Deployment record
In the tracker →- Organisation
- Walmart
- System
- Sparky
- Stage
- Live
- Function
- advertising
- 01The US retail media market is estimated at $74.4 billion in 2026, with Amazon and Walmart holding a combined 88% market share.
- 02Advertising constitutes about 10% of Amazon's total net sales, with ad revenue growth slowing to 11% year over year in Q3 2026.
- 03Morgan Stanley predicts that AI shopping agents could represent 10% to 20% of US e-commerce spending by 2030.
Show all 5Show less
- 04Amazon has banned certain third-party shopping agents, while Walmart has partnered with one, indicating differing strategies towards AI integration.
- 05Brands are adapting their product information for AI agents, but retail media sites continue to drive the majority of sales for companies like Mondelez.
Walmart
Follow Deployed on Google
The two largest US retailers have built an advertising business on shoppers browsing their sites. AI agents that research and buy products on a shopper's behalf could change how that business works, Reuters reported in an analysis on November 4, 2026.
US retail media, in which brands pay retailers to promote products on their sites and apps, is estimated at $74.4 billion this year, according to Emarketer.
Walmart and Amazon hold a combined 88% of it. Emarketer expects brands to spend 22.6% more on retail media in 2026 than the $60.7 billion they spent in 2025.
Morgan Stanley researchers said in July that AI shopping agents could account for 10% to 20% of US e-commerce spending by 2030.
What Is at Stake
Advertising makes up about 10% of Amazon's total net sales. Its ad revenue grew 11% year over year in the third quarter, the slowest pace in nearly four years, according to LSEG data.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last week that third-party agents have had no meaningful effect on Amazon's ads so far.
Walmart does not break out figures for its ad business, Walmart Connect. CFO John David Rainey said in August that advertising, membership and marketplace operations together accounted for 45% of the company's quarterly operating income growth.
The concern is that agents shopping for consumers may not respond to sponsored listings in the way human shoppers do.
Advertising aimed at bots may depend more on specific product data that matches a query than on visual or emotional appeal, according to the Reuters analysis. Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and L'Oréal are working to make their product information easier for AI agents to process.
Two Approaches to Outside Agents
Amazon and Walmart have taken different positions on third-party agents.
Amazon banned Meta's agentic tool, Muse, in September, saying it accessed the store without authorization and captured customer credentials.
The week's store, brand and commerce deployments. Fridays.
Meta declined to comment to Reuters. Amazon told Reuters that third-party agents should operate openly and respect service providers' decisions about whether to participate.
Amazon also won a court order in March blocking Perplexity's Comet shopping agent, which the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned in August. Amazon disagreed with that decision, and the case is ongoing.
Walmart has partnered with Muse. On October 21, it launched infrastructure for third-party agentic commerce that lets shoppers approve purchases or set spending limits for agents linked to their Walmart accounts.
Both companies are also putting advertising inside their own AI tools. Amazon has embedded ads in Alexa for Shopping, and Walmart is testing ads in Sparky, its AI shopping chatbot. Walmart declined to comment for the Reuters article.
How the Market Could Adjust
Analysts and agency executives quoted by Reuters described a gradual shift. Morningstar analyst Brett Husslein called it "an evolution rather than an existential threat" for retail media.
"We are not recommending that clients fundamentally shift their retail media budgets overnight," said Amie Owen, chief client officer at Flywheel.
Katherine Black, a senior consultant at Kearney, described a possible future in which retail media becomes a bidding system: agents search for products at a consumer's price point, while retailers set price ceilings and floors.
Dan Marc, CEO of Footprints AI, said he expects Amazon and Walmart to offer multiyear deals to their largest advertisers, along with more discounts on digital retail media ads.
Brands are still relying on retailer sites. Andrew Lederman, Mondelez's vice president of global digital commerce, said on a podcast in April that agents are bringing brands closer to consumers, but that retailer media sites still drive the vast majority of the company's volume.
Other companies are also bringing advertising into AI platforms. On its Q3 2026 earnings call, Shopify said its Shopify Campaigns ad product now reaches 10 channels, including ChatGPT, and that year-to-date Campaigns orders have more than doubled.
In travel, Marriott CEO Tony Capuano said on the company's Q3 call that some AI platforms that are monetizing are leaning toward traditional advertising rather than taking a commission on bookings.
Last updated
