How Brands Are REALLY Using AI for Retail Media Automation
At Xnurta’s Signal to Scale Summit this week, I heard some of the most practical conversations yet about how brands are actually using AI in retail media. Spark Foundry’s Kris McDermott summed up the mood perfectly: “We did AI. To what end? That is not a verb.”
From Boiron managing 50,000 keywords with a two-person team, to AI-powered creative testing that drove a 29% sales lift, this episode explores where agentic workflows are delivering real operational value, and where they still require strong human oversight.
From Boiron managing 50,000 keywords with a two-person team, to AI-powered creative testing that drove a 29% sales lift, this episode explores where agentic workflows are delivering real operational value, and where they still require strong human oversight.
I also break down why advanced practitioners are moving beyond ROAS as the primary metric, what Amazon Ads is building with MCP servers and Skills, and why Xnurta's new open-source AI evaluation framework could become critical infrastructure for the future of retail media automation. The biggest takeaway: AI can accelerate performance, but only when paired with clear goals, guardrails, and teams that still understand “the gears” behind the machine.
This episode is sponsored by Mirakl Ads
[01:18] — Boiron’s AI-powered retail media workflow managing 50,000 keywords
[02:00] — AI image scoring drives a 29% sales increase
[03:30] — Why ROAS alone is not the goal anymore
[04:15] — The “automatic vs stick shift” analogy for AI media buying
[06:04] — Xnurta launches open-source AI evaluation framework for retail media
Links & Resources
- If you're interested in joining the Agentic Retail Media Council, Xnurta is recruiting members: sign up link
- Find all the Signal to Scale 2026 speakers here
- Read my related articles:
- EMARKETER is teaming up again with Bain to survey retail media network leaders for a unique insight into the forces shaping the industry. The survey is intended for people working in-house on retail media teams, and it is global this year! The survey is also double-anonymized. The survey organizers will not know, nor are they trying to determine, which specific retail media network a respondent works for. The goal is to understand broader retail media trends, not attribute responses to individual companies. Please take the survey here.
- In Atlanta? Join the Commerce Media Happy Hour on Wednesday May 27! RSVP here
- I am sharing comedy skits on Instagram about retail media! Follow along: @retailmediabreakfastclub
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- Follow Kiri Masters on LinkedIn