Digiday Daily

March 09, 2026

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If OpenAI’s latest moves indicate anything, LLMs are positioning themselves to be the go-to stop for searching and shopping. Between shopping integrations and ad product rollouts, AI chatbots could rattle retail media networks’ hold on sponsored and search ad dollars.

As user behavior shifts, so too could retail media’s value proposition.

TOP STORY

Generative AI

How AI could disrupt retail media's $38 billion search ad market

ChatGPT and other AI chatbots could divert shoppers from retailer sites, putting the $38B retail search market at risk.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

By adopting a more optimized flighting approach to ad spend, marketers can deliver more marginal ROI on their investments. This strategy ensures that they’re not wasting any of their spending. Partner insights from Keen Decision Systems.
Sponsored Wifi is an effective way to reach consumers before a large event and enable retargeting. By presenting an ad and redirecting users to an advertiser’s site, retargeting can occur post-event to keep up momentum. Partner insights from Viasat Ads.
Weather impacts what people try, buy and how they feel. This powers targeting to predict the moments when weather shifts a consumer’s mindset toward purchase, driving sales and long-term growth. Learn more in this video. Partner insights from The Weather Company.

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MEDIA & PLATFORMS

Marketing on Platforms

In graphic detail: How Anthropic’s Pentagon refusal is paying off in downloads, brand trust and enterprise deals

OpenAI’s Pentagon deal seemed to spark uproar among its users, many of whom were against it. Anthropic’s refusal to agree to the terms was seen by users as the more trustworthy alternative.

Generative AI

Media Buying Briefing: Overheard at DMBS Spring 2026: AI from the top to the bottom of agencies

The Town Halls revealed the most about the challenges and solutions media agencies face with integrating AI systems and processes into workflows

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM APPSFLYER

How AI uncovers weaknesses in measurement

AI exposes where measurement breaks down, where assumptions hide and where decision-making confidence outpaces accurate outputs. It forces marketing organizations to confront a hard reality: Automation magnifies whatever uncertainty already exists.

Marketing on Platforms

Meta’s measurement and attribution updates are welcomed, but not ground-breaking, ad execs say

Meta is rolling out the updates starting this month, in a bid to bring it more in line with third-party platforms. While advertisers always welcome more transparency, the changes alone won’t necessarily lead to major budget increases.