If this past holiday season was the bellwether test, it’s clear shoppers are actively inviting AI into their purchasing decisions. Tools, like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude are no longer novelties — they are becoming shopping companions. And those tools aren’t just used for browsing or finding a gift for someone; they are also being used to find the best deal possible.

New research from XCCommerce, conducted in partnership with the National Retail Federation during the 2025 holiday season, found that 7 in 10 consumers are exploring AI search to assist with locating promotions, incentives, and deals.

This research coincides with a study from HUMAN, which found a third of consumers use AI for comparing prices and finding deals for the holidays, second to nearly 40% of consumers using AI to recommend gift ideas.

AI commerce will undoubtedly shape the year ahead. But the more important shift is how retailers respond. Incentives are no longer static coupons or promo codes — they are dynamic, personalized, and increasingly creative. The challenge for retailers is not imagining new ways to engage shoppers; it’s executing those ideas accurately, consistently, and profitably.

As AI transforms deal discovery, retailers must evolve incentives from static promos into personalized, dynamic offers that deliver accuracy, consistency, and profitable engagement.

Incentives are much more than coupons and promotional codes, and how consumers seek deals is changing. The way companies effectively manage and accurately deliver deals will be a priority for the year ahead.

Incentives Get Creative and Personal

Traditional in-store coupons aren’t going anywhere, but consumers engage with offers in many ways, such as by clicking a mobile app alert, discovering a deal in a social media account, receiving online codes through email, scanning QR codes on a TV commercial or in-store shelf tag, and wherever else channels are blurring.

To make incentives stand out, creative approaches to promotions are becoming even more personal and engaging. Leaders in the space are leveraging:

• Dynamic pricing models that change offers based on a shopper’s browsing history, location, or loyalty tier.

• Gamified rewards, such as scratch-off digital coupons, daily check-in rewards, and loyalty points for answering a quiz.

• Live social media event deals, which are only available at that time and for consumers who attend.

• Surprise savings drops for subscribers or loyalty members.

• Rewards for shoppers that make sustainable choices like eco-friendly packaging or delayed shipping.

• Exclusive deals for consumers using Amazon Alexa or AI search tools.

As technology and shopping behaviors change, so do retail promotions and incentives, and retailers have a large sandbox to play in.

At the same time, as incentives become more complex, retailers need to ensure they have technologies and strategies in place to accurately manage offers. Most retail promotion systems were designed decades ago for static, channel-specific coupons and batch updates. They weren’t built to support real-time personalization, cross-channel consistency, or rapid experimentation.

Unified Incentives Keep Offers Aligned

The XCCommerce and NRF shopper study discovered that 80% of surveyed shoppers said saving money is a leading driver for them to purchase a product, and nearly half of consumers said they buy more products or try new brands when using promotions.

Incentives work, and power profits, but mishandling promotions and offers can erode margin.

When promotions are managed across disconnected systems, the risk is real. Overlapping offers, incorrect stacking, or inconsistent execution can quickly erode margin and damage customer trust. A small error, multiplied across thousands — or millions — of transactions, can become a costly mistake.

Think about it: What if an online promo code for 10% off a $500 golf club gets processed at 20% off, and that transaction occurs 100,000 times, that can add up to a lot of lost profit.

To ensure incentives get executed correctly, retailers need to build a unified and centralized view of all incentives happening across their organization. Store, online, social media, and marketing teams all have access to what offers are being offered, when, and where.

A unified system provides control over promotion execution, such as setting rules around in what order various incentives get processed, eliminates overlapping promotions, and automates delivery to maximize accuracy.

Incentives Are Evolving, Retailers Get Smarter

Some retailer organizations can be too relaxed with how coupons and incentives operate internally, running in-store, online, and other offers throughout siloed businesses. Yet, those companies are taking for granted the complexity involved, especially as agentic commerce and AI enters the picture.

Mismanaged offers and rewards can result in lost profits and unhappy consumers, but with a unified promotions operation, retailers stay in sync. Companies can innovate and stay ahead of incentives, expand customization and personalization, and elevate evolving incentives.