36% of Belgians Buy on AI Recommendation: What to Do for Your Brand?

In November 2025, the Semactic & PingPrime study run by IntoTheMinds among 1,000 Belgians delivered a figure that turned every head in Belgian marketing: 36% of Belgians have already made a purchase decision based solely on an AI recommendation (Semactic & PingPrime study, November 2025). More than one Belgian consumer in three is no longer just asking AI for advice: they are buying on its recommendation. For brands, this number redefines the very function of online visibility. This article breaks down what this 36% really means, which sectors are affected, and above all the concrete actions to take to capture this new algorithmic prescription.

The bottom line

• 36% of Belgians have already bought on AI recommendation, and 33% use AI to prepare their purchases (Semactic & PingPrime, 2025).
• AI traffic converts 31% better than other sources and generates 68% fewer returns according to Adobe Analytics.
• The most exposed sectors in Belgium: fashion & beauty, consumer electronics, travel, restaurants, SMB services.
• Five priority actions: optimize product pages for AI extraction, deploy complete Product Schema, polish your Reddit/forum presence, appear in comparison sites, multiply sourced customer testimonials.

What does this 36% figure really say?

The figure comes from the survey run in November 2025 by Semactic and PingPrime, on a representative sample of 1,000 Belgians aged 18 to 65, supplemented by 312 marketing professionals. The question specifically measured the final purchase decisions made on the basis of an AI recommendation, not mere consultation. 36% of respondents confirmed having crossed that line at least once (Semactic & PingPrime, November 2025).

To fully grasp the figure's reach, you need to place it in its usage context. 67% of Belgians already use generative AI, and 69% say they trust the answers it gives them. Trust is even stronger among 18-34 year-olds, with 75% saying they trust AI and 76% using it regularly. The phenomenon is massive and intergenerational, even if it peaks among young adults.

What this 36% measures is a transfer of prescription power. Yesterday, the user asked a friend for advice, read reviews on a comparison site, or let themselves be guided by an ad. Today, they put the question to ChatGPT or Perplexity, read the synthesized answer, and click on the brand mentioned. The doubt phase shortens. The buying funnel collapses.

For the full breakdown of the study and its 11 key figures, read our dedicated deep dive: 7 in 10 Belgians use generative AI — decoding our study.

Our field read. Across the Belgian e-commerce brands we support, we see a striking gap between internal perception ("our customers come via Google or our newsletter") and technical reality: 15 to 22% of unidentified referral traffic already comes from AI bots and from chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai referrers poorly tagged in GA4. The 36% figure is underestimated in most dashboards.

Which sectors are most affected by AI buying?

Not all sectors are exposed to AI prescription at the same level. According to BrightEdge, AI Overviews coverage reaches 78% of queries in restaurants and 50% in general e-commerce, with peaks at 88% in health and 82% in B2B Tech (BrightEdge, 2025-2026). The higher the AIO coverage, the higher the probability that your category goes through an AI recommendation.

In Belgium, five verticals concentrate most of the AI-recommendation purchases observed in 2025-2026.

Fashion and beauty

This is the queen category of consumer AI recommendation. ChatGPT and Perplexity are queried on prompts like "which Belgian clean cosmetics brand to choose?", "best straight-cut jeans under €100", "sustainable alternative to Sephora". Presence on Reddit and niche forums carries serious weight in these answers, since Reddit is the #1 source across all AI platforms, with about 40% of citations (5W Public Relations Citation Index, 2026).

Consumer electronics

Smartphones, headphones, laptops, appliances: these are high-stakes purchases where the user compares before buying. AI is gradually replacing the classic comparison site. Detailed pages with complete specifications, Product Schema markup, structured reviews, and comparison tables are massively extracted.

Travel and hospitality

The sector where AI agents are progressing the fastest. To understand how Google AI Mode is already shaking up booking, see our analysis Agentic AI Mode and booking. Independent Belgian hotels not structured for AI risk disappearing in favor of better-marked-up chains.

Restaurants and local services

With 78% of restaurant queries triggering an AIO, this is the vertical that saw the strongest progression in AI coverage in a year (from 10% to 78% according to BrightEdge). Belgian restaurants that don't polish their Google Business Profile listing, their LocalBusiness Schema, and their presence on structured reviews come out invisible from ChatGPT answers like "best Italian restaurant in Brussels open on Mondays".

SMB services

Accountants, lawyers, marketing agencies, consultants: local B2B queries "best independent accountant in Liège" or "digital agency specialized in e-commerce in Wallonia" now go through ChatGPT and Perplexity. Presence in sector directories, in Belgian business media (Trends-Tendances, L'Echo, MM.be), and in well-rated Google reviews become decisive. For artisans and SMBs, see our guide GEO for SMBs: the complete guide.

Why does AI convert better than classic search?

The figure is now documented at scale. According to Search Engine Land, visitors from ChatGPT convert at 15.9% versus 1.76% for Google organic, a 9-to-1 ratio (Search Engine Land, 2025). Adobe Analytics confirms the same logic with a broader observation: AI visitors convert 31% better than other sources, with a bounce rate 33% lower (Adobe Analytics, March 2025).

Why such a spectacular gap? Three mechanisms combine.

1. Pre-qualification is done upstream. When a user arrives on your site from ChatGPT, the AI has already filtered out your competitors, presented your arguments, and answered initial objections. The visitor arrives with a more mature intent: they are in decision mode, not exploration mode. The funnel shortens dramatically.

2. The recommendation is perceived as neutral. Where a Google Ads ad is immediately identified as paid, and where a customer review can be suspected of being fake, the AI recommendation benefits from a perception of neutrality. 65% of AI shoppers say they feel more confident in their purchases, and 68% return fewer products according to Adobe (Adobe Analytics, 2025). It's a net margin gain for retailers.

3. Offer-need matching is sharper. AI can process a complex natural-language query ("women's waterproof jacket for winter hiking, size 38, under €200") that Google does not yet perfectly resolve on a single page. Matching precision reduces friction and cart abandonment.

Our field observation. Across two Belgian DTC brands supported in H2 2025, we measured an average basket 22% to 28% higher on traffic identified as AI-referred compared with Google organic traffic on the same product categories. ChatGPT and Perplexity visitors arrive with sharper intent and lower price elasticity.

To understand how ChatGPT is redefining the online purchase act, read our full analysis ChatGPT shopping research: from browse to buy. If you run an e-commerce site, our vertical guide GEO e-commerce: optimizing your visibility in AI engines details the sector-specific levers.

How can brands capture these 36%?

Five actions structure capturing AI buying traffic in 2026. According to Princeton researchers, the combined application of GEO techniques lifts visibility in generative engines by +40% on average, with a winning trio: citations (+37%), statistics (+22%), quotations (+33%) (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024). Here is how to apply these principles to e-commerce.

Action 1 — Optimize product pages for AI extraction

A product page citable by ChatGPT contains four attributes: a clear title with brand + model + benefit, a description in 60-80 words from the first paragraph (Answer-First), structured specifications in a table or list, and at least one verifiable statistic (average rating, number of reviews, warranty duration, certification). See our method Structuring an Answer-First page to be cited by AI.

Action 2 — Deploy complete Product Schema markup

schema.org/Product markup with its aggregateRating, review, offers, brand, sku, availability properties is read directly by LLMs. A product without Schema is almost invisible to AI. Our complete guide to Schema Markup for GEO details the essential e-commerce tags.

Action 3 — Build a Reddit and niche-forum presence

Reddit represents 46.7% of Perplexity citations and around 40% across all platforms. For a Belgian brand, this means: authentic participation in r/belgium, r/belgique, r/BuyItForLife, r/MaleFashionAdvice, r/SkincareAddiction, and presence on specialist forums (Hardware.fr, Caradisiac, Le Comptoir Beauty). No spam, only value-adding contributions. That's the subject of our deep dive The role of Digital PR in GEO.

Action 4 — Appear in comparison sites and barometers

LLMs draw heavily on comparison content (Wirecutter, Test-Achats, sector comparators). Getting your products referenced in these sources, or publishing your own sourced comparisons, multiplies extraction chances. For Belgium, Test-Achats remains a major authority signal.

Action 5 — Multiply sourced customer testimonials

Blocks in quotation marks have +33% chances of being extracted according to Princeton. A product page that contains 3 to 5 identified customer verbatims (first name, city, purchase context, date) gains in extractability, trust, and semantic richness. The technical detail: that's exactly what LLMs look for when composing an answer that contains "according to users".

If you want to audit your GEO e-commerce maturity before investing, our team offers a 12-week support sprint specifically designed for brands exposed to AI buying queries.

Which content formats work for AI buying?

Not all editorial formats are equal in front of an LLM. According to a 2025 AirOps study, adding citations multiplies AI visibility by 1.37 and adding statistics by 1.22, but formats that structurally combine both (Q&A, comparisons, buying guides) come out even better (AirOps, 2025). Here is the hierarchy observed for buying queries.

• Format|LLM adoption|E-commerce use case|Production difficulty
• Structured FAQs|Very high|Product page, category page, support|Low
• Thematic buying guides|Very high|How to choose an X, Which Y for Z|Medium
• Brand/product comparisons|High|X vs Y vs Z, Top 5, Best in 2026|Medium
• Long sourced reviews|High|Detailed test, customer feedback|High
• Spec sheets|High|Product sheets, technical comparison|Low
• Customer case studies|Medium|Numbered testimonial, before/after|High
• Inspirational articles|Very low|Pure lifestyle, storytelling without data|Low

The structured FAQ format deserves special attention. When a product or category page integrates 5 to 10 real customer questions with 60-to-80-word answers, marked up in schema.org/FAQPage, it becomes a goldmine for LLMs. Our full method: GEO FAQ: how to create FAQs AI actually picks up.

The buying guide format is the second pillar. An article like "How to choose a condensing boiler in 2026: complete guide", structured in question H2s, with market data, brand comparison, numbered advice, will be reused by ChatGPT to answer dozens of related queries. It's an editorial investment with very high leverage.

Our field observation. Across pages reworked into Answer-First format with structured FAQs for two Belgian retailers between June and December 2025, we measured an average increase of 41% in ChatGPT mentions and 53% in Perplexity citations on tracked commercial queries, at constant editorial volume. Structure matters as much as content.

How do you measure the impact of AI purchases in GA4?

Performance measurement of AI is still largely deficient. According to Search Engine Land, LLM traffic represents less than 2% of total measured referral traffic, but converts at 15.9% versus 1.76% for Google organic (Search Engine Land, 2025). Without a proper measurement setup, this ultra-qualified traffic stays invisible in most GA4 dashboards. Here is how to surface it.

Configure AI referrers in GA4

First step: create a custom dimension or a specific "AI Referral" acquisition channel that captures the referrers chatgpt.com, chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, claude.ai, copilot.microsoft.com, gemini.google.com, and you.com. Without this setup, these visits fall into "Direct" or unidentified "Referral" and disappear from marketing reporting.

Measure Share of Model per priority query

The GA4 metric isn't enough: it measures traffic after the click, not visibility in the AI response. To steer GEO, you need monitoring that queries your 50-200 priority commercial queries monthly across the 5 AI platforms and counts mentions of your brand vs. your competitors. Full method: AI citation monitoring: complete guide.

Calculate the economic value of AI traffic

Three metrics to combine: conversion rate by source (often 5 to 9 times higher on AI traffic), average order value (AOV often +20% on AI traffic according to our audits), and customer lifetime value (LTV). Across these three combined axes, AI traffic can represent 20 to 30% of value while weighing less than 5% of sessions. This is the equation that justifies GEO investment.

For the complete method of evaluating return on investment, see our deep dive GEO ROI: how to measure return on investment in 2026.

Frequently asked questions about AI purchases in Belgium

Does AI recommend specific brands?

Yes, and increasingly systematically. When you ask ChatGPT "which Belgian artisan chocolate brand should I choose?", the answer directly cites 3 to 7 named brands, with a short description. According to the 5W Citation Index 2026, only 11% of domains are cited by both ChatGPT and Perplexity, which means selection is highly differentiated from one platform to another. A brand must therefore build a multi-platform strategy, not bet on just one.

How do you appear in ChatGPT shopping?

Three main levers: complete Product Schema markup on your pages, a strong presence on Wikipedia and Reddit (the two most-cited ChatGPT sources, Wikipedia being cited in 47.9% of ChatGPT answers according to Discovered Labs), and brand mentions in established media indexed by OpenAI. Our complete guide: How to appear in ChatGPT.

What is OpenAI Instant Checkout and what does it change?

OpenAI Instant Checkout lets a user buy directly from ChatGPT, without leaving the conversation. It's the shift from "I recommend" to "I sell". For now deployed to a limited number of US merchants, it foreshadows a major shift in e-commerce where the AI engine itself becomes a sales channel. Our full analysis: OpenAI Instant Checkout, a new gateway to e-commerce.

Do BNPL and payment services benefit from AI as well?

Yes. When AI suggests a product, it can include in the answer the available payment options (installments, BNPL, warranties). Brands that expose these options in their Product Schema and product pages see their AI conversion rate rise. 33% of Belgians use AI to prepare their purchases according to Semactic & PingPrime, and the financing question is part of the preparation phase.

Conclusion: a new algorithmic prescription to integrate

The 36% of Belgians buying on AI recommendation figure isn't a weak signal. It's confirmation that a new prescription layer has settled between your brand and your potential customers, and that this layer is called ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and soon AI Mode everywhere in Belgium. With AI traffic converting up to 9 times better than Google organic, the return on investment of a serious GEO strategy is now among the best in digital marketing.

The levers are identified: Answer-First product pages, complete Product Schema, Reddit and niche-forum presence, content in buying guide and FAQ formats, monthly citation monitoring. The roadmap is clear; what remains is execution. To go further, read our deep dive GEO e-commerce: optimizing your visibility in AI engines, browse our case studies, or contact the PingPrime team for a personalized diagnostic of your exposure to AI purchases.