Inflation-Wary Parents Turn to AI to Thrift for Back-to-School Deals

More than half of consumers will use AI to help them with back-to-school shopping this year

Back-to-School-Hero — Consumers will drop over $36 billion this year on school supplies like these.

We may be just entering the dog days of summer, but parents across America are already thinking about back-to-school.

With inflation top of mind, shoppers are on the hunt for early-bird deals: Nearly 62% plan to start back-to-school shopping before August, according to a study from Coresight Research.

And this year, they’re getting an assist from artificial intelligence.

More than half (56.3%) of respondents to Coresight’s study said that they are using, or plan to use, AI tools to help with back-to-school shopping.

Coresight did not ask back-to-school shoppers about AI use in its 2025 survey, but comparative data suggests how significant this year’s adoption rate is.