Mert DAMLAPINAR

Walmart Connect isn’t just selling ad inventory this holiday season. It’s selling proof. Retail media used to be a lower-funnel line item. Now Walmart is making a bigger play, directly offering brands lift studies as they lock Q4 and 2027 budgets. mediaaicommerce.substack.com…

Potential is everywhere. Opportunity is not. MIT announced the MIT for America initiative, to strengthen STEM education across the country. #MIT #Education #AI #STEM #America

With total comparable sales sliding -10% and the Americas market down -8%, CEO Heidi O'Neill has launched a management overhaul. Lululemon appointed former Athleta CEO and Nike veteran Maggie Gauger as the newly created President & Chief Product Officer. #cpg #sportswear #brand

Some Accenture employees were reportedly spending up to $1,000 a month on Claude. Now the company is limiting how much it pays. According to 404 Media, Accenture introduced a new policy on October 1, covering just $29 per employee each month for Claude Enterprise. #AI #Claude

KFC is officially stripping Pepsi from its soda fountains across 3,600+ U.S. restaurants in 2027, handing the keys to Coca-Cola. substack.com/@mertdamlapinar… #QSR #Restaurant #FastFood #Beverage #FMCG

Why did KFC ditch Pepsi in the US? mediaaicommerce.substack.com…

Amazon’s reported Decart talks may be less about buying another AI tech firm, and more about improving AWS’s AI economics. The Wall Street Journal reported a potential price of up to $7B. Reuters said it could not independently verify the talks. And Claude’s also eyeing Decart.

SpaceX may have just made one of its most important moves outside the rocket business. It has agreed to acquire nationwide low-band wireless assets from Spectrum, the kind of terrestrial spectrum that travels long distances and, importantly, works much better inside buildings.

I can’t believe WeWork is on this list.. In 2019 their TAM was between $1.6-3T, today it is between $39-56B (with a “B”). #TAM #TAMAbuse #IPO #Reality

A retail feed is not just an eCommerce task. It connects commercial teams, brand, content, media, data and supply chain. When those teams work to separate priorities, shoppers receive incomplete, inaccurate or unavailable product information. #Ecommerce #CPG #FMCG #DigitalShelf

Most AI governance conversations stall on definitions, what counts as "responsible AI," which framework to adopt, how to word the policy. Meanwhile the actual risk is moving faster than the paperwork. #AI #AgenticAI #Cybersecurity #Agents

My latest article on AI security: The AI safety debate has been theoretical for years. It just became operational, from sandboxes to real companies. #AI #AgenticAI #Cybersecurity #Substack mediaaicommerce.substack.com…

🧠 “AI isn’t replacing marketers — it’s replacing manual marketing.” At hashtag#Groceryshop2025, Greg Stevens (CEO, Osmos.ai) shared how agentic AI is already automating omnichannel optimization: “We unify off-site, on-site, and in-store campaigns into one platform, then our AI agent auto-optimizes and reallocates budgets based on performance.” The result? ⚡️ Higher yield, lower overhead, and fewer people doing the work of many. From Singapore to South America, adoption’s rising, and trust in AI-led optimization is catching up fast.

🔥 Most CPGs are still piloting AI. A few are rewriting the rules. Procter & Gamble just crossed $1B in AI-driven gains. L'Oréal is scaling GenAI across product, media, and commerce, partnering with NVIDIA. Leaders like Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics are now not “testing” GenAI, they’re embedding it across media, ops, and product. Meanwhile… most of brands are stuck in Stage 1. This carousel breaks down: ✅ The 6 brands setting the AI pace ✅ How leaders like L’Oréal & P&G operationalize GenAI ✅ Where AI capital is actually going ✅ The 3-stage blueprint to escape pilot purgatory If your AI strategy still lives in “test & learn,” this is your wake-up call. From internal GenAI factories to creative commerce stacks, leaders like L'Oréal and Procter & Gamble are embedding AI into every layer of growth.

🛒 Most grocery sales still happen in-store…But online is where the growth is exploding. So why are retailers still treating digital like a side project? Again, at Groceryshop, we captured all the hot takes, now with Ben Miller (VP @ Shoptalk & Groceryshop) lays it out clearly in this episode: “Grocery is still 90% in-store, in some markets 85%, but the growth is coming through online. If I’m not doing online right, I’m missing the opportunity.”

“99% of brands are using AI wrong — here’s what the top 1% do differently.” Most brands miss this when adopting AI… It’s not about adding tools, it’s about changing how decisions are made. From day-one retail media bets to scaled CDPs and first-party data control, this episode explores what brands actually need to enable smarter, faster, and shopper-led growth. 🎙️ Featuring: Jessica Wegner, Senior Vice President Retail Media at Douglas Abhishek Ahluwalia, Global Director of eCommerce at Mondelēz International Andrew Pearl, VP of Industry Insights at Profitero+ 💡 Learn how leading brands are: Building playbooks from scratch Bridging offline + online media impact Scaling AI content with real measurement in mind

🧠 What the biggest names in retail just revealed at Groceryshop 2025 👀 🚨 New Episode Alert – Pulse of the Retail Industry Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in the comments 👇 Straight from Groceryshop Las Vegas 2025, we talked to industry leaders, trailblazers and experts to unpack what no one tells you about the AI's next frontier on omnichannel retail, cross-channel growth, digital shelf and retail media. It was an honor to have them on the show: 🗣️ Ben Miller, Vice President Shoptalk / Groceryshop 🗣️ Grace Liesch, Enterprise Sales Director – MikMak 🗣️ Erik Mitchell, CEO – Seek 🗣️ Adam Zimmerman, Co-founder – Ideal™ by Design House 🗣️ Catherine Nickerson, Sr. Director, Industry Strategy – Blue Yonder 🗣️ Gilbert Hernandez, AI Sales Engineer – IBM 🗣️ Greg Stevens, CEO – Osmos 🗣️ Megan Murphy, Sr. Director of Marketing – Stackline 🗣️ Jason Busch, Co-Founder – Gain This episode captures the real pulse of the retail industry, insights, predictions, and bold takes from the leaders shaping what’s next.

“40 minutes that flew by — and so did Bastien’s flight 😎💡 An unmissable deep dive into AI, GenAI, and data with Reckitt’s tech leader.” I was with Bastien Parizot, CIDO and SVP IT at Reckitt for the next ecommert podcast episode here at the Reckitt North America offices in Parsipanny, NJ. We had a blast, such a great conversation on all things hashtag#AI, hashtag#GenAI and hashtag#Data over 40 minutes and he almost missed his flight back to the UK. 🇬🇧😎 Looking forward to connecting with him again, a lot to learn and explore in the GenAI era. Stay tuned.. 🎙️