Commerce media outgrew the retail media label while everyone was still arguing about attribution. The sale still lands at the shelf, but the journey now starts somewhere else: search referrals are sliding, shoppers open ChatGPT and Claude first, and trust surfaces like Reddit, Pinterest, and social are becoming the new front doors, some of it routing around the retail media ecosystem entirely. This opener maps the whole board before anyone goes deep, and the room builds it live rather than watching a forecast.

Live poll: Rank the retail media surfaces by how defensible they are against AI. In a closed room this exact exercise started a real argument, so run it with 200 people and let the tension play out.

Key Takeaways:

• A clear read on where growth is actually moving in 2027, and which pockets are real versus hype

• Where your shoppers start now, settled by a live vote from the room instead of a vendor survey

• Three questions to bring back to your team, drawn from where the room clusters and splits