CMO TLDR: AI Rewrites the Rules of Shopping and Advertising

AI Reshapes Shopping & Ads

AI Shopping Assistants Reshape Commerce as Entertainment Drives Sales

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how consumers shop, with AI assistants projected to become a $37 billion market by 2034 while simultaneously serving as the first gatekeepers of consumer choice rather than simple search tools. Commerce is increasingly blending with entertainment as platforms like TikTok Shop generated over $100 million in U.S. sales during a single Black Friday event, forcing marketers to master both algorithmic visibility and cultural engagement. The shift means brands must now influence two audiences: human consumers and the AI systems that curate their shopping options, creating a new paradigm where success depends on earning algorithmic favor while designing experiences that feel more like entertainment than traditional retail.

Read more from OMD’s Rapid Response

Amazon Launches AI Agent That Creates Full Ad Campaigns From Scratch

Amazon introduced an autonomous AI tool that can research brands, generate marketing concepts, and produce complete video and display advertising campaigns without human creative input, targeting mid-market advertisers beyond its traditional small business focus. The free agentic system combines Amazon's existing generative AI capabilities with deep reasoning functions powered by models like Claude, analyzing brand websites and proprietary shopping data to create personalized creative assets across Amazon's advertising ecosystem. Early adopters are seeing a 12% increase in sales according to Amazon, though the company acknowledges that only half of AI-generated creative assets are actually being used in campaigns.

Read the full article at AdExchanger

Brands Take Control

Dell Brings $600 Million Media Spend In-House, Disrupting WPP Partnership

Dell Technologies is implementing a global in-housing strategy for its estimated $600 million annual media buying operations, starting with search and social advertising in Latin America before expanding to Europe and Asia-Pacific within 12 months. The move threatens to significantly reduce Dell's long-standing relationship with WPP Media, which has served as the tech giant's primary media agency partner since the late 2000s and historically required hundreds of staffers to service the account. Dell aims to improve cost effectiveness and faster market response through better data transparency and AI-powered ad tech operations, with the transition expected to lead to notable workforce reductions at traditional agency partners.

Read more at Digiday

Best Buy Expands Retail Media Network Beyond Store Aisles

Best Buy is expanding its presence in programmatic advertising and data services through its retail media arm, launching physical store takeover campaigns across more than 1,000 U.S. locations while building strategic partnerships with YouTube and the NFL that provide TV manufacturers with exclusive advertising access through Best Buy Ads. The consumer electronics retailer is also expanding its third-party marketplace, which has grown tenfold in product offerings since its launch a month ago, and introducing self-service campaign management tools for advertisers. Best Buy's strategy capitalizes on its customers' longer purchase journeys for premium electronics, allowing the company to target audiences beyond the typical last-minute retail media placements that dominate the industry.

AdExchanger

Quick Links

The Trade Desk Staff, Not Clients, Endorse Kokai Updates in Leaked Deck

The Trade Desk sent clients a presentation featuring testimonials from "traders" praising its revamped Kokai ad-buying platform, but the endorsements came from the company's own employees rather than external users, according to a leaked deck reviewed by ADWEEK.

Magnite Becomes Third SSP in Two Months to Sue Google Over Antitrust Allegations

Magnite filed an 81-page federal lawsuit accusing Google of monopolizing ad exchange and publisher ad server markets through anti-competitive practices, becoming the third major sell-side platform to sue the tech giant since August, as the industry escalates legal pressure following a federal judge's ruling that Google operated an illegal adtech monopoly.

Amazon Expands Its Programmatic Integration With SiriusXM

Amazon DSP deepened its integration with SiriusXM to offer better targeting and analytics for streaming audio ads, while extending its AI-based Performance Plus product to the satellite radio company's inventory, including Pandora, as advertisers seek to incorporate upper-funnel audio placements into omnichannel campaigns.

When CMOs pay for agents not agencies: S4 Capital's AI gambit

S4 Capital executives openly declared that AI agents will replace traditional agency workers, estimating 65% of current agency tasks can be automated with existing technology as the company restructures around an "AI workforce" to cut costs and transform from billable services to outcome-based revenue.

Key Article Takeaways - TLDR

• AI shopping assistants are emerging as the next gatekeepers of consumer choice, a trend that could force brands to optimize for algorithms as much as for people over the coming decade.

• Dell’s $600 million in-housing push and S4 Capital’s AI-driven workforce shift highlight a broader shake-up: the agency model is under pressure, and firms must adapt strategically to survive.

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