Analysis-AI shopping agents could threaten Amazon and Walmart's ad business

Source: Yahoo News
Published on: 2026-11-04 13:12

By Juveria Tabassum, Nicholas P. Brown and Arriana McLymore Nov 4 (Reuters) - The rise of AI-led shopping is posing a conundrum for retailers like Walmart and Amazon: how to enable AI agents to shop on their websites, without threatening their lucrative advertising revenue and the customer data that fuels it. Retail powerhouses Walmart and Amazon are also the world's two largest retail media businesses, dominating the estimated $74.4 billion in US retail media spending with a combined 88% share of that market, according to projections from data firm Emarketer. But digital assistants could soon disrupt that business. AI-powered agents that can research and purchase products on consumers' behalf -- like Meta's recently released Muse -- could erode the highly profitable business of brands paying retailers to promote products on their websites and apps. Morgan Stanley researchers said in ...

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