Observed Signal · Nov 14, 2025 · Interview · Source: AdExchanger · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
AI Revolutionizes Retail: Strategies for Omnichannel Success
AdExchanger Talks features Jeff Cohen, Chief Business Development Officer at Skai, discussing how AI is moving from headline-making experiments to practical, omnichannel retail strategies. Cohen notes that while agentic commerce is nascent, major moves—such as Walmart partnering with OpenAI and PayPal Payments being integrated into ChatGPT—signal momentum for AI-driven commerce. He argues marketers should test broadly, build partnerships, and accelerate using data across channels to break down silos and leverage first-party data. Cohen, who joined Skai in September after nearly four years at Amazon Ads, says Amazon remains the largest retail media player. The conversation highlights the need to connect search, social, video, and retail to understand the customer journey, and mentions Skai’s Celeste AI marketing agent. The episode touches on examples like New Balance’s influencer-driven comeback and the broader implications of interactions with AI.
Industry-wide discussion of AI in retail and partnerships, highlighting major platforms and players; not a paywall, earnings, or regulatory item.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Walmart partnered with OpenAI
- PayPal Payments integrated into ChatGPT
- Jeff Cohen is Chief Business Development Officer at Skai
- Jeff Cohen previously served as principal evangelist for Amazon Ads
- Amazon is the largest retail media player globally
Connected Companies & Entities
7 Entities mappedRelated Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
AI Revolutionizes Retail: Ads, Tools, and Consumer Engagement
This week's MadTech Daily highlights rapid AI adoption across retail and media as platforms roll out new tools. Walmart is transforming its AI shopping assistant into an advertising channel, with Sparky testing in-conversation ads that could blur the line between shopping and promotion. OpenAI expands its shopping capabilities by adding a shopping research tool within ChatGPT that offers personalized buyer guides and conversation-based recommendations, and it is introducing group chats to turn ChatGPT into a collaborative hub. Alibaba’s new AI app, Qwen, is off to a strong start with more than 10 million downloads in its first week, signaling quick consumer uptake. On platforms, Pew Research data shows YouTube and Facebook maintain dominant audiences in the US. In media M&A, Warner Bros. Discovery has attracted bids from Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix for a streaming deal, though regulatory hurdles push a potential finish line more than a year away. The piece underscores a future where retail, AI, and social platforms converge.
Retail AI Talks Shift Toward Strategy and Results
At retail industry events such as Shoptalk Spring, conversations about artificial intelligence have moved from experimentation and efficiency gains toward demonstrating measurable results and formal AI strategies. Retailers and brands showcased use cases — David's Bridal described an AI wedding-planning platform called Pearl that increased time on site, and Macy's highlighted an "Ask Macy's" shopping assistant whose early tests showed users spent 400% more. Agencies and vendors emphasized moving beyond using AI as a work assistant to building products and processes that were previously impossible. Executives cited change management, workforce reskilling, and multi‑pillar AI strategies (E.l.f. Beauty outlined four pillars) as critical. Informal polling and recent vendor experiments (including ChatGPT’s retreat from Instant Checkout) suggest consumers use AI more at work than for shopping, highlighting gaps between hype and real consumer readiness.
AI Becomes a New Ad Media Channel
Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights and former eMarketer analyst, explains on AdExchanger Talks that conversational AI and assistant interfaces (which she calls “AI media”) — including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google’s AI Overviews and retail assistants like Amazon’s Rufus and Walmart’s Sparky — are evolving into distinct organic and paid media environments. Williamson argues these AI-native interfaces can carry users from initial query to purchase without leaving the assistant UI, reshaping media plans and particularly influencing middle-of-funnel consideration. She expects early AI-search budgets to be reallocated from traditional search but predicts AI assistants and AI-native search will become foundational channels over time. The episode also covers organizational readiness for AI, the feasibility of OpenAI’s $100 billion ad forecast, and broader societal implications of AI advertising.
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