EP40 – Has OpenAI killed agentic commerce?

OpenAI has stepped back from its “instant checkout” experiment—raising a big question: is agentic shopping already over before it began?

In this special news update, Viv and Colin – alongside Grace & Co's new AI expert Rob Isaacs – unpack what really happened, whether OpenAI misjudged the complexity of e-commerce, and what it means for retailers, AI search, and the future of retail media.

Key Topics Covered:

• OpenAI’s withdrawal from instant checkout
• Why scaling across retailers is harder than expected
• The reality vs hype of “agentic shopping”
• Consumer behaviour: search vs full-funnel AI commerce
• Advertising strategies across AI platforms (OpenAI vs Perplexity vs Anthropic)
• What retail media networks should do next

“They tried to conquer e-commerce in six months – something that took Google years.”

“AI reinforces expertise – it doesn’t replace it.”

“You have the products, you have the customers. That’s not going away.”

“Everything loops back to closed-loop attribution.”

Stay tuned for more episodes of Retail Media Therapy, where we unpack the biggest shifts in commerce, media, and AI.

Grace & Co | Retail Media Experts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.