChatGPT in January of this year.

Blair stated that large language models have created a new channel through which Trustpilot's content is presented, noting an increase in exposure and referral traffic from LLM-based algorithms.

Strategic Partnerships and Technological Innovations

In February 2026, Amazon and OpenAI announced a partnership to deploy generative AI systems on AWS, targeting consumer-oriented applications. This agreement covers infrastructure provision and the development of custom models. Additionally, Walmart's partnership with Google allows users to purchase goods within the Gemini chatbot. Google has similar arrangements with Shopify and other retailers.

Shopify's Universal Commerce Protocol enables AI agents to access product data and finalize transactions, ensuring that potential buyers remain on the AI platform rather than navigating to the retailer's site. Microsoft's collaboration with PayPal for Copilot Checkout fits into the same pattern.

Shopify has pursued similar partnerships, including with Microsoft, so that merchants can sell through chatbot interfaces. Its recent product updates describe "agentic storefronts" where transactions occur within interactions with AI. For marketers, the loss of valuable data when buyers make purchases through a third-party proxy is somewhat offset by the revenue generated from commerce via AI platforms.

Challenges and Opportunities for Trustpilot

Amazon is currently contesting unauthorized access by third-party AI agents to its platform and is developing its own assistant to maintain control over user data and advertising revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Adrian Blair of Trustpilot argued in the Bloomberg News interview that user-generated reviews retain their value, regardless of AI's involvement in the purchasing process. He stated that consumers will continue to "have experiences" with businesses, describing Trustpilot's review data set as a long-term asset whose relevance is increasing.

The company's stock has been affected by a broader decline in software stocks last month, spurred by media speculation about the demise of SaaS platforms based on statements made by Anthropic.

The Impact of AI on Consumer Behavior

The PYMNTS Intelligence report titled "How AI Becomes the Starting Point for Everything for Consumers" describes consumers beginning their product searches and purchases on AI platforms, iteratively refining their queries rather than through successive "traditional" searches.