Advertising budgets are breaking free from legacy search and migrating into new performance surfaces, including AI-driven answers, creator-driven video and commerce ecosystems that control the path from discovery to purchase.
In August, the Financial Times reported that AI shopping agents from OpenAI, Google and others are beginning to handle product discovery and even transactions on behalf of consumers. This is not a minor upgrade to search; it is a fundamental break from the keyword-query model that underpinned two decades of ecommerce. Brands will soon be optimizing not for blue links, but for relevance inside AI-generated answers and conversational agents.
AI Shopping Agents and the Break from Legacy Search
Google reinforced this shift in early August when it briefed advertisers on new formats inside its AI Mode, confirming that marketers will soon bid for visibility inside generative responses rather than traditional listings. The implications are profound: paid visibility is moving into opaque AI interfaces, raising new questions about attribution, bias and competitive dynamics. These AI Mode ads will shift paid visibility into generative answers.
Retail Media Ad Spend and Platform Ad Revenue Growth
At the same time, commerce platforms themselves are capturing budget flows. Amazon’s Q2 earnings showed advertising revenue up 22% year over year to $15.7 billion, with signals that monetization will extend deeper into Alexa+ and other surfaces where discovery blends into transactions. Instead of a clear moment where you search and then buy, Amazon wants to make those moments seamless — for example, asking Alexa about a product and completing the purchase instantly, or seeing an ad inside Prime Video and checking out in a single click.
Walmart Connect reported 31% YoY ad growth in August, demonstrating how retail media is pulling spend away from Google and into retailer-owned ad networks like Walmart Connect and Amazon Ads. These commerce-owned environments not only capture budgets but also give retailers margin resilience amid tariff and inflationary pressures.
Shopify, while smaller in scale, launched Universal Cart, Catalog and Checkout Kit. These AI-driven merchant tools will effectively transform its ecosystem into a default performance channel for SMBs. Taken together with Amazon’s ad expansion and Walmart’s Connect growth, these launches show how major platforms are decoupling discovery from storefronts and anchoring it wherever the consumer — or their AI agent — happens to be. This shift is reflected in accelerating retail media ad spend and platform ad revenue growth across ecosystems.
Creator-Driven Commerce and TikTok GMV Max
Social commerce is locking brands into creator ecosystems. In late August, TikTok made GMV Max the only supported campaign type for Shopping Ads, forcing advertisers into automated, outcome-based buying.
Business Insider noted that major brands pushed back, arguing the mandate stripped them of choice. But the underlying shift is clear: platforms are steering budgets into automated models that monetize creator content at scale. YouTube, Instagram, and others are on the same trajectory, embedding creator video at the center of performance strategy.
This means that the creator economy is no longer a parallel track to traditional performance media — it is becoming the default infrastructure for acquisition. TikTok Shop ads are inseparable from influencer-driven content, and YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels now represent mandatory, automated inventory streams.
Brands that once treated creator partnerships as campaign-by-campaign supplements will need to operationalize them as core, always-on performance channels. The risk is loss of flexibility and higher dependence on platforms’ opaque algorithms, but the opportunity is to harness creator ecosystems as the engines of automated, scaled commerce.
The Net Effect
Planning must now account for fragmented commerce ecosystems where the rules are shifting faster than most leaders can adapt. The risks are clear — over-indexing on immature AI formats, growing dependency on walled gardens and opacity in measurement. Yet the strategic weight is undeniable: performance budgets are breaking free from legacy search, and those who reallocate early will define the next playbook for ecommerce monetization.
For CEOs
Growth planning now collides with volatility on multiple fronts. It’s no longer about steady budget allocations across known channels — platform-controlled surfaces can rewrite the rules overnight. CEOs must balance margin protection with the willingness to reallocate aggressively, knowing that foresight and adaptability, not cost discipline alone, will separate the winners.
For CMOs
AI answers, creator ecosystems, and commerce-native tools have crossed the threshold from experimental to essential. They demand the same operational rigor once reserved for search and social. CMOs face a capabilities race: building the expertise, processes, and measurement frameworks that can treat these surfaces as core inventory, not side bets.
For CDOs
The mandate is integration at a depth few organizations have achieved. Marketing, commerce, and operational signals remain siloed across systems never designed to interoperate. Without unification, accountability erodes, performance visibility collapses, and strategy drifts on incomplete data. CDOs must stitch together disparate signals into a coherent operating model that executives can actually trust.
Signals
- Rise of AI shopping ‘agents’ set to transform ecommerce — Financial Times
- Google briefs brands on AI Mode ads ahead of Q4 rollout — Search Engine Land
- Amazon’s ad business stays strong; Q2 ad revenue up 22% to $15.7B — Marketing Dive
- Walmart’s booming ad business provides ‘flexibility’ amid tariff impact — Retail Dive
- Shopify launches Universal Cart/Catalog/Checkout Kit; beats Q2 — PYMNTS
- Unlock new loyalty features in Google Ads & Merchant Center — Google Ads Blog
- About Product Shopping Ads (GMV Max is default/only) — TikTok Ads Help Center
- Business pushback as GMV Max becomes mandatory for Shop ads — Business Insider