|
APRIL 20, 2026 |
Ad budgets are harder to defend. Join EMARKETER in New York City on Thursday, May 14 for a full day of advertising insights featuring new data, exclusive analysis, and direct conversations with the buyers and brand leaders navigating what comes next. Register now.
| | | |
|
|
|
The lack of a standard definition for agentic commerce reveals a fundamental split in how the industry is preparing for AI’s role in shopping |
|
“My definition of agentic commerce is the entire shopping process, from product discovery to price negotiation to checkout, all of it done autonomously on your behalf,” said Ryan Verklin, retail media and paid media senior lead at Bayer, during an IAB Connected Commerce session last week. He argued that anything requiring human approval is simply an evolution of search, not true agentic behavior. |
|
This was echoed by Andrew Lipsman, founder and chief analyst of media, ads and commerce, at Colosseum Strategy. |
|
"What I don't think it can be is just simply throwing everything that is AI assisted or AI Search Driven, and calling that agentic," he said. "We had AI before we had agentic. Agentic has to be differentiated in a way, and to me it comes down to that level of autonomy." |
|
Still, others see it differently. |
|
“I think that agentic at its core is that it's taking an action, and that can be a sequence of actions, but it doesn't necessarily have to be all of them strung together. There’s a spectrum of agentic behavior,” said Scott Collins, senior director of product strategy at Moloco Commerce Media. |
|
While this may seem semantic, the definition matters because it shapes how retailers and brands prepare for the future. |
|
"We're asking retailers and brands to prepare for a certain future,” said our analyst Sarah Marzano. “And I find that those who have a very wide aperture on what qualifies as agentic commerce are the same camps that are saying autonomous purchasing is coming." |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
|
|
Dollar General is introducing an AI-powered audio network to roughly 6,000 stores across 48 states in partnership with tech provider QSIC. That will bring the total number of Dollar General stores with in-store audio advertising capabilities to 12,000, giving advertisers more opportunities to reach shoppers across the retailer’s extensive footprint, including in more rural areas. |
|
Per Dollar General, the partnership will help it serve in-store audio ads that are more relevant, localized, and—perhaps most importantly for marketers—measurable. |
-
QSIC’s platform promises to deliver “intelligent targeting backed by first-party data with verified delivery,” “in-flight optimization responding to real purchases,” and “closed-loop measurement backed by point-of-sale data,” according to the company’s LinkedIn post announcing the deal.
-
QSIC also offers automated volume adjustments to ensure ads are audible regardless of how busy a store is and can tailor messaging to local audiences in real time. |
|
|
|
| | | |
|
|
|
Email sent to: |
|
If you cannot view the HTML newsletter, . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©2026 EMARKETER, 685 Third Avenue 21st Floor, New York, NY 10017 |
|
|
|
| | | |
