Retail Media ad spend is projected to hit $140B by 2027, but teams are still slowed by manual processes, disconnected systems, and the sheer speed at which campaigns need to run.
With AI adoption accelerating, Gartner predicts that by 2030, 80% of retail media campaigns will be powered by AI and Agents – delivering real-time optimisation and hyper-personalisation at scale.
Enter Agentic AI – the next leap forward in automation that doesn’t just assist humans but acts on their behalf. These AI agents execute tasks, make decisions, and adapt to live data – accelerating both the internal and external momentum of your Retail Media flywheel from siloed pilots to fully connected, performance-driven ecosystems.
What is Agentic AI?
AI adoption in retail media has moved through three distinct waves:
Predictive AI
Anticipating outcomes (e.g., forecasting, lead and opportunity scoring).
Generative AI
Creating content, copy, or creative assets.
Agentic AI
Autonomous execution, monitoring, optimising, and acting without waiting for human prompts.
This third wave is where Salesforce’s Agentforce sits, enabling the creation of retail media agents that manage campaigns end-to-end – 24/7.
Industry benchmarks show the opportunity is real: Retailers adopting agentic AI in campaign execution have achieved up to 1.3× higher ROAS and 1.5× greater customer engagement compared to manual optimisation methods
Retail media networks and marketplaces can deploy pre-built AI agents grounded in deep industry data and designed to transform advertising sales, operations, subscriptions, support and self-service at scale with Agentforce for Media.
The Internal Flywheel: Agility at the Core
Internally, AI Agents can:
For example, AI-powered workflow automation can cut campaign setup time by up to 60% and reduce operational costs by 25% – freeing teams from repetitive admin to focus on growth and partner strategy
The External Flywheel: Performance That Pays Off
Externally, AI Agents power:
These capabilities ensure advertisers get better results, faster – fuelling reinvestment and accelerating the flywheel.
Connected Intelligence
Agentforce isn’t just intelligent – it’s the connective tissue that unites data, systems, and teams into a single, high‑performing organism.
It seamlessly orchestrates workflows across departments, ensuring that insights move effortlessly from:
No silos. No delays. With this level of connected intelligence, retailers can act on live signals, adapt strategies in the moment, and deliver consistent, measurable results – both inside the organisation and across every external media touchpoint.
Every decision becomes faster, sharper, and more impactful.
Where Internal Speed Meets External Scale
Powerful internal processes mean little if they’re not connected to external outcomes. The real unlock happens when internal agility and external activation are fully aligned. With Agentforce, internal operations powered by agentic AI are seamlessly linked to external signals from marketplaces, media platforms, and customer interactions.
At this intersection, AI drives relevance, performance, and scale.
It’s this cumulative synergy that spins the retail media flywheel faster: internal speed meets external opportunity, creating self-reinforcing loops of optimisation, engagement, and monetisation. The most successful retailers and marketplaces are those that connect data, intelligence, and activation – turning signals into sales and scale into sustainable margin.
Why It Works
Agentic AI is the connective tissue that turns insight into scale
Agentforce becomes the intelligent conductor that keeps every part of your retail media strategy in rhythm – making growth frictionless and continuous.
A Day in the Life of an AI Agent
Imagine launching a seasonal campaign where the AI agent:
What once took days of manual work now happens in hours — with minimal human intervention.
Looking Ahead
Agentic AI won’t stop at digital channels. Expect it to orchestrate campaigns across omni-channel environments – from in-store digital signage to mobile and e-commerce – adjusting messaging and spend dynamically based on context and behaviour in the moment.
Retailers who adopt early will not only spin the flywheel faster but also create a self-reinforcing loop of growth, insight, and innovation.
The Takeaway
AI agents aren’t replacing your teams – they’re multiplying their impact. By bridging internal efficiencies with external performance gains, agentic AI turns Retail Media into a true growth engine.
Start spinning your flywheel faster with our Agentic Retail Media Agents.
Book your free Revenue Opportunity Assessment and build your blueprint for sustained retail media growth.
