This podcast episode is sponsored by Kevel and features Ben Foulkes, Commerce Media Lead at Kevel, in conversation with Colin Colburn, Vice President of Commerce and Retail Media, at Retail Media Summit UK.
The next retail revolution probably won’t happen on a website. It’ll happen through an AI.
That’s the bold idea at the center of this conversation between Kevel’s Ben Foulkes and IAB’s Colin Colburn, recorded live at Retail Media Summit UK. The two unpack how AI agents, tools that move from recommending products to actually buying them, could transform retail media and redefine what it means to be “discoverable” as a brand.
Foulkes predicts that within just a few years, autonomous shopping journeys could move from novelty to norm. As platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews evolve from assistants into purchasing intermediaries, retailers will need to decide: are these platforms partners or competitors?
The episode explores that tension through recent examples—from Walmart’s OpenAI partnership to Amazon’s walled-garden approach—and raises important questions about data ownership, privacy, and the role of first-party data in an AI-driven world.
But amid the hype, Foulkes offers a pragmatic reminder: physical stores and distribution networks remain the industry’s true moats. With most grocery sales still happening in-store, brick-and-mortar retailers have an edge that even the smartest AI can’t replicate.
For retail media leaders, the takeaway is clear: Sponsored products may power today’s RMNs, but the future will demand more creativity, including native formats, immersive video, and offsite activations that capture attention across platforms, not just on them.
The bottom line
As shopping becomes increasingly automated, the brands and retailers that thrive will be those that build for discovery in a world where discovery itself is changing.
