Campaign Middle East has successfully concluded its Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Retail & Commerce Media 2026, which brought together close to 200 attendees, including client-side marketers, agency leaders, retail media specialists, commerce platforms, brand custodians and creators at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi on Friday, 22 May 2026.
At the outset, the event explored how AI-assisted shopping, agentic commerce, retail media networks, platform agents, and creator-commerce convergence are reshaping the consumer journey from search and discovery to consideration, demand, stickiness, conversion and long-term loyalty. The consensus is that retail media is no longer a lower-funnel line item; it has moved closer to the centre of growth.
Industry leaders offered a deep-dive into how agentic commerce is changing the rules of visibility. The shopper is no longer always human. AI assistants are comparing products, reading reviews, checking prices, scanning delivery promises and narrowing choice before a consumer reaches a brand site, retailer app, store or showroom. The shelf is shrinking from thousands of products to a handful of recommendations. In some cases, it may shrink to one. That makes machine-readable content, clean taxonomy, trust signals, inventory accuracy and product detail pages as important as traditional merchandising.
The event also explored the urgent need to move from fragmentation to orchestration. Retail media has grown quickly, but the market is now crowded with networks, formats, dashboards, metrics and differing definitions of success. Speakers called for more common frameworks, better collaboration, cleaner measurement, shared language and a move beyond last-click attribution. The point was simple: brands cannot build the future of commerce if every platform speaks a different dialect.
Finally, the creator-commerce conversation demonstrated that influence and performance can no longer sit in separate rooms. Creators are not just awareness vehicles. They can educate, reassure, demonstrate and sell. Yet their value sits deeply within trust. If brands treat creators as cheaper media inventory with better lighting, the work breaks. If they treat them as creative business partners, commerce becomes more human, more useful and more credible.
Taking the stage at the event were:
Katib Belkhodja, Marketing Director – Toyota & Lexus, Al-Futtaim Motors,
Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media,
Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat,
Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East & Africa, Mars,
Mohamed Mordi, Experience Enrichment & Retail Media Manager, Arla Foods,
Sofiane Haddadi, VP Marketing, Activations & Operations, ADNOC Distribution,
Yogesh Shroff, E-commerce Director – Middle East and Africa, Beiersdorf Middle East,
Noor Abwah, Head of Marketing – GCC, TCL Electronics,
Yesu Yarlagadda, Head of Omnichannel Commerce, Lulu Retail,
Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media,
Zoya Shahid, Director of Customer Experience, Viola Communications,
Haneen Aburrubb, Head of Commerce MENA, WPP Media MENA,
Ramy Mouganie, Client Leadership Director, Fusion5, and
Dima Mousseli, Content Creator.
These were some of the key takeaways from the event:
Agentic readiness is now a brand requirement: AI assistants are becoming part of the shopping journey. Brands need to ask whether their systems, content, data, teams and retail partnerships are ready for machine-led discovery and recommendation.
The shelf is shrinking: A digital shelf may hold thousands of products. A physical shelf may hold hundreds. But AI recommendation has narrowed the primary options on the shelf down to five, three or one. Brands must work harder to be understood, trusted and selected.
Structured data is becoming a brand asset: Taxonomy, product descriptions, inventory accuracy, pricing consistency, reviews, after-sales information, delivery promises and warranty details now influence how AI agents compare and recommend products.
Retail media needs orchestration, not more noise: The market needs common key performance indicators (KPIs), shared objectives, collaborative joint business plans (JBPs), mutually agreed measurement frameworks, interoperable systems and clearer reporting. More dashboards will not solve weak decision-making.
Commerce intelligence matters more than inventory alone: Platforms are moving from selling placements to offering audience insight, transaction signals, propensity models and closed-loop outcomes.
Last-click attribution is too small a lens: Retail media influences awareness, consideration, conversion and loyalty. Brands need to understand contribution across the funnel, not only the final click.
Creators are becoming full-funnel partners: Creators can build trust, explain products, create social proof and influence conversion. But one-off, over-scripted collaborations weaken credibility.
Trust is the bridge from swipe to sale: Whether it is AI, retail media or creators, trust emerged as the repeated thread. Machines need trust signals. Consumers need human reassurance. Creators need audience trust. Brands need trusted partnerships.
Here is a more detailed overview of the entire event:
Welcome speech
The event began with a welcome address by Nadeem Quraishi, Publishing Director, Campaign Middle East, who greeted attendees to Campaign Middle East’s first-of-its-kind event dedicated to Retail and Commerce Media.
Nadeem Quraishi, Publishing Director, Campaign Middle East shares the welcome address.
Quraishi opened on a human note. He acknowledged that the event was conducted during a period in which many people across the region have been navigating uncertainty, concern and emotional strain.
Yet, his optimistic message set the tone for the morning’s discussions. Retail and commerce media may be powered by data, platforms, AI and measurement, but the industry still runs on people showing up, listening and learning together.
Quraishi said, “Today is not just about resuming our briefing events. It is about reaffirming the importance of dialogue, collaboration, resilience and community.”
That sense of community and collaboration became a repeated theme through the morning. The event was not framed as another media conversation, but as a moment for the industry to gather, exchange knowledge and move forward with care.
He added, “Moments such as these remind us how valuable human connection truly is, and how important it is to continue creating spaces where people can learn from one another, support one another and move forward together with understanding and hope.”
Quraishi then updated the room on developments at Campaign Middle East and its partners. He pointed attendees to Campaign’s second bilingual edition of The Saudi Report, which featured strong voices from Saudi Arabia’s brand, agency and media ecosystem. He encouraged attendees heading to Cannes Lions to connect with the Campaign Middle East team, including its Editor Anup Oommen.
Chair’s opening remarks
Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen took the stage to deliver the Chair’s opening remarks, setting the scene for a morning focused on retail and commerce media at a moment of rapid change.
Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East, delivers the Chair’s opening remarks.
Oommen addressed the core question of the day: how AI assistants, agentic commerce, platform agents and brand-owned agents are changing the face of shopping. He framed the shift succinctly explaining how AI agents are not only answering consumer questions, but also checking reviews, comparing products, studying prices, reading product information, looking at delivery options and creating shortlists. In a connected living ecosystem, they may even add items to cart and ask for authorisation to purchase.
“This creates a new challenge for brands, retailers and agencies. The brand is not even in the room at the first touchpoint. The retailer is not fully in control. The agency is not shaping the first impression,” he said.
This foundation of his argument was that retail and commerce media are not another channel to be squeezed into the marketing plan. They are now part of how demand is created, understood and converted. Search has changed. Discovery has changed. Social changed inspiration. Marketplaces changed availability. Now AI is changing consideration.
Oommen said, “For years, marketers optimised for people. They worried about hero images, headlines, product descriptions, star ratings and page placement. All of that still matters. But now brands must also optimise for machines.”
He put it plainly, adding, “If a product has three different names, two pack sizes, four images and one outdated description, the AI agent is not going to call the category manager for clarification. It will move on. Machines may be intelligent, but they are not patient.”
Oommen then moved to fragmentation in retail media. He said marketers did not need more dashboards, instead calling for more clarity, common buying frameworks, consistent KPIs and cleaner reporting. He also called out challenges faced in the creator-commerce landscape.
While concluding the Chair’s opening remarks, he raised some uncomfortable questions:
If the shelf is shrinking from thousands of products to five recommendations, three recommendations, or one, what makes us so sure we will still be on it?
Are our dashboards helping us make better decisions, or are they just making weak decisions look more sophisticated?
Are we measuring what actually moves people, or only what is easiest to screenshot for the next quarterly review?
Are we treating creators as trusted community voices, or as cheaper media inventory with better lighting?
Are we genuinely building brands for the future of commerce, or are we still decorating yesterday’s shopping journey with new technology?
Panel 1: When AI becomes the shopper: winning visibility in agentic commerce
The first panel explored how AI-led discovery is reshaping visibility, preference and influence.
Moderated by Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen, the discussion brought together:
Katib Belkhodja, Marketing Director – Toyota & Lexus, Al-Futtaim Motors,
Mohamed Mordi, Experience Enrichment & Retail Media Manager, Arla Foods,
Yesu Yarlagadda, Head of Omnichannel Commerce, Lulu Retail, and
Zoya Shahid, Director of Customer Experience, Viola Communications.
Leaders on the panel made one thing clear: brands are no longer only trying to persuade people; they must also be understood by machines.
AI assistants are shortlisting products, comparing options and influencing decisions before customers reach a website, app, store or showroom. This means structured content, taxonomy, trust signals and operational reliability are no longer back-office concerns; they are an essential part of the brand experience.
From left, Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East; Zoya Shahid, Director of Customer Experience, Viola Communications; Katib Belkhodja, Marketing Director – Toyota & Lexus, Al-Futtaim Motors; Mohamed Mordi, Experience Enrichment & Retail Media Manager, Arla Foods; and Yesu Yarlagadda, Head of Omnichannel Commerce, Lulu Retail.
Yarlagadda said the shift towards agentic commerce and AI-assisted shopping is already real. Consumers are making shopping more AI-assisted, but an AI agent is only recommending products that it understands well. That said, he also explains why it’s not enough for an AI agent to merely understand a product or a service. The machine also looks for trust. For Yarlagadda, this means retailers and brands must rethink the quality of product information, and how it contributes to ensuring not only that an AI assistant discovers a brand, but also trusts a brand. This is not only about product landing pages, taxonomy or descriptions; it is also about what the consumer can expect after purchase in terms of service, warranty, delivery speed and reliability. If an AI agent recommends a retailer and the delivery experience fails, that signal may affect future AI recommendations.
Belkhodja brought in the automotive perspective from his experience at Al-Futtaim Motors with Toyota and Lexus. He explained how AI can help reduce the field and create a shortlist, but cars will always remain an emotional, aspirational and experience-led, deeply human purchase. Customers still need to enter the showroom, see the car, test-drive it and feel reassured. Yet, on the other side of the same argument lies a new challenge raised by AI assistants. The brand needs to be prepared for customers who may arrive at a showroom better informed than the sales executive. That can create friction. Belkhodja concludes that in the overall scheme of things, brands must choose carefully about where AI is deployed within marketing. If one part of the funnel becomes supercharged while another cannot handle the demand or knowledge gap, bottlenecks follow.
Mordi delved into the impact of agentic AI on SEO, e-commerce, organic social and PR, explaining how these facets are now being pulled closer together. Building on Yarlagadda’s comments he agreed that product detail pages, captions, third-party content and taxonomy all play a role in how a brand shows up as a shortlisted recommendation when a consumer interacts with AI. Mordi also noted a practical change in content creation, revealing how certain written content is being optimised not for human consumption, but for AI to identify, understand, trust and recommend the brand. This does not mean that the brand’s tone of voice disappears, but it does mean that brands need to move faster and create more machine-readable information.
Shahid focused on adoption, governance and the fear of replacement. She argued that agentic AI cannot replace the knowledge of product managers or brand managers. It can make work more effective, but only if talented and knowledgeable teams feed it the right information and set the right guardrails. That said, she called for senior teams to have more acceptance for agentic AI, and for junior and execution teams to have more patience. Governance matters, but fear should not stop experimentation.
The panel ended with a practical warning: AI-led efficiency upstream can create higher expectations and friction downstream. If AI makes comparison seamless, the store, showroom, call centre or delivery experience must keep pace. The shopper may arrive faster, smarter and more demanding. Brands must be ready for that reality.
Keynote: Gearing up for agentic commerce
The keynote by Haneen Aburrubb, Head of Commerce MENA at WPP Media MENA, gave attendees a structured view of agentic commerce and what it means for brands.
Haneen Aburrubb, Head of Commerce MENA at WPP Media MENA
Aburrubb began with a definition: Agentic commerce is any shopping experience mediated by AI. It includes situations where an AI agent or AI entity can navigate the e-commerce system by itself. Agents can discover products, recommend options, compare alternatives and purchase on behalf of consumers. They can also support post-purchase services.
The keynote then broke the landscape into three categories. The first is consumer AI. This refers to everyday tools people use, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. They are not built only for commerce, but they play a major role in product discovery. They may recommend a product, then send the user elsewhere to complete the transaction. Over time, these systems are moving closer to transaction completion.
The second category is platform agents. These are AI systems built into marketplaces and commerce platforms. They answer questions, compare prices, recommend products, guide decisions and, increasingly, support purchase flows. Aburrubb pointed to how platform AI can move from simple question-and-answer formats to richer conversational assistance.
The third category is brand agents. This is currently the smallest part of agentic commerce, but it is evolving quickly. Brand agents are AI-powered experiences owned by brands. They can understand intent, diagnose needs and deliver tailored experiences in real time.
She described how the old chatbot is becoming something more dynamic. Brand agents can power interactive experiences, such as quizzes that diagnose hair, skin or product needs, then map answers to content, logic and product recommendations. These agents are especially useful for upstream moments: diagnosis, exploration, narrowing and discovery.
A key part of the keynote focused on adoption by category. Aburrubb presented a framework based on two dimensions. The first is delegation: how comfortable a consumer is handing that shopping task to AI. Categories with lower risk, lower emotional involvement and clearer specifications are more likely to be delegated. The second is frequency: how often the consumer performs that task.
Routine fulfilment categories, such as home care, pet food and personal care, are likely to see faster adoption. High-risk or emotionally involved categories, such as fashion, jewellery and cars, will move more slowly because consumers still want to be involved. Her point was not that some categories are safe from change; it was that adoption will be uneven.
Aburrubb concluded with three priorities:
For consumer AI assistants: brands need to establish authority, check large language model (LLM) scoring and improve content across social, PR, user-generated content and other signals.
For retailer AI, brands need agentic strategies with key retail partners and must ensure content is readable by machines as well as humans.
For brand agents, brands need to develop engaging generative experiences.
The keynote made agentic commerce feel less like a future trend and more like a checklist that brands must start working through immediately.
Panel 2: From fragmentation to orchestration: can brands buy retail media at scale?
The second panel tackled one of retail media’s biggest questions: can brands buy at scale in a market crowded with networks, formats, dashboards and definitions of success?
Moderated by Campaign Middle East Editor Anup Oommen, the panel featured:
Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media,
Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat,
Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East & Africa, Mars, and
Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media.
The discussion opened with a personal story from Oommen about grocery shopping, household brand choices and how different retail media environments can shape different purchase paths. His point was that the consumer journey is no longer linear across retail and commerce media. It is influenced by apps, discounts, friends, carts, reminders, placements and platforms.
He then raised key questions about:
orchestrating journeys across retail, e-commerce, offline sales, performance and brand-building channels;
standardisation of frameworks across objectives, KPIs, measurement, reporting and definitions of success;
unlocking retail media value through commerce intelligence, audience quality and closed-loop outcomes; and
proving impact through full-funnel measurement and attribution without reducing the effectiveness conversation to last-click attribution (LCA).
From left, Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East; Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat; Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East, Africa, MARS; Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media; and Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media.
Davis began the discussion explaining how consumer behaviour is changing. Shoppers are less loyal to both brands and retailers. Many shop online and in-store, and grocery customers may use several retailers each month. The challenge is to capture demand, build return journeys and create larger baskets without disrupting the experience. She warned against brands “throwing messages everywhere” simply because inventory exists.
She said, “The more targeted we can be around utilising our data, which ultimately underpins retail media as a functionality across omnichannel, the more targeted I can be to my customer and the more relevant my ad is.”
Davis also revealed how different networks use different inventory, pricing models, buying frameworks, metrics and dashboards. Davis said the problem is not unique to retail media, pointing to how digital media went through similar fragmentation. But retail media now needs standardisation in measurement, attribution and buying models.
Maghraby framed orchestration as an end state, not a starting point. Before brands orchestrate, they must connect functions, align systems and unify KPIs. He explained how orchestration depends on data flows, organisational maturity and the ability to work across different teams. Mroueh also called out more challenges, highlighting how new global entrants and changing market players are adding complexity. He argued that the industry must ask what problem it is solving, instead of creating more fragmentation.
He said, “Before we orchestrate, probably we need to connect functions, and ultimately have that as an integrated practice. The more and more retail media networks that launch, the more fragmented the landscape becomes, and the harder it is for agencies and brands to navigate.”
From left, Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat; Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East, Africa, MARS; Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media; and Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media.
Galundia brought the platform view into the discussion. Having moved from the agency side to talabat, he revealed that not all platforms are equal in size, impact or capability. But the future will require interoperability. Retail and commerce platforms must stay relevant to a brand’s full media plan, not only what happens on-site. He explained how All platforms will need to be interoperable in some form or the other. Galundia also highlighted how commerce platforms are evolving into commerce intelligence platforms. He shared how inventory can be replicated, and how true value can be unlocked from transaction data, buying behaviour and predictive signals.
Mroueh argued that orchestration must be understood from several angles. First, brands must bring e-commerce, shopper, trade and media teams together. Retail media cannot sit as a single line on a media plan. Second, onsite and offsite experiences must connect. A consumer should not see one message in a store, another in an app and something completely different elsewhere.
He said, “It comes from everyone in this room, from retailers to the brand to tech infrastructure. How can we all collaborate and bring this to the industry?”
From left, Anup Oommen, Editor, Campaign Middle East; Chirag Galundia, Senior Director — Media Solutions, talabat; Mahmoud Maghraby, Media Director – Middle East, Africa, MARS; Charlotte Davis, Vice President – Retail Media; and Mazen Mroueh, Head of Retail Media & Partnerships, Publicis Media.
The panel ended with agreement that last-click attribution is too narrow. Retail media must be understood across the funnel. Davis said brands can now begin to understand engagement across formats and how each part contributes to incrementality. Galundia added that ecosystem players must align around the idea that last click is not the only way.
The closing message was simple: retail media can scale, but only if the industry collaborates, standardises and measures what matters.
Panel 3: From swipe to sale: The commerce-creator convergence
The final panel explored how creators are moving from awareness drivers to commerce partners. Moderated by Ramy Mouganie, Client Leadership Director at Fusion5, the session featured:
Yogesh Shroff, E-commerce Director – Middle East and Africa, Beiersdorf Middle East,
Sofiane Haddadi, VP Marketing, Activations & Operations, ADNOC Distribution,
Noor Abwah, Head of Marketing – GCC, TCL Electronics, and
Dima Mousseli, content creator
Mouganie set up the conversation by asking how a swipe becomes a sale. The panel explored the full chain: discovery, trust, education, reassurance, measurement and conversion.
From left, Ramy Mouganie, Client Leadership Director, Fusion5; Sofiane Haddadi, VP Marketing (Activations & Operations), ADNOC Distribution; Noor Abwah, Head of Marketing – GCC, TCL Electronics; Yogesh Shroff, E-commerce Director – Middle East and Africa, Beiersdorf Middle East; and Dima Mousseli, Content Creator.
Shroff explained the role creators play within skincare and e-commerce. Beiersdorf has brands with strong heritage, but heritage alone does not guarantee that younger consumers will make a purchase. Creators help translate trust into modern, platform-native storytelling. At the top of the funnel, they make the brand relevant. In the mid and lower funnel, they educate and create social proof.
“The magic happens when trust meets intent,” he said.
Shroff added that the industry must move from an influencer-equals-campaign mindset to a creator-equals-full-funnel mindset. Creators are not an add-on. They can contribute to education, conversion, average order value and cross-category selling. He also noted that influencer-driven data is different from traditional channels. It may not always show the same volume of transactions, but it can show high-quality engagement, higher average order values and cross-selling when creators explain routines or regimes. He said the industry still lacks mature closed-loop measurement between social and marketplaces, but companies are moving towards incrementality, media mix modelling and brand trackers.
Haddadi began by broadening the definition of influence. He said brands often think first of professional influencers, but the most important influencers may be customers and frontline staff. ADNOC Distribution serves more than 700,000 customers every day and has millions of profiles in its CRM database. Those customers recommend products, post reviews and shape perception. Frontline staff are also powerful because they interact with customers directly. That notion provided the panel a useful foundation. Influence is not only paid media. It is also experience, service, staff behaviour and customer advocacy.
Haddadi also addressed brand safety. For a semi-government company such as ADNOC Distribution, governance is critical. The brand uses selection criteria, reviews creator history, shares dos and don’ts, and sometimes reviews content before or after it goes live. But he also said deeper partnerships require creators to experience the product and understand the brand beyond the written brief. He explained how brand-creator collaborations can be effective a good balance is reached between maintaining brand safety and achieving authenticity, by bringing a creator into the conversation at the early stages of a campaign.
From left, Ramy Mouganie, Client Leadership Director, Fusion5; Sofiane Haddadi, VP Marketing (Activations & Operations), ADNOC Distribution; Noor Abwah, Head of Marketing – GCC, TCL Electronics; Yogesh Shroff, E-commerce Director – Middle East and Africa, Beiersdorf Middle East; and Dima Mousseli, Content Creator.
Mousseli then explained what makes creator partnerships work. She said that the biggest red flags are seen when a collaboration feels strange to the creator’s ardent audience. A product must fit naturally into the creator’s story. If the content feels forced, the audience pulls away. A healthy collaboration is a seamless one, where creators can integrate the product within the story rather than having it as an interruption to it. She added that relevance, authenticity and consistency are essential. Trust and conversion go together. If audiences believe the creator genuinely uses the product, the work can convert. If they feel the creator is only there for a pay cheque, the trust disappears – quite often, never to return.
The panel also discussed measurement. Mousseli said affiliate links and promo codes do not define a creator’s worth, but they demonstrate trust and influence. She explained how this also affects negotiations, because brands are investing not only in views but in measurable business results.
Abwah shared her viewpoint from the vantage of consumer electronics, high-consideration category. TCL does not expect someone to buy a television the next day because a creator posted about it; the journey is longer, she explained. People read reviews, watch videos, search online and compare. That means creators play different roles at different stages. She explained how, for TCL, lifestyle creators can build aspiration and show how products fit into homes and routines. Tech creators can help at a point of the consumer journey that is closer to decision-making by explaining specifications, performance and use cases.
The panel closed with each speaker sharing a message for the months ahead. Mousseli called for “trust at scale, not ads at scale”. Shroff called for always-on, measurable and fulfilled commerce partnerships. Abwah reiterated that one brief does not fit all creators. Haddadi said that he would like to see more platforms empower customers to become a larger source of influence at scale,
The final message was one of alignment. Creators, brands and platforms may sit on different sides of the table, but the direction is shared. Commerce-first influencer work will continue to depend on the element of trust, long-term partnerships, clearer measurement and respect for the creator’s understanding of their own audience.
All in all, the event showed that retail and commerce media are no longer narrow performance disciplines. They sit at the intersection of AI, data, media, content, commerce, creators, customer experience and operational delivery.
Agentic commerce is forcing brands to become machine-readable and trustworthy. Retail media fragmentation is forcing the industry to collaborate and standardise. Creator commerce is forcing brands to rethink influence as a full-funnel contribution rather than a one-off awareness burst.
The lesson is not that technology will replace the craft of marketing. It is that technology will expose weak foundations faster. Poor content, messy data, unclear KPIs, over-scripted creator briefs and disconnected teams will struggle in this new environment.
The way forward is clearer than it may seem: build trust signals for machines, build useful experiences for people, build common frameworks for platforms and build long-term partnerships with creators.
Attendees stayed back for networking sessions after the event.
After the keynotes and panels at the Campaign Breakfast Briefing, attendees stayed back for a time of networking, engaging with ideas and brainstorming.
For those of you who were unable to attend this stellar gathering of like-minded leaders shaping the top trends and addressing the top challenges in the industry, keep an eye out for the YouTube video of the entire event.
Mark your calendars. Campaign Middle East‘s next event, the Campaign Breakfast Briefing: Data, Creativity and Culture is scheduled for 11 September 2026.