Key points
- Mars expects AI shopping assistants to take over more of the weekly grocery run, based on its report with Kantar and Synthesis.
- Neil Reynolds, Mars global chief customer officer, does not expect AI to eliminate the in-store checkout lane.
- Mars is forming cross-functional One Demand performance squads and gathering data from tech partners on how its brands appear in LLMs.
- Publicis, hired last summer to lead connected commerce, now handles commerce work beyond Mars' past media and creative agency ties.
Why it matters for marketers: Brands may need to win with AI shopping agents before shoppers see a shelf, so LLM visibility and retailer data partnerships become commerce priorities, not side projects.
Mars is preparing for a future in which AI assistants handle more grocery shopping. In an interview with Digiday, Neil Reynolds, the company's global chief customer officer, said he does not expect AI to end the in-store checkout lane, but he does expect agents to take over more of the weekly grocery run. That view draws on a future of shopping and retail report Mars produced with Kantar and Synthesis.
The company is working on two tracks. The first is making its brands discoverable by large language models and making sure that discovery leads to a purchase. The second is working with retailers on immersive, experience-led store environments, as physical stores and digital platforms shift toward discovery and entertainment.
To start, Mars is collecting data through partnerships with emerging tech companies to see how its brands currently show up in LLMs and where that information comes from. Internally, it is setting up One Demand performance squads that put brand, insights, key account and category managers beside an agency partner. Publicis, hired last summer to lead connected commerce, brings end-to-end commerce support and its connected ID offer, beyond the media and creative work Mars' past agencies handled.
For marketers, the signal is that AI visibility is being treated as a measurable baseline, and that retail relationships are becoming technical. Reynolds said Mars wants its data team talking to retailers' data teams, including Walmart's, rather than relying on a salesperson and a buyer.
Teams selling through grocers should watch how their products are described in AI answers, which sources feed that data, and whether their organization can connect brand, shopper and retail teams quickly enough to act on it.
Sources
This brief is our own summary. Read the full reporting at the source.