AI helps retail media teams turn shopper data into sales
Retail media networks are drowning in data. CVS Media Exchange processes 90 million loyalty records across 9,000 stores and 5 million daily shoppers. That volume creates a problem: more signals mean more fragmentation, and teams struggle to act on what they see.
AI is closing that gap. By organizing shopper data and automating optimization, retail media platforms are delivering measurable results for brands-and proving the channel's value to sales teams managing tight budgets.
The signal problem
Retail media has exploded as a growth channel for consumer brands. But complexity has grown with it. Shoppers move between digital and physical environments, generating signals at every touchpoint. Without a way to process that volume, brands can't personalize at scale or measure what's actually working.
Kelly Shu, director of omni shopper and customer marketing at Kenvue, described the gap bluntly: "We always talk about personalization, but are we actually doing it? AI gives us the opportunity to actually do it."
How AI turns signals into action
CVS Media Exchange built CorIQ, an intelligent marketing platform that applies AI to three stages of retail media campaigns: planning, real-time optimization, and measurement.
In practice, this means removing shoppers from segments after they purchase, refreshing audiences to avoid waste, and reducing repeated messages to people unlikely to convert. The system surfaces optimization opportunities while keeping humans in the decision loop.
Parbinder Dhariwal, VP and general manager at CVS Media Exchange, said the company is "in the outcomes business" and that retail media's unique strength is its ability to drive measurable sales results.
Results matter more than metrics
CVS Media Exchange reported significant performance gains: 16% greater efficiency in reach, 14% increase in attributed sales, and 15% increase in incremental return on ad spend.
Kenvue saw even stronger results, with more than 30% lift and increases in buyer conversion and basket size. For sales teams evaluating channel spend, these numbers translate to budget justification.
Shu emphasized that media metrics alone don't tell the story. "The media metrics matter, but then growing the business matters as well," she said.
Human oversight remains essential
Both brands and platforms agree that AI works best with human judgment. Shu said she's not ready to let AI handle optimization without oversight. "I think there's a lot of strategy, like allowing AI to surface where the optimizations are, but having someone still oversee it."
CVS Media Exchange keeps people involved as the technology advances. Dhariwal said: "There's always going to be a human involved there."
For sales professionals, the lesson is clear: AI reduces manual work and surfaces opportunities faster, but strategy and judgment remain irreplaceable. The best results come from teams that use AI to scale their expertise, not replace it.
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