Criteo, the platform connecting the commerce ecosystem, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, marking two decades of innovation transforming how brands, retailers, agencies and media owners connect with consumers through data-driven advertising.
Since launching in Australia in 2012, Criteo has grown into a trusted partner for commerce and media companies. Its AI-powered Commerce Media Platform combines learning technologies with large-scale commerce data to understand shopper intent, deliver relevant ads in real time, and drive outcomes across the entire shopper journey.
Agentic AI: powering the next evolution of commerce media
Criteo is pioneering the next evolution of digital advertising through Agentic AI—autonomous agents that can interpret intent, plan campaigns, and make purchasing decisions in real time.
Agentic commerce is poised to transform how consumers shop and how marketers operate: AI agents will soon act on behalf of people to discover, compare and buy products, while brands will be empowered by machine-to-machine systems to enhance creativity, decision making, and cross-channel integration by optimising creative, audience and spend in milliseconds.
Criteo’s platform is already laying the groundwork for this future, connecting large scale commerce data with AI models that can learn, predict and act responsibly at scale.
“AI is fundamentally reshaping how marketers plan and optimise campaigns,” said Sean Donelan, head of performance solutions, Criteo. “As Agentic AI becomes more embedded in the marketing workflow, we’ll see faster decisions, greater creative personalisation and real-time performance improvements, helping brands connect data and outcomes with far less complexity.”
The future of commerce
Criteo’s vision looks beyond the next quarter or even the next decade, focusing on how data, AI and interoperability will shape commerce in the decades to come.
Foundation models will become the “brains” of marketing intelligence; integrating text, image, location and transaction data into unified decision systems. Meanwhile, Model-Context-Protocols (MCPs) will enable AI systems to communicate securely across retailers, publishers and platforms, forming the basis of an interoperable, agentic ecosystem. Criteo is developing MCP, delivering product and shopper information to AI agents in a way that is real-time, structured, and controlled.
The company also continues to advance responsible AI innovation, with initiatives to reduce emissions across its technology stack. Criteo has already achieved a 5 per cent decrease in carbon output through AI-driven optimisation, targeting a 42 per cent reduction globally.
Over the next five years, Criteo sees Australia cementing its position as one of the most advanced commerce media markets globally. As investment in retail media, Agentic AI and data collaboration accelerates, the way marketers plan and activate campaigns will evolve, from managing channels manually to orchestrating them through intelligent, connected systems.
Criteo’s local roadmap centres on three priorities: enabling brands and retailers to activate first-party data at scale, advancing AI-driven measurement and optimisation across retail media environments, and building open, transparent ecosystems that drive accountable performance across the open internet.
“The next five years will redefine what’s possible in retail media,” expressed Matt Hurle, head of activation, brands and agencies, Criteo. “We’re seeing rapid maturity in how Australian brands and retailers are activating first-party data and measuring impact. Our focus is on helping them unlock full-funnel growth through smarter, more collaborative retail media partnerships across the open internet.”
Local wins in Australia
Criteo’s technology now powers online retail media for some of Australia’s leading retailers and brands, including David Jones, Uber Eats, Chemist Warehouse and Endeavour Group.
Through its partnership with David Jones, Criteo supports the retailer’s digital retail media division, David Jones Amplify, enabling brands to reach shoppers through sponsored product placements and on-site display ads. By combining Criteo’s AI-driven platform with David Jones’ first-party data, advertisers can link exposure to SKU-level sales outcomes, achieving measurable return on ad spend across the open internet.
Uber Eats partnered with Criteo to extend retail media opportunities across Uber’s marketplace, connecting advertisers with millions of Australian consumers across Uber Rides and Uber Eats. By leveraging Criteo’s commerce media solutions, Uber Advertising delivered real-time, shoppable ad formats and deeper attribution insights that connected exposure to measurable conversions.
Chemist Warehouse also partnered with Criteo to strengthen its performance marketing and retail media capabilities. Integrating Criteo’s technology with its first-party data strategy and customer engagement tools, he pharmacy giant delivered more relevant advertising and measurable outcomes, connecting brand investment directly to sales performance across the open internet.
Endeavour Group, Australia’s leading drinks and hospitality business, expanded its partnership with Criteo earlier this year to power its Retail Media Onsite Ad-Serving Platform. The collaboration enhances Endeavour’s omnichannel capabilities across its portfolio of retail brands and delivers stronger performance insights for suppliers through Criteo’s advanced analytics, reporting and attribution modelling.
Together, these partnerships demonstrate how Australian retailers are leveraging Criteo’s AI-powered solutions to connect media investment directly to business outcomes, creating more relevant, transparent and data-rich experiences for consumers.
