By Chris Foster – EVP of Product & Technology, DEEL Media
The most important question facing retail media over the next decade isn’t about models, cookies or commerce infrastructure. It’s the far more fundamental issue of who wins the user interface. Because in an AI-first world, the platform that controls the interface controls discovery, decision-making and purchase. And that platform will ultimately influence where ad dollars flow.
Today, two paths are emerging. In the U.S., Apple could have a decisive device-level advantage and a clear path to becoming the dominant AI interface. Globally, however, Android owns the user. Meanwhile, OpenAI is building a platform-agnostic interface that could centralize discovery inside ChatGPT. The result is a three-way battle: Apple in the U.S., Android internationally, and OpenAI.
And with Walmart and Target already launching early shopping integrations inside ChatGPT, the race is no longer theoretical. The shift is beginning, slowly, but meaningfully.
The Interface Is the New Gatekeeper
For the last 20 years, digital access has flowed through websites, mobile apps and search boxes. But conversational interfaces are now replacing those static entry points with intent-driven interactions. Instead of navigating manually, people ask assistants: “Find me a gift under $40,” “Plan a movie night,” or “Reorder my usual groceries.”
In these moments, the assistant, not the user, decides which app to call, which retailer to engage, and which products to surface. Over time, this dynamic shifts power away from traditional platforms and toward whoever owns the interface layer.
Path 1: Apple/Android Wins the User
Apple has a structural advantage in the U.S., where more than 60% of smartphone users are on iOS. Apple Intelligence isn’t trying to be the best model, it’s trying to be the best orchestrator. It routes tasks to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Apple’s own on-device models and acts as the intelligence layer for the entire device.
With Apple Intents framework apps can now expose actions directly to Apple Intelligence making every app an agent. The Starbucks app becomes the Starbucks agent. Target becomes the Target agent. Banking, travel, health, and retail apps become callable endpoints. Apple Intelligence becomes the AI operating system.
For the U.S. advertising ecosystem, this path is the least disruptive. Retail media networks still own their search bars and on-site inventory. Programmatic pipes remain intact. DSPs and SSPs still function as the primary transaction layer. Historically Apple has not shown interest in owning the ad ecosystem ; it simply wants to own the experience.
But this future is not universal. Apple’s dominance is largely U.S.-only. In most of the world, Android controls the device layer. A device-centric AI future would not be Apple-led globally, it would be fragmented. The U.S. might be Apple-first, but much of the rest of the world would be Android first. We are in the early stages but Apple Intents framework is the first step in this AI interface battle
Path 2: OpenAI Becomes the Global Interface
OpenAI is pursuing a far more aggressive and disruptive path: making ChatGPT the primary interface for discovery, planning, and shopping. If this becomes mainstream, discovery begins inside ChatGPT, not inside retailer-owned search bars or walled gardens.
In this model, users ask ChatGPT for recommendations. The assistant generates product selections. Retailers serve as fulfillment endpoints. Ads get inserted directly into conversational results. And attribution becomes model-level rather than impression-based. This doesn’t collapse the ad ecosystem overnight but it gradually shifts influence. The more discovery that happens inside ChatGPT, the more OpenAI (not retailers) controls the start of the shopper journey.
Walmart and Target understand this dynamic. Their new ChatGPT integrations are not experiments, they are strategic moves designed to counter Amazon’s dominance. With Amazon controlling more than a third of U.S. e-commerce, Walmart and Target have far more to gain in an OpenAI-led world than they have to lose. If ChatGPT becomes a primary shopping interface, it levels the playing field.
What Retailers and RMNs Should Do Now
The shift toward assistant-driven discovery will unfold gradually, over two to ten years. But retailers cannot afford to wait. Three priorities are clear.
First, they must structure product data so assistants can understand it. Clean, standardized, agent-ready data is becoming table stakes.
Second, they need to build interoperable endpoints: clear MCPs/APIs and callable actions that assistants can activate regardless of whether the assistant is Apple, Samsung, Google, or OpenAI.
Third, they must rethink measurement. Traditional impression-based models will matter less as AI mediates more discovery. Attribution will need to account for conversational influence, agent-driven recommendations, and indirect pathways to purchase.
The Closing Question
The future of retail media hinges on a single question: Who wins the user?
If Apple/Android wins the interface, the industry evolves rather than transforms. If OpenAI wins globally, discovery shifts to a model-centric world.
The answer won’t come tomorrow. But over the next decade, it will define the shape of retail media and determine who ultimately controls the most valuable asset of all: the user.
