Commerce Media is evolving at an unprecedented pace. AI is creating new ways for consumers to discover products, for brands to deliver advertising, and for businesses to engage customers throughout the entire customer journey.
In the DMEXCO Podcast, Michael Komasinski, CEO of Criteo, joins host Verena Gründel to discuss how AI is transforming Commerce Media and why he believes autonomous shopping agents are often overestimated. Rather than replacing people in the buying process, AI should help them discover products faster, make better purchasing decisions, and receive more relevant recommendations. After all, people will continue to enjoy shopping themselves. AI should make shopping easier, not replace it.
At the same time, the introduction of advertising into AI applications such as ChatGPT marks the beginning of a new era for brands. According to Komasinski, around 80% of the traffic generated by paid advertising on ChatGPT currently comes from new-to-brand customers. Companies that want to remain visible in AI-powered product recommendations will therefore need to rethink both their marketing strategies and budget allocation.
"Most marketers up and down Croisette this week will tell you that they just don't know how much budget to shift out of it. The introduction of paid advertising in OpenAI accelerates that conversation even further because now brands need to start thinking about how much budget they're going to put into that discovery layer."
Rethinking Commerce Media
Keywords are giving way to conversations, product data is becoming a competitive advantage, and brand building is taking on new importance in an AI-powered customer journey. Michael Komasinski believes traditional keyword-based shopping experiences will largely disappear over the next two to three years. As a result, clean and structured product data will become increasingly important, determining which products AI assistants recommend. At the same time, he explains how Commerce Media benefits from the convergence of search, discovery, and shopping—and why retailers will continue to play a central role despite the rise of AI.
The conversation also explores advertising in AI chat interfaces, the shift toward conversational commerce, and why relevance will become more important than pure automation. Michael’s conclusion: AI should not take over purchasing decisions but help people find the right products faster.
Put on your headphones and dive into the future of Commerce Media!
