Product discovery spans the shopping stages leading up to purchase, including when customers seek, encounter, learn about, and more deeply research products or services. In December 2025, US online adults said they used Amazon and Google most to search for products they were interested in buying. ChatGPT came in a distant third as a source, but it has already outstripped the longer-tenured social channels of Instagram and TikTok. While Gen Z shoppers used ChatGPT more than any other generation, their use of social channels for product discovery still surpassed their use of answer engines.