Singapore shoppers are leaning on artificial intelligence to plan this year’s festive gift-buying more than any other market surveyed, according to new research from Klaviyo, released at the marketing platform’s inaugural K:SGP event in the city on Tuesday.
The event marked the first regional edition of Klaviyo’s global K:SGP series, coming two months after the autonomous B2C customer relationship management (CRM) platform opened its Asia headquarters in Singapore in August.
Singapore shoppers lead the region on AI-assisted shopping
Klaviyo’s State of the Holiday Buyer Report 2026, which surveyed 500 consumers in Singapore as part of an eight-market study, found that 81 per cent of local shoppers plan to use AI to search for holiday gifts this year, the highest adoption rate of any market surveyed.
Shoppers who use AI assistants are also likely to spend more. The report found that 31 per cent of AI-assisted shoppers plan to spend more than they did last year, compared with 10 per cent of shoppers who do not use AI, a three-fold difference. Close to one in five Singapore shoppers now list AI assistants as a top source for gift ideas, ahead of brand emails.
Relevance appears to matter more to shoppers than who, or what, writes a message: 60 per cent of respondents assume brand communications are already AI-generated, and 55 per cent said they do not mind whether content is written by AI or a person, as long as it is relevant. Email remains the most preferred channel at 52 per cent, though nearly half of consumers said they prefer SMS, WhatsApp or mobile app notifications.
“AI is changing how people discover and spend, and nowhere is that clearer than in Singapore,” said Ed Hallen, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Klaviyo. “This holiday season, more shoppers will start with an AI assistant to find the right gift and will spend more. That’s a big opportunity for businesses who are ready to meet them.”
New tools let marketers keep control of AI personalisation
Alongside the research, Klaviyo detailed updates to two AI tools built for brands on its platform. Composer, its marketing agent, can now flag issues such as an underperforming campaign on its own, rather than waiting for a prompt. Customer Agent, its AI support tool, answers shopper questions in more than 100 languages and displays local currency to simplify cross-border sales. Both tools draw on a brand’s own customer data to decide who to contact and when, while marketers set the goals and limits those systems work within.
“Consumers aren’t asking whether a brand used AI to create something. They’re asking whether it’s relevant to them,” said Jamie Domenici, chief marketing officer at Klaviyo. “AI should be doing the heavy lifting, not replacing the marketer.”
Singapore-founded Castlery among early adopters
Singapore-founded furniture retailer Castlery is among the brands using Klaviyo’s tools across email, SMS and WhatsApp. The company said automated flows built on the platform now drive 74 per cent of its Klaviyo-attributed revenue in the first half of 2026, as it shifts focus from acquiring new customers to retaining existing ones.
“Our focus now is on building relationships that last, which means understanding how customers want to furnish their homes and building flows that anticipate what they need next,” said Leah Howatson, general manager, international markets at Castlery.
Klaviyo counts more than 205,000 paying customers globally, including Mattel, TaylorMade, Glossier and Liquid Death.
