Commerce media gets AI assistants

Instacart launched Cart Assistant, a white-label AI shopping assistant for retailers, Walmart's Sparky is pushing into product discovery, and eleven retail media networks are pitching differentiation to advertisers.

The crux

AI shopping agents are becoming the new shelf, and the open question is whether retailers monetise placement inside the recommendation itself.

Sell-side read

Retail media is consolidating around Amazon and Walmart; everyone else needs differentiated data and content to justify their CPM.

Watch

Instacart's plan to layer ads into Clementine by year-end, and how carefully it does so.