NIQ, Similarweb Partner for AI Purchase Analysis

Global consumer intelligence group NIQ has partnered with digital analytics company Similarweb, to build a new solution helping brands, retailers and technology platforms track and evaluate purchase journeys taking place entirely within an AI environment.

The partners are hoping to address developments in consumer purchasing behavior, with new software such as Google's Universal Commerce Protocol and OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol allowing consumers to complete the entire buying journey, including the purchase itself, 'inside a single AI experience.' This creates a need to link measurement of brands' visibility within AI with such integrated purchase outcomes.

Similarweb's foundational digital data, adding visibility into AI-driven consumer behavior throughout the purchase process, will help NIQ bring together its product intelligence, consumer behavior data and retail sales measurement to deliver 'a comprehensive view of consumer behavior across both traditional and emerging AI-driven discovery environments.' An initial version of the solution will be available towards the end of this year, beginning with a focused set of categories and markets, and expanding over time.

The new solution will provide measurement coverage across platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Claude. Five measurement / analysis areas will form its core: consumer intent, including the questions they are asking AI assistants and the reasons for doing so; agentic shelf visibility - how brands and their competitors show up in AI recommendations; product content readiness for scanning and parsing by AI; the volume of traffic driven by AI; and the corresponding volume of purchases across all channels.

Troy Treangen (pictured), Chief AI and Product Officer at NIQ, states: 'AI is becoming a new commerce channel, and NIQ intends to make it measurable. Our clients want to know where AI is already influencing their business, how quickly that influence is growing and what they should do about it. NIQ has the AI-ready data foundation and the product, consumer and sales intelligence needed to answer those questions. With Similarweb, we can extend that intelligence across the AI-influenced purchase journey: from discovery to traffic, conversion and sales.'

The partners are online at www.niq.com and www.similarweb.com .