AI Shopping Agents Threaten Amazon and Walmart Ad Revenue
· Business · Reuters, Indian Express
AI-powered shopping agents that bypass retailer websites could erode the lucrative advertising businesses of Amazon and Walmart, according to industry analysts. These agents, embedded in chatbots and voice assistants, can complete purchases directly without users seeing sponsored product listings. Amazon and Walmart have built multi-billion-dollar ad empires by selling prominent placement to brands on their own platforms. If consumers shift to AI intermediaries that aggregate offers across retailers, the value of that on-site ad inventory declines. Analysts say the threat is still early but could accelerate as large language models improve shopping reasoning. Neither company has disclosed specific countermeasures.
Why it matters
Amazon and Walmart depend on high-margin advertising to offset thin retail margins; a shift to AI agents could force a fundamental rewrite of their monetisation models.
Read the original report — Reuters
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