Circana’s Cara Pratt and Lindsay Pullins unpack how AI, social commerce and agentic shopping are compressing the path to purchase, and why brands that stop experimenting risk disappearing from the buying journey completely.
“There’s an incredible amount of experimentation, and the cost of experimenting is decelerating. But the cost of not experimenting is significant,” says Cara Pratt, president of global retail and media at Circana, speaking alongside Lindsay Pullins, Circana’s senior vice president of retail media.
As AI transforms how products are discovered, evaluated, and bought, Pratt argues that brands can no longer afford to wait for the perfect strategy. The priority is understanding how machines interpret brands today, before AI agents begin making more purchasing decisions on consumers’ behalf.
Marketing to machines
As commerce becomes increasingly agentic, brands will need to persuade algorithms, not just people.
“The brand needs to be thinking about, how am I showing up, how is that AI system evaluating my product, what kind of reviews do I have, what kind of claims do I have, and is it crystal clear what the brand stands for?” says Pullins.
This means that clear product data, accurate taxonomies, trusted reviews and consistent brand signals will become as important as creative campaigns in determining which products AI recommends.
Experimentation alone isn’t enough
Pratt argues that success also depends on combining strong data foundations with speed, precision, and scale.
That means building feedback loops where brands can test, learn, and optimize continuously as AI reshapes consumer behaviour in real time.
The conversation also signalled a broader shift for retail media.
Rather than operating as another advertising channel, commerce media is evolving into a connected ecosystem where retailers, publishers, brands, and AI platforms share richer signals to drive both brand building and performance.
Watch the full conversation to learn how agentic commerce will reshape retail faster than many brands expect, how social commerce is rewriting the path to purchase, and what to do now.