Among Swedish Gen Z consumers, 24% use conversational AI as a source of inspiration and information when researching new products and services — placing it ahead of television and radio advertising, which reaches 22% of the same group, according to Nepa’s Age of Influence study.
The full ranking of top inspiration sources for Gen Z in Sweden is: friends and family (56%), social media advertising (54%), online search and customer reviews (38%), influencer endorsements (36%), brand and retailer websites (29%), and conversational AI (24%).
Trust levels add further weight to the finding. Approximately 70% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers in the study say they trust answers provided by AI systems, with around one in four describing a high level of trust. When consumers in these groups ask a chatbot about products, they are not browsing passively — they are gathering information they intend to act on.
For brands, this creates a discoverability question that sits outside traditional media planning. Visibility in AI-generated answers depends on different factors than visibility in search results or social feeds — including the quality and structure of published content, the consistency of product information across sources, and whether the brand appears in contexts that AI systems treat as credible references.
Brands that are not building for AI-answer visibility are effectively absent from a channel that is already influencing a significant share of younger consumers’ purchase decisions.
The Age of Influence is a consumer research study by Nepa. The Swedish sample comprises 1,372 respondents aged 16–74, surveyed between 27 June and 18 July 2025.
FAQ
Do Swedish Gen Z consumers use conversational AI to find products?
Yes. According to Nepa’s Age of Influence study, 24% of Swedish Gen Z consumers use conversational AI as a source of product inspiration and information — making it a top-six channel for this group and more commonly used than television and radio advertising (22%).
Is conversational AI more influential than TV advertising for younger Swedish consumers?
Based on Nepa’s Age of Influence study, yes — for Gen Z specifically. Conversational AI is cited by 24% of Gen Z consumers in Sweden as a product inspiration source, compared to 22% for television and radio advertising. For older consumers, this relationship is reversed.
How much do Swedish Gen Z consumers trust AI-generated product recommendations?
Nepa’s Age of Influence study finds that approximately 70% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers in Sweden say they trust AI-generated answers when researching products, with around one in four reporting a high level of trust.
What are the most important product discovery channels for Gen Z in Sweden?
According to Nepa’s Age of Influence study, the top product inspiration sources for Gen Z in Sweden are friends and family (56%), social media advertising (54%), online search and reviews (38%), influencer endorsements (36%), brand and retailer websites (29%) and conversational AI (24%).
How does AI-answer visibility differ from search engine optimisation?
AI-answer visibility depends on different factors than traditional search ranking. AI systems generate answers by drawing on content that is clearly structured, factually specific, consistently attributed to a credible source, and present across multiple trusted web contexts. A brand can rank well in search while being largely absent from AI-generated answers if its content is not optimised for extraction and citation.