Why agentic AI makes brand-building retail media’s new superpower
Ahead of his session at REmade tomorrow, Alberto Vergara, head of data and AI at retail media platform, Zitcha, paints a provocative picture of the future of retail — where AI agents take over shopping decisions, snapping, scanning and buying on our behalf — showing why the true battleground won’t be clicks or carts, but the human mind.
Alberto Vergara will be speaking at REmade in Sydney on Tuesday
Imagine walking into a store, seeing something you like, snapping a photo and telling your AI agent ‘Buy this for me at the best price, but wait for a discount in the next two months’.Your agent goes to work, comparing prices, tracking deals, and executing the purchase when conditions are optimal. No more browsing, comparing, or clicking add to cart. This isn’t science fiction, it’s the near future of commerce, and it’s about to upend everything we know about retail media.
We’ve been here before. Remember Toys R Us. Parents would take their kids to view, experience and play with toys in its stores and then head home and order them for a cheaper price on Amazon. Physical retail became an expensive showroom for eCommerce giants.
Now we’re heading for Showrooming 2.0, but this time it’s different. The battle won’t be fought on price alone, it’ll be fought in the human mind, before the agent even starts shopping.
When your customer becomes a machine
Here’s the uncomfortable truth for some in the retail marketing world. If AI agents are making purchase decisions, traditional performance marketing as we know it becomes obsolete. There is no longer a need to bid on keywords or optimise for clicks. The customer is now a machine, albeit an AI Agent, that doesn’t browse, doesn’t get distracted by banner ads, and certainly doesn’t impulse buy.
