Cannes Lions 2026: Agentic Commerce Shows Up as a Discovery and Advertising Story

At the Cannes Lions advertising festival, which ran from 22 to 26 June 2026, agentic commerce surfaced as a discovery and advertising story rather than a payments one. Three developments stood out, and the common thread is the agent influencing what a customer notices and chooses, ahead of the checkout: Amazon’s Alexa+ Agentic Ads, which complete a purchase inside the conversation; a Glance and Samsung experience that puts agent-led shopping on millions of US smart TVs; and reporting that Amazon has begun buying ads inside ChatGPT.

Earlier in June, the news was about the payment side, where agents pay and merchants integrate. At an event about advertising, agentic commerce showed up at the other end of the journey, the discovery layer, where an agent shapes the decision before any checkout runs. For the wider context, see what agentic commerce is.

Amazon introduces Alexa+ Agentic Ads

On 23 June 2026, Amazon introduced Alexa+ Agentic Ads, which it describes as the first ad format that takes a customer from seeing an ad to completing a purchase entirely within the conversation, without leaving the ad. It launched on Echo Show devices with a small set of named partners, including Papa Johns for food ordering and the artists Beck, Jill Scott, and Omar Courtz for concert ticket purchases through Ticketmaster. Amazon said it would expand the format to more brands and services over time.

This is the advertising counterpart to agentic checkout: the ad and the store become the same interaction, anchored to a logged-in customer relationship in which the assistant already knows the customer’s history and preferences. Amazon framed it through its Alexa for Shopping base, and tied it to the same week’s launch of Prime Day. Alongside it, Amazon Ads also pointed to an Amazon Ads MCP server that connects external AI agents to its advertising API, a reminder that MCP is the discovery and tool-calling layer underneath much of this.

The commercial framing is worth noting. Amazon and WPP used the festival to describe a “Share of Answer” measure, meaning whether the AI names a brand when a customer asks. That reframes structured product information and brand trust as a commercial asset, not only a creative one, and it is the same legibility point that makes an accurate, machine-readable product catalog a near-term priority. The scale signal is modest so far: this is an early production format running with chosen partners, not a self-serve product, so the direction matters more than the reach.

Glance and Samsung put agent shopping on smart TVs

Also on 23 June, Glance, InMobi’s consumer technology company, announced with Samsung an agentic commerce experience running across millions of Samsung smart televisions in the United States. It runs natively on Samsung’s Tizen operating system and turns the TV into a two-way, AI-powered shopping experience: viewers build personalized shopping feeds and virtual wardrobes and browse fashion, accessories, and lifestyle products using voice and the remote, without a phone or a second device. Per the announcement, it is live on all 2020-and-later Samsung models in the US, on the “For You” and “Apps” tabs.

This widens the surfaces where an agent can shape a purchase beyond search and chat to the living-room screen, and it reaches customers without an app install or a separate device. It is distinct from the chat assistant and the payment network. As with any large agent channel, the customer relationship sits with the platform, here Glance and Samsung, rather than with the brand’s own site, which is the channel-disintermediation trade covered in risks and readiness.

Amazon is reported to be buying ads inside ChatGPT

According to reporting by Business Insider, citing the e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukenas of Marketplace Pulse, Amazon has begun buying ads on ChatGPT, becoming one of the more prominent retailers in OpenAI’s emerging advertising business. The ads are reported to send users back to Amazon’s own storefront, where Amazon keeps the experience and the transaction. The same reporting notes that Amazon has largely declined to let third-party agents aggregate its products and pricing, and earlier in the year won a court order temporarily blocking Perplexity’s Comet agent. As a single secondary-sourced report, this is best read as a reported development rather than a confirmed program.

If accurate, it is the counterweight to the first two items. Amazon is willing to pay to reach ChatGPT’s customers, but on its own terms, advertising into the assistant and pulling the customer back rather than letting an agent transact on its catalog. It also fits the surface’s recent trajectory: OpenAI scaled back its in-chat Instant Checkout in early 2026 and shifted toward discovery and merchant apps, as covered on the ACP page. The reporting frames it as a sign that advertising, not agent-led checkout, may be the nearer-term way to make money from shopping intent on the assistant, though that is a claim about timing rather than a verdict on agentic checkout.

The pattern

Across the three, the through-line is influence over the decision through discovery and recommendation, ahead of the checkout. Amazon collapsing the ad and the purchase into one Alexa conversation, Glance and Samsung putting agent shopping on the TV, and Amazon advertising into ChatGPT are all about shaping what a customer notices and chooses.

Underneath them is one commercial question that is still open: whether the value sits in the agent completing the checkout or in advertising inside the assistant. Amazon’s two moves this week sit on both sides of it, which suggests the larger players have not yet settled the answer. That timing question is the subject of when agentic commerce becomes table stakes.

What it points to

For now, the place agents are influencing purchases is discovery and recommendation, not autonomous checkout. The practical near-term implication for a business is to be legible and recommendable to the assistant: accurate, structured product information, and enough brand trust that the AI names it when a customer asks, the “Share of Answer” idea Amazon and WPP put a label on this week. Full agent-led checkout remains early and is mostly running with small, chosen launch-partner sets. The discovery side is live now, on phones, TVs, and inside chat. For how to weigh all of this for a specific business, see what agentic commerce means for your business.

FAQ

What happened with agentic commerce at Cannes Lions 2026? During the festival week the news shifted from payments to discovery and advertising: Amazon’s Alexa+ Agentic Ads (purchase completed in the conversation), a Glance and Samsung agent-shopping experience on US smart TVs, and reporting that Amazon is buying ads inside ChatGPT.

Is this agent-led checkout? Mostly no. These sit at the discovery and recommendation stage. Amazon’s Alexa+ Agentic Ads complete a purchase in the conversation, but as an early, partner-gated format. The open question is whether value sits in agent-led checkout or in advertising inside the assistant.