AI agents present an opportunity for retailers to better engage with customers, despite traditional AI threatening consumer engagement. Alban Villani, CEO Europe at Epsilon, the data and tech company at the heart of Publicis Groupe’s surging growth, explains how leveraging the technology is essential to regaining influence.
AI is often positioned as a concern for retailers’ place in the commerce journey, with the rise of zero-click searches carrying implications for organic search traffic to merchants’ sites.
“Consumers increasingly get what they need from conversations with Gemini and need not click through”, says Forrester’s Nikhil Lai.
Yet the next phase, AI agents, offers hope of a more symbiotic relationship. Moving beyond recommendations, these agents can act independently, making decisions and completing purchases for consumers. This shift could in fact strengthen retailers’ role, positioning them squarely at the centre of transactions once more. Walmart’s Sparky assistant illustrates this in practice; around 15% of Walmart’s customers are already using the tool to help them with product recommendations, budget planning, even weather checks, and soon reordering essentials automatically — all within a single platform.
Rise of the Agents
AI has long aimed to reduce decision fatigue. Shoppers face endless webpages and thousands of SKUs, often feeling overwhelmed. AI simplifies this by collapsing choices into a handful of trusted options, turning complexity into clarity. Agents go a step further by completing the purchase entirely.
Mastercard’s Agent Pay initiative and Visa’s Intelligent Commerce program illustrate how quickly this transformation is taking shape. Already 70% of shoppers have experimented with AI tools to help them shop. The rails for agent-led transactions are already being laid, signalling that this is more than a future concept.
Progress is Tethered To Data
Delivering the right outcome, however, depends on access to clean, accurate, and constantly updated data. Product details, pricing, inventory levels, sustainability scores, and provenance all become critical. Without it, AI agents cannot serve consumers effectively.
This is where retail media assumes a new role as the nervous system of AI-to-AI trade. It is the connective layer through which data flows, campaigns are activated, and signals move between retailers, brands, and agents. Just as a nervous system coordinates countless micro-decisions in the human body, retail media enables the exchanges that underpin smarter commerce.
Journeys are still unfolding across many channels — from email to stores, apps, and TV — but retail media sits at the centre, helping retailers and brands connect these touchpoints intelligently. According to IAB Europe, retail media investment is forecast to rise from €13.8 billion in 2024 to €22.3 billion by 2026. This growth is not merely a reallocation of spend but reflects its importance as the system that ensures campaigns and commerce thrive in an era of autonomous negotiation.
Europe’s Unique Advantage
Identity becomes a vital enabler, ensuring campaigns reach real individuals in measurable, consistent ways.
Europe is well positioned to lead. Its retailers combine loyalty ecosystems with physical presence, and regulatory frameworks such as GDPR and the Digital Markets Act create trust rather than friction. Compliance becomes a differentiator for CMOs, and this foundation of data protection and consumer confidence will be invaluable as AI agents scale.
We are at the threshold of a new era. Monday.com’s UK survey (2025) shows nearly half of brands already believe consumer journeys will be influenced by AI agents by 2030. These agents will not replace the funnel but reshape it, making it more efficient and intelligent.
For brands and retailers, the real preparation isn’t simply making product catalogues cleaner, but ensuring their businesses are fuelled by their own data. First party signals from loyalty programmes, purchase histories and customer interactions are the assets that will determine if the agent is able to deliver not just any option, but the right option — rooted in an understanding of each individual’s context, habits and preferences.
Put simply: being “machine readable” is necessary, but not enough. To secure a place in tomorrow’s shortlist, retailers and their agents must also be people ready. Whether the journey starts in an inbox, in store or on a connected TV, the message needs to be coherent and consistent.
The future belongs to retailers who treat their data not as an asset to be traded away, but as the engine of a smarter, two-way relationship with every customer. AI agents are not replacements, but teammates — amplifying the value of loyalty signals, first party insights and identity resolution. Together, retailer data and machine intelligence create a commerce model that is both human centred and AI enabled, placing retailers back at the heart of every decision.
