}
Remember when every retailer decided it needed its own media network? Apparently, that wasn't enough. Now everyone also needs AI shopping assistants, offsite media, clean rooms, self-service dashboards and roughly 89 ways to prove they deserve another slice of your advertising budget.
The latest Retail Media Report Card from Mars United Commerce paints a picture of an industry that has officially graduated from startup hype into full-blown corporate arms race. Retail media remains a monster business, with U.S. spending expected to reach nearly $72 billion this year. The catch is that everyone now has the same idea and AI is preparing to rewrite the rules anyway