Retail media is on the verge of reinvention. Fueled by advances in AI, changing consumer expectations, and the need to attract incremental brand investments, the category is entering a new era.
The next wave of growth will come from connecting brands, retailers, and technology to simplify how retail media works, and perhaps even radically change how retail media works, as AI redefines the shopping experience.
Heading into 2026, three big shifts are already reshaping what comes next.
1. Self-service tools for brands and agencies will finally deliver on their promise
The last few years have been marked by fragmentation. Brands and agencies are juggling multiple retailer platforms, each with their own data quirks and reporting logic. They’re also managing difficult trade-offs, with workflow efficiency, normalized views, and cross-retailer optimization often coming at the expense of direct commercial relationships with retailers, or at the expense of other high-impact formats like video or display. In 2026, that’s going to change.
Powerful new self-service tools will give advertisers the freedom to work how they want, without sacrificing scale or sophistication. These tools will solve fragmentation, not by forcing a one-size-fits-all approach, but by adapting to each brand’s preferred way of working, whether that’s through direct JBPs with retailers or via self-service cross-retailer execution. Brands will be able to create, manage, optimize, and measure campaigns their way, as they have been accustomed to doing in other channels.
At Criteo, we’re tackling this head-on. Our roadmap is focused on three core areas:
- Unified execution – no more hopping between multiple UIs and systems to run campaigns across retailers. Run everything in one place, whether you work with one salesperson, or you work with hundreds of retailer sales teams around the globe.
- Deeper insights and flexible measurement – empowering brands to measure what matters to them in their own way, and to go beyond media metrics to the commerce metrics that impact their business, whether that’s organic sales, category competitiveness, or long-term brand impact.
- AI-based optimization with transparency – combining automation with manual control, so nothing operates in a black box. This means brands get the efficiency of AI, with the ability to take control at any time.
Ultimately, the goal is to give brands and agencies the kind of powerful, transparent tools they’ve come to expect from the largest marketplaces, but across all the other places consumers discover and buy their products. I believe 2026 will be the year when the gap between those worlds finally narrows and retail media finally works better for advertisers.
2. Retailers will stop managing ad revenue in a silo
For retailers, the next chapter centers on optimizing the entire commerce equation.
Today, too many systems independently decide what drives product sales, what drives ad yield, and what improves the shopper experience. This siloed approach limits true incrementality and long-term value. But that’s changing. Retailers are seeking to harmonize merchandising, media, and experience goals through smarter, holistic optimization.
At Criteo, we’re developing software to help retailers do just that and to build towards a future where they can:
- Optimize page layouts dynamically to balance the trade-offs between merchandising goals, ad sales, and shopper satisfaction.
- Deliver dynamic personalization for every shopper.
- Maintain transparency and control over the full shopper experience, with no “black box” algorithms dictating results.
This approach will help retailers move from incremental ad gains to sustainable ecosystem growth—keeping shoppers coming back while improving long-term profitability.
3. Agentic AI will redefine the commerce and ad experience
If 2023 was the year generative AI went mainstream, 2026 will be the year it elevates commerce. As consumers grow comfortable interacting with AI assistants and agents, they’ll expect similar conversational and intelligent experiences on retail sites.
If retailers want to stay relevant, they’ll need to redefine what the ecommerce experience looks like in this new, agentic era where conversations replace keywords and discovery feels more natural. But they won’t be able to do that profitably without ads.
Evolving the commerce experience will also require evolving the ad experience. Retailers will need to determine how ads fit naturally into these interactions, and how they remain relevant not just to the query, but to the individual user. At the same time, advertisers will need new tools to understand and participate in these experiences. The way brands bid, target, optimize, and measure in a traditional, keyword-based retail media environment will have to evolve—if not radically change.
Today, most retail media advertising is driven by keyword and product bidding. But what happens when shoppers no longer type “back-to-school dorm supplies,” and instead ask, “I’m looking for back-to-school dorm accessories for my daughter entering her freshman year of college in Florida. My daughter likes the color green, and decorates in a minimalist style.” That kind of conversational, contextual query introduces a vast new long tail of possibilities beyond keywords. Brands will need to know where to show up, how to make meaningful recommendations, and how to manage all of it at scale.
Delivering relevant product recommendations in this environment requires bringing together multiple data layers: what the shopper asked today and in the past, what they’ve told the system about themselves, what they’ve purchased, and what else they’ve explored. All of that information needs to come together to power relevant recommendations—no one should see a neon leopard print comforter when they’re shopping for minimalist dorm accessories.
And then comes the ranking challenge. Retailers need to present a finite set of recommendations, balancing what’s most relevant to the shopper with what’s most valuable for the business in terms of margin, availability, and ad revenue. The trade-offs remain, but how they’re managed will look entirely different.
Our goal at Criteo is to help our partners lean into innovation early and learn how to make AI an ally in ecommerce. We’re investing in R&D around shopping assistants and conversational ads to help pave the way. Those who make it a priority to experiment with AI-driven discovery and test new ad experiences will be the leaders in the agentic future.
Navigating the road ahead
In retail media’s next chapter, success will come from flexibility. It’s about embracing change and building with openness. About smarter connections and more value for everyone involved. At Criteo, we’re focused on empowering brands, agencies, and retailers to navigate the evolving landscape together. Our goal is to deliver:
- Cross-retailer efficiency without sacrificing partnerships or measurement freedom.
- Harmonized ads, sales, and customer experience through transparent control.
- Reimagined ad experiences for conversational, AI-driven shopping environments.
Our vision is a future where discovery feels joyful and where retail media isn’t an interruption, but an integrated part of the shopping experience. It’s a natural extension of our belief in the love of commerce—helping consumers find what they need and helping brands and retailers grow together through more meaningful connections.
