Retail MediaFriday, September 11, 2026
Retail media industry predictions indicate a strategic pivot from return on ad spend to frameworks measuring incremental growth, lifetime value, and brand equity.
Accenture Ventures has invested in Profitmind, an agentic-AI platform that automates pricing, inventory, and assortment decisions for retailers ranging from $20M to $100B in revenue.
Mordor Intelligence projects the smart retail shelf market will grow from $5.1 billion in 2025 to $17.76 billion by 2031, driven by electronic shelf labels, RFID tracking, and vision-based edge-AI shelf analysis.
Primary care provider Carbon Health is acquiring remote patient monitoring vendors Alertive Healthcare and Steady Health to integrate continuous at-home monitoring into its clinic workflows.
San Francisco-based Chef Robotics secured a $43.1M Series A to expand its AI-enabled robotic meal-assembly systems, which have produced over 40 million meals for clients like Amy's Kitchen and Sunbasket.
A report tracking $2.77B in influencer marketing transactions from January 2025 to June 2026 found that services and representation businesses accounted for 73.8% of acquisition volume.
