THE APEX TIMES
As third-party shopping assistants try to influence what consumers buy online, Amazon and Walmart are testing how AI-driven recommendations could reshape retail media advertising.
Amazon and Walmart, two of the biggest players in the retail ads business, are now confronting a new variable in how shoppers discover products, and what that means for advertising revenue. A new market report highlighted that the companies’ $74 billion ad market is facing an “AI test” as third-party shopping assistants, which use artificial intelligence to help users find items and make purchasing decisions, begin to matter more in day-to-day shopping.
The core question is whether AI shopping assistants will steer customers toward retailers’ own ad-linked product listings, or toward alternative routes that could bypass a retailer’s advertising stack. The report frames the moment as a competitive trial period in which each company is experimenting with how shopping assistants should be handled, and how ad formats and targeting may need to evolve as AI becomes a more common shopping interface.
The piece also emphasizes that Amazon and Walmart are not taking the same approach. While both benefit from selling ads alongside retail search and product pages, their strategies for third-party assistants can affect which products get surfaced, how brands pay for visibility, and whether retailers retain the data and control needed to measure campaigns. In retail media, the ability to connect an ad to a purchase outcome is a key part of ad performance.
For Amazon specifically, the test matters because much of its advertising engine is tied to its retail customer journey and its broader marketplace platform. However, the report does not provide additional granular details in the materials provided here about what Amazon has changed in its assistant-related product policies, technical integration points, or specific AI partnerships. As a result, readers should treat any exact mechanism as unconfirmed beyond the general notion that Amazon is responding to third-party AI assistants.
Walmart faces similar dynamics. In a retail environment where consumers can ask an assistant for product recommendations, the “discovery layer” becomes a battleground. If AI assistants provide answers that point shoppers to a retailer’s catalogue, that can support retail media. If assistants pull users elsewhere or fragment the shopping path, advertisers may have less confidence in attribution and performance.
The companies’ differing approaches, as described in the market report, point to a broader sector challenge. Retail media has grown into a major revenue line for large retailers, but it depends on keeping commerce and advertising tightly connected. AI tools can introduce new intermediaries between a consumer’s intent and a retailer’s merchandising and ads systems, forcing vendors to reconsider how recommendations, sponsored listings, and measurement work together.
Still, important details remain unclear based on the information available for this review. The cited report does not disclose, in the materials provided here, what specific AI assistants or partner products are involved, what exact rules Amazon and Walmart are applying, or how these choices are expected to affect near-term ad demand, pricing, or campaign outcomes. Until more comprehensive reporting or company statements are available, the magnitude and timing of any revenue impact should be viewed as uncertain.
What to watch next is whether retailers publish clearer guidance to brands and agencies, how they describe AI-related integrations on their platforms, and whether ad buyers report measurable changes in campaign performance or attribution as AI assistants gain usage. The outcome could influence how quickly the retail media industry standardizes around AI-driven discovery, and which players can translate recommendations into trackable retail sales.
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