Observed Signal · Aug 4, 2026 · Survey/Research · Source: The Drum · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Negative
Retail Media Market: Survey: Media Buyers Unready for Agentic Revolution
Kiri Masters argues that despite widespread announcements of AI agents for media buying, most media buyers and brands lack the data infrastructure and integrations required to adopt agentic workflows. A Skai survey of 332 paid media practitioners found a mean 'agentic readiness' score of 35.7/100, with 30% unprepared, 49% exploring, and only 3% having AI embedded at scale. Retail media and CPG brands score below the 'Building' tier, and very few organisations expose agent-readable data or end-to-end orchestration. The piece highlights the gap between C-suite enthusiasm and practitioner readiness and warns that agentic advantages will depend on retailers and platforms making data accessible to agents.
The survey exposes widespread lack of data integration and agent-accessible infrastructure among buyers and brands, which limits near-term adoption of agentic media buying and affects retail media networks' ability to capitalise on AI-driven automation.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Skai surveyed 332 paid media practitioners in April and scored them across nine dimensions of agentic readiness.
- The mean agentic readiness score across respondents was 35.7 out of 100.
- 30% of respondents were in the 'Unprepared' tier, 49% were 'Exploring', and 3% reported AI embedded at scale.
- Only one of the 332 respondents described an organisation running autonomous agents with oversight.
- Only 5% of Skai’s cohort have paid media and business data unified with agent-readable access, and 2% report end-to-end orchestration through MCP or equivalent.
Connected Companies & Entities
6 Entities mappedAmazon
Global commerce, cloud, advertising and subscription platform company.
“While everyone debates agentic shopping, Amazon’s Rufus is racking up sales...”
Pacvue
Retail media software linking commerce signals to campaign execution.
“Management platforms such as Skai and Pacvue, agencies and even retailers themselves are launching agents designed to optimize every stage o...”
Skai
Omnichannel advertising software for search, social and retail media.
“Ad management platform Skai surveyed 332 paid media practitioners in April this year, scoring them across [nine dimensions of agentic readin...”
Chewy
Online pet retailer with recurring autoship and retail media revenue.
“Pet retailer Chewy has built for this tension....”
OpenAI
Foundation model company selling AI software, APIs and subscriptions.
“OpenAI’s push into advertising should worry retail media networks because AI platforms could intercept shoppers before they reach a retailer...”
Search, video, adtech and cloud giant within Alphabet.
“The mid-tier, the actual growth market, got burned by Google’s Performance Max in its early days and is understandably wary of anything rese...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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