China’s Q4 spending reinforced platform consolidation, as advertisers concentrated budgets on large platforms with data, scale, and commerce integration.
The growing role of AI in shopping is forcing retailers to rethink discovery and decision-making. Walmart, for example, is embedding its ecommerce capabilities into external AI assistants like Google’s Gemini. Meanwhile, Amazon is keeping AI-led discovery and decision-making inside its own ecosystem with tools like Rufus.
This FAQ addresses what marketers need to know about AI chatbots as adoption increases in 2026.
AI companions present ad potential through high trust and engagement, but safety and regulation pose real risks to advertisers.
Messy product data and system silos are stalling its plan to monetize ChatGPT through AI-driven commerce
The best user acquisition strategy isn’t more money—it’s faster testing, tweaking, and deploying.
With deep data access and reasoning, Gemini may shift influence from clicks to AI-curated decisions.
With Slackbot and Claude CoWork, Anthropic leans on embedded AI to reshape workflows and expectations
As funding concentrates among fewer companies, smaller players may need to sharpen differentiation.
As consumer health AI tools expand, companies must tread carefully or risk eroding consumer confidence.
In the crowded clinical market, trusted data, accuracy, and speed will shape adoption.
1,500 layoffs and budget cuts at Reality Labs signal a shift toward AI glasses and real-world ad integration.
Amazon’s silent rollout sparks backlash as users question privacy and ad motives.
Nearly 6 in 10 US teens (59%) say they've used ChatGPT, more than double Gemini's 23%, according to an October survey from Pew Research Center.
"Retailers are reinventing the ways that they connect with their customers in real life," said our analyst Blake Droesch during a recent “Behind the Numbers” episode. "The D2C revolution that we saw play out online has now really reached its limitations, giving way to a disconnection between brands and their customers."
As budgets consolidate and scrutiny intensifies, retail media networks are being asked to prove their value in the same way that the rest of digital media does. That shift was on full display at CES, where platform updates from Albertsons, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart Connect signaled a deeper evolution underway. Rather than chasing more inventory or novel formats, retail media players are investing in the foundational capabilities that underpin long-term credibility: measurement, data access, and intelligence.
Google’s latest AI tools let users buy via chat as the company tries to turn its search dominance into agentic commerce gains.
As genAI assistants play a more prominent role in shopping, retailers and brands will have to rethink how their loyalty programs support direct consumer relationships, and how loyalty benefits can be surfaced in AI conversations.
Cost, not brand, fuels genAI growth in emerging markets—marketers must rethink influence channels.