All Things AI

Albertsons Put Ad Space Inside the AI Assistant, and the Shelf Moved Into the Conversation On June 22, Albertsons Media Collective and the ad-tech company Criteo began selling sponsored product placements inside Albertsons' AI-powered shopping assistant. Ask the assistant what to cook this week, and the conversational answer can now fold eligible sponsored products into its suggestions. Albertsons is the first retailer to put paid brand discovery directly inside an AI shopping assistant, and the move settles a question consumer brands have been circling for a year: when a customer talks to software instead of walking an aisle, where does a paid brand actually show up? The detail that makes this matter is hiding in how people use these assistants. Albertsons says more than 85% of the AI conversations begin with an open-ended question rather than a product name, something closer to "what should I make for dinner this week" than "pasta sauce, 24 ounces." That habit pulls brand discovery to the very start of the trip, before the shopper has named anything to buy. Old-school retail media let a brand bid on the search term after intent was already formed. Inside the assistant, the...