Personal AI agents are ad-free right now. Hand one your email and your calendar and there are no sponsored results, no banners, nothing nudging you toward a purchase you didn't ask about. That isn't a design principle so much as a stage, and every consumer platform that reached scale has passed through it on the way to selling ads.
Retail media should be paying close attention, because most of it rests on one format: the sponsored product ad, served to a shopper already on the retailer's site, already searching. It works because there's a search results page to put it on. When the Research, Find, Buy journey moves into a conversation with an AI shopping agent, that page goes away, and so does the inventory. Something will replace it, and the companies building agents are already deciding what.
The people running retail media networks know this. They also have a revenue target to hit this quarter with the inventory they have today, which is why you're not hearing it from them. Meanwhile, brands are being told to figure out AI advertising with almost no independent analysis of what the formats are, what they cost, or whether anyone is shopping this way yet. That gap is why we launched AdGentic, and it's where Kiri Masters starts in the debut episode.
Every platform follows the same pattern
Google's founders warned in 1998 that an ad-funded search engine would be "inherently biased towards the advertisers," then launched AdWords two years later with the ads kept "clearly separate." Two decades on, the ads sit at the top of the page under a single word, Sponsored. WhatsApp's founders kept a "No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!" note on the desk; Meta bought the company in 2014 and ads arrived in 2025. Amazon started as a store, and by 2025 its ad business was earning roughly twice the operating profit of its retail segments. Sam Altman called ads "a last resort" for OpenAI in 2024, and ChatGPT was showing them to free users by early 2026.
What this means for advertising
The formats so far are early and mostly uninspiring. ChatGPT's ads are a labeled box under the answer, and the formats built for an agent rather than a results page, like sponsored prompts and sponsored agents, are only just starting to appear.
The version to worry about is the one you can't see: paid rankings presented as advice, or a merchant paying to become your agent's default. That's the bias Google's founders warned about in 1998, and it's the outcome Kiri Masters's first episode is really warning about. Her test is simple: visible ads beat invisible steering. An ad that's shown, relevant, and clearly labeled passes, and a paid ranking dressed up as a recommendation fails.
Why we launched AdGentic
Most of retail media rests on one format: the sponsored product ad, served to a shopper already on the retailer's site, already searching. It works because there's a search results page to put it on. When the Research, Find, Buy journey moves into a conversation with an AI shopping agent, that page goes away, and so does the inventory.
AdGentic follows the ReFiBuy Media Network alongside RetailGentic, which tracks how the AdGentic commerce market is evolving, and RetailPlaybook, which covers how brands compete inside retailer-hosted shopping agents. AdGentic follows the money: who sells the inventory, what the format looks like, what they cost, and what’s worth testing.
Each series is led by someone who works in this space and has a view worth testing: operators, researchers, and the people building ad products inside AI platforms and retailers. Kiri Masters leads the first series, and new hosts will lead the ones that follow. She hosts the Retail Media Breakfast Club, founded Bobsled Marketing (acquired in 2022), writes a weekly column for The Drum, and has been named a Top Retail Expert by RETHINK Retail four years running. She also sits on ReFiBuy's advisory board, however hosts have complete editorial freedom and ReFiBuy sees nothing before the audience does. No sponsor or partner shapes what goes out and the opinions on AdGentic are hers.
Watch, listen, or read
The debut episode, "Enshittification is coming to personal AI agents," ran today, Tuesday, October 20, and Kiri's companion essay was released on the AdGentic Substack the same day.
Watch on YouTube, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or subscribe to the Substack or LinkedIn newsletter for every episode, the essays, and the visuals each guest brings to the show.
AdGentic is part of the ReFiBuy Media Network, alongside Retailgentic, RetailPlaybook, and The Jason and Scot Show.
