AI-First Retail Media Teams Are Winning—Are You Even Close?

“Retail media is going agentic.”

That’s what I told a group of CPG leaders this week while we debated the future of in-house media teams.

Because what started as a wave of in-housing is now becoming something else entirely.

The brands that win won’t just have the right people.
They’ll have the right AI + human model—and a data foundation that lets them scale it.

Here’s what you need to know.

The CPG In-Housing Era Was Just the Beginning

Around 2018, big CPGs started pulling media buying away from agencies and into internal teams.

Why?

• Rising costs

• Need for agility

• Desire for direct control

COVID accelerated this. And suddenly every major brand had a performance marketing pod sitting inside a brand or eComm team.

But now, something new is happening.

The New Model: People + AI, Not Just People + SaaS

Retail media isn’t just about having the right team—it’s about having the right systems.

AI services are now able to:

• Buy media faster than humans

• Optimize campaigns 24/7

• Learn from first-party data in real time

• Interface directly with retail and brand platforms

Smart brands are building hybrid models: in-house talent + automated agents.

And it’s working.

The Next Leap: Agentic AI in Media Execution

We’re not far from this becoming the norm:

“Brief a conversational agent. Watch it build and manage your retail media campaigns in real time.”

It’s not sci-fi. It’s happening in pilot tests right now.

These agents will:

• Set up retail and brand campaigns

• Monitor performance

• Optimize based on outcomes

• Report back to you—automatically

Which raises the question: are you set up for that future?

How to Get Ready Now

1. Own your data
    Your media performance, sales, and shopper data should sit in your environment—not with your agency.

2. Control your ad accounts
    You can’t automate what you don’t own.

3. Build a modern data stack
    Centralize performance data in a clean room or cloud lake.

4. Upskill your teams
    Train brand and media managers to write prompts, read AMC dashboards, and pressure-test AI outputs.

5. Attract AI-native talent
    Hire people who know how to operate at the edge of tech + creativity.

Final Thought

The future of CPG media is agentic.
That doesn’t mean people disappear.
It means they stop operating the machine—and start designing the system.

You in?

🎥 Watch the full video here: