What AI agents has AD Retail Media built this year?
Ahold Delhaize USA's retail media division has deployed three AI agents in 2026 to test specific business use cases, according to Bobby Watts, senior vice president and executive lead of AD Retail Media [1]. The goal was to move faster and get more precise about how the team builds campaigns [1].
The most concrete example is Agent Klik. Watts described its job as mining how consumers search for products, then surfacing trending keywords and phrases back to the ad operations team [1]. That turns a manual research task into a continuous feed the team can act on.
The rollout sits inside a broader "test-and-learn" posture. Watts said the team is also using AI for simpler internal work, like proofing emails and building presentations faster, as a way to find efficiency in day-to-day tasks [1].
- Three AI agents deployed in 2026 to test campaign-building use cases [1]
- Agent Klik mines consumer search behavior and surfaces trending keywords [1]
- AI also used internally for email proofing and presentation building [1]
How is AI showing up for shoppers, not just advertisers?
AD Retail Media has launched a meal-planner shopping assistant and is building a broader shopping assistant on top of it [1]. Watts said the team expects to learn directly from how consumers use these tools before expanding them.
He pointed to an industry signal worth watching: another major retailer had reported that its shopping assistant increased basket size rather than shrinking it, an outcome some in the industry had worried about [1]. Watts suggested the same pattern could play out elsewhere, since an assistant gives shoppers more time to discover items they wouldn't otherwise find [1].
That matters for retail media specifically, because a shopping assistant is also an advertising surface. A larger basket built with AI assistance is a different kind of inventory for brands than a static search results page, and it changes what "performance" means for a campaign running inside it.
Why is Ahold Delhaize cautious about AI-generated creative?
Watts drew a clear line between AI used for operations and AI used for brand creative, arguing the latter needs to move more slowly [1]. Generating thousands of personalized creative versions is, in his words, a genuine opportunity, but handing the entire process to AI without oversight risks the brand itself [1].
“I think when it comes to creative, we need to probably slow-play that a bit... it's just such an important piece of your brand.”
That caution is specific to Ahold Delhaize's structure. The company works with five local banners that are, as Watts put it, meticulous about how their creative shows up in their own markets [1].
The distinction is a useful one for any retailer sequencing AI adoption: back-end research and workflow tasks are low-risk places to start, while anything that touches brand voice directly carries more exposure if automated too quickly.
What milestones has AD Retail Media hit in 2026?
AD Retail Media points to two major 2026 milestones: the January 5 launch of its Edge platform, and a self-funded in-store digital screen network [1][2]. Edge consolidates onsite display, sponsored search, offsite media and in-store digital screens into a single ecosystem with standardized measurement [2].
The team is now layering agentic capabilities on top of that foundation, building orchestration across channels for what Watts called agentic media planning, aimed at optimizing campaigns across channels automatically [1].
On the in-store screens, Watts said Ahold Delhaize chose to build and fund the deployment internally rather than relying entirely on a partner, specifically so it could be selective about screen placement for consumer impact and advertiser return [1]. The company plans to expand placements if early demand and customer response hold up [1].
| Milestone | What it does | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Edge platform | Unifies onsite, offsite and in-store ad channels with standardized measurement [2] | Launched Jan. 5, 2026 [1] |
| Agentic media planning | Orchestration and campaign optimization across channels within Edge [1] | In development, 2026 |
| In-store digital screens | Self-funded, self-built network layered onto Inmar's existing analog in-store media [1] | Rolled out 2026 |
Why does the AI investment matter for grocers and brands right now?
It matters because the retail media market is consolidating fast around two players, and AI is one of the few levers smaller networks have to stay relevant to advertisers. US retail media ad spending is forecast to reach 71.09 billion dollars in 2026, but Amazon and Walmart are projected to capture over 89% of that year's incremental spending, according to eMarketer [3].
For a grocer-scale network like AD Retail Media, that concentration means differentiation has to come from somewhere other than sheer reach. Faster campaign building, keyword intelligence drawn directly from a grocer's own shopper search data, and a unified measurement layer across on-site, off-site and in-store channels are all ways to compete on precision rather than scale.
The approach also signals a sequencing logic other retail media teams can borrow: automate the research and workflow layer first, where mistakes are cheap and reversible, and treat customer-facing creative and brand voice as the last mile to automate, not the first.
Sources
- [1]Grocery Dive, How Ahold Delhaize is tapping AI to improve retail media — grocerydive.com
- [2]Grocery Dive, Ahold Delhaize to launch new unified retail media tool — grocerydive.com
- [3]eMarketer, FAQ on commerce media: How to capitalize on growth beyond retail — emarketer.com
