Walmart says its Automated Creative Generator cut creative production time by about 80%, according to Digital Commerce 360. That figure comes from Walmart’s own data, so treat it as a claim to test. It still marks a turn: AI rich media creative tools are no longer a Walmart experiment. Amazon is building comparable tools, and every large retail media network will feel pressure to follow. Brands now need a way to judge these tools.
What did Walmart actually ship?
Start with the evidence. Digital Commerce 360 reports that Walmart’s Automated Creative Generator reduced production time by about 80%, based on Walmart data from August 2025 through October. That is a first-party number, measured by the seller of the tool. Useful, but not independent.
The same report describes Marty, Walmart’s super agent for advertisers, sellers and suppliers. Walmart is also piloting ad formats inside Sparky, its shopper-facing assistant.
Read that as a stack, not a feature. Creative generation, an advertiser-facing assistant and new inventory inside a shopping agent are being built together. The creative tool is the production layer of a larger system.
Faster creative is only a win if the approved, in-market version performs. Measure cost per approved asset and lift, not minutes saved.
Amazon already has a rival
Walmart is not alone. In September 2025, Amazon Ads announced an agentic AI creative tool. It combines shopper signals with information from the advertiser’s product pages, Brand Store and website. From there it generates concepts, then builds storyboards with scene-level scripts and visuals that can be edited and refined. It can also add music and voiceover.
The workflow is the point. You brief it with goals and product details, agree on a concept, then iterate. That is closer to a junior creative team than a template engine.
I could only verify detailed launches from these two networks. Other retail media networks may follow, but I would not plan around rumors. Ask each network’s rep what is live, what is in beta and what is a roadmap slide.
Why the money is moving this direction
Follow the budget. Follow the budget. U.S. advertisers are expected to spend $69.33 billion on retail media networks in 2026, up from $58.79 billion in 2025, according to eMarketer as cited by Digital Commerce 360. Of the $10.53 billion in additional spend, $9.42 billion is expected to go to Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect.
That concentration explains the tooling race. Networks that win on creative speed lower the cost of entry for smaller advertisers, who then run more campaigns on the platform. More campaigns means more ad revenue. Creative AI is a growth lever for the network first and a convenience for you second.
Accountability pressure is rising alongside it. eMarketer’s CES recap argues that retail media is entering an accountability era, with networks asked to prove value as the rest of digital media does. Free creative tools do not exempt a network from that standard. Neither should they exempt the tools themselves.
The consumer problem nobody on the vendor side mentions
Here is where brand strategists should slow down. IAB and Sonata Insights surveyed more than 500 Gen Z and Millennial consumers and 100 ad executives. The IAB study found that 83% of ad executives say their company has deployed AI in the creative process, up from 60% in the 2024 study.
Consumers are not as enthusiastic. In the same research, 82% of ad executives believe Gen Z and Millennial consumers feel positive about AI-generated ads, nearly double the 45% of consumers who actually do. The gap widened from 32 points in 2024 to 37 points.
Gen Z is the sharper edge. Gen Z is the sharper edge. IAB reports that 39% of Gen Z feel negative about AI ads, nearly double the 20% of Millennials.
Does that mean avoid the tools? No. It means don’t let a retail media network’s default output ship unreviewed. A generated lifestyle background that looks slightly off on a grocery listing can cost you trust at the shelf. IAB’s best-practice advice is to use AI to lift creative quality, not only to speed up asset production.
- Disclosure: IAB found clear disclosure ranks third among drivers of attention in its survey, behind visuals and humor. Disclosure is not automatically a penalty.
- Audience fit: Check results by age cohort before scaling a generated asset across your whole shopper base.
- Brand safety: Require human sign-off on anything touching claims, ingredients, pricing or health.
How to pilot a retail media creative tool
Treat it like any vendor evaluation. Our earlier piece on cost per approved second applies directly. The same logic works for retail media assets: count only what survives your review.
- Pick one SKU family. Choose a mid-volume category where a bad test won’t hurt revenue.
- Run a holdout. Split between network-generated creative and your agency or in-house assets, same placements, same budget, same flight.
- Log the approval rate. Track how many generated variants pass brand review, and how many edits each needs.
- Measure incrementality. Click-through rate alone flatters cheap creative. Ask for lift or matched-market methods.
- Set kill criteria in advance. If approval rate or lift misses the threshold by week six, stop.
On that fourth point, the measurement underneath matters as much as the creative. If you can’t trust the audience match, you can’t trust the test. See our guide on identity resolution proof before you commit budget.
Who owns the creative, and what do you lose?
Three operational risks deserve a line in your contract and your brief.
Data exposure. These tools pull from your product pages and brand assets. Ask what is retained, whether it trains shared models and who can see it. A related read: shared agent memory rules.
Walled-garden lock-in. An asset built inside one network’s tool may not export cleanly. If your creative library fragments across Amazon and Walmart, your brand consistency fragments with it. This is a content supply chain problem, and someone on your team has to own it.
Self-reported performance. Networks grade their own homework. Before you let a dashboard justify more spend, run it through a checklist like five checks for AI insights.
Where do creators fit?
Quietly, they become your differentiator. When every advertiser on a network can generate a clean product shot in minutes, polished stock-looking creative becomes the baseline. Real people using real products stand out. Brands that pair generated retail media assets with creator-led content can cover both: scale on the shelf, credibility off it.
FAQs
What are AI rich media creative tools in retail media?
They are network-built tools that generate ad assets such as images, lifestyle backgrounds, video, music and voiceover from your product data and campaign goals. Walmart offers an Automated Creative Generator, and Amazon Ads has an agentic creative tool that produces concepts, storyboards and edited video.
Is Walmart’s 80% production time reduction reliable?
It is Walmart’s own figure, reported from its data for August through October 2025. Treat it as a directional claim and verify it with your own pilot, measuring approved assets and in-market performance.
Do consumers accept AI-generated ads?
Mixed. Mixed. Gen Z is notably more negative than Millennials.
Should brands disclose AI use in retail media creative?
Plan for it. IAB found that only about 1 in 10 consumers think disclosure is unimportant across the industries it asked about, and clear disclosure ranked third among drivers of ad attention. Check each network’s policies and applicable rules too.
How should we measure whether these tools work?
Run a controlled test against your existing creative, with the same placements and budget. Track approval rate, edit time, cost per approved asset and incremental lift, not clicks alone.
Will other retail media networks launch similar tools?
Likely, given the competitive pressure, but I only verified launches from Walmart and Amazon. Ask any other network for live product demos and documented limits before you plan around it.
Next step: this quarter, pick one SKU family, run a six-week head-to-head of network-generated versus your own creative, and write the kill criteria before the first impression serves.
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