Jack Johnson, head of retail media and data at Ocado sat down with InternetRetailing’s Colin Lewis and SMG’s Katie Streeter Hurle at Retail MediaX 2025 for a brand new podcast episode, which aimed to uncover how AI and automation continues to transform the retail ecosystem.
Johnson explained that AI is more than just a “very prominent” buzzword, and quoted BCG’s work to explain AI adoption.
“So, 10% of AI adoption is all around the algorithms you build. That’s usually where people focus on, but it’s actually only 10%.
“You’ve then got 20% of the adoption coming from the data – making sure you have really well structured data that’s feeding the algorithms. But actually 70% of the AI adoption is going to come from people change management processes.
“When you’re thinking about AI and how you start to embed that into business processes, you have to start with the culture, the people, and how you are going to foster an amazing work culture to make this thing happen irrespective of how great your algorithms are.”
With Ocado leading as a digital-first retailer and SMG powering data-driven media strategies across the UK’s leading grocery environments, this episode provides insights on the evolution of tech-led advertising and its implications for brands, retailers and media planners alike. They discuss real-world applications of automation, the growing demand for operational efficiency and how smarter technology is enabling media to be not only faster, but more effective. Listen in full here.
Co-op, Pladis and Omnicom Media Group all visited the booth during the event, with all episodes now available on-demand.
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