Title: Infobip predicts 7.3 billion Black Friday and Cyber Monday interactions as AI reshapes the 2026 shopping season URL: https://www.infobip.com/news/infobip-black-friday-cyber-monday-predictions-ai Vodnjan, Croatia – 22 September 2026 – Global AI-first cloud communications platform Infobip predicts more than 7.3 billion customer interactions across Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026, as AI and conversational channels transform how consumers discover products, receive offers and access support. New Infobip research also reveals that 63.2% of consumers have used an AI assistant or chatbot while shopping during the past 12 months. Black Friday is no longer a single shopping event. Infobip’s research shows that the shopping season now begins weeks earlier and continues through the entire customer journey. Nearly six in ten respondents will have started holiday shopping by early November, while only 19% wait until Black Friday week itself. This extended shopping window is creating new pressure for retailers to engage customers earlier, with better timing, more relevant offers and frictionless support across the channels consumers already use.   AI is becoming a central part of that journey. According to the research, 63.2% of consumers have used an AI assistant or chatbot for shopping in the last 12 months, with 21.9% using one frequently. Among consumers willing to use AI for shopping, 73.4% would use it to compare products and 67.8% would use it to find deals matching their preferences. However, the data also shows clear boundaries: consumers are more willing to let AI inform decisions than make decisions or handle complaints on their behalf.   The data suggests that while email remains a dominant channel for deals and updates, conversational and mobile channels are becoming increasingly important for time-sensitive, personalized retail engagement. Consumers selected email as the preferred channel for deals and updates globally, but SMS is chosen far more often for updates than offers, showing that retailers can build trust through transactional communications before expanding into promotional engagement.   Speed is also becoming a baseline expectation. Infobip’s survey found that 85% of consumers expect an order confirmation within five minutes, while 47% expect a support answer within five minutes. For retailers, this means AI and automation are no longer only tools for efficiency; they are becoming essential to meeting customer expectations during high-volume periods. Explore all Infobip’s predictions here: https://www.infobip.com/blog/shopping-season-survey ## About Infobip Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey, with AI as the driving force of innovation. Through a single, natively built platform, Infobip delivers omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication and contact centre solutions that help businesses and partners overcome the complexity of consumer communications while driving growth and increasing customer loyalty. Infobip is focused on enabling and accelerating AI adoption as it continues its transformation into an AI-first company. Infobip’s technology has the capacity to reach over seven billion mobile devices in 6 continents connected to 10k+ connections of which 800+ are direct operator connections. The company was established in 2006 and is led by its co-founders, CEO Silvio Kutić and CTO Izabel Jelenić. ## Recent recognitions include: - Infobip ranked #16 in Fortune’s Europe’s Most Innovative Companies 2026 (June 2026), up from its inaugural #68 ranking in 2025. - Infobip named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) for the fourth consecutive year. Positioned furthest for Completeness of Vision for the second time (May 2026) - Infobip named the number one Established Leader in the Juniper Research RCS for Business 2026 Leaderboard (Feb 2026) - Infobip recognized as a growth and innovation leader in Frost Radar™: Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) by Frost & Sullivan (Oct 2025) - Infobip ranked as the number one Established Leader in the Juniper Research Mobile Messaging Fraud Prevention Market report (Sept 2025) - Infobip ranked as a Leader in the Omdia CPaaS Universe Report for the third time (April 2025) - Infobip ranked an Established Leader in the Juniper Research Conversational AI Leaderboard (Feb 2025) - Infobip named a CPaaS Leader for the third time in the IDC MarketScape (Feb 2025) Infobip named one of the top CPaaS providers in Metrigy’s CPaaS MetriRank Report (Dec 2024) - Infobip recognized as the number one provider in the AIT Fraud Prevention market by Juniper Research (Oct 2024)