Best Buy Ads’ Patrick Albano: AI Search is Collapsing the Discovery-to-Purchase Funnel
CANNES, France — Consumers increasingly bypass traditional product research across multiple websites, moving directly from AI-powered search engines to retail purchase decisions — a behavioral shift that compresses the marketing funnel while delivering higher-intent buyers to retailers.
“There used to be this process of searching for a product, researching it on different websites, and then coming to a retailer to buy. That’s all collapsed now,” Patrick Albano, chief revenue officer of Best Buy Ads, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “People are going through AI search engines, they’re discovering and researching product and then coming right to the retailer. They’re coming with true intent. They understand the products they want and they’re purchasing.”
This compression creates new marketing imperatives where brands must establish awareness within LLM environments before activating mid and lower-funnel strategies directly at retail.
Physical stores anchor AI product education
Best Buy deploys its thousand-store footprint and in-store employee expertise to help consumers navigate AI product purchases, supplementing human interaction with dedicated partner spaces and original video content.
“One of the biggest values Best Buy has is our thousand stores across the US and what we call blue shirts, which are our employees in store that help people navigate product purchases,” Albano said.
Recent initiatives include Meta Labs in-store experience centers, staff AI training programs, and the company’s AI Vat video content series — all addressing a consumer upgrade cycle as new AI-embedded devices enter the market.
Predictive audiences identify purchase intent signals
Three distinct consumer electronics purchase motivations — broken product replacement, planned upgrades, and discretionary self-treats — require fundamentally different marketing approaches despite identical purchase outcomes.
“By using more predictive audiences and media planning capabilities, you can actually understand which journey a consumer is on and give them the right ad, the right brand experience and actually help them through their purchase journey,” Albano said.
Expanding predictive audience targeting capabilities enables Best Buy Ads to match creative and messaging strategies to specific consumer intent states rather than treating all potential buyers identically.
Human credibility becomes competitive advantage
As consumers grow more sophisticated about AI limitations and authenticity questions, brands with genuine human expertise embedded in their purchase journeys gain trust advantages that purely digital experiences cannot replicate.
“People are starting to get to the point where they understand how to use LLMs and AI, but also are starting to question how authentic it is,” Albano said. “Consumers either coming in store to ask questions or purchasing online and then picking up in store — that human interaction at some point in the purchase journey actually is a really helpful thing.”
Natural language interfaces will eventually reshape the entire internet, making the distinction between human and computer-generated advice increasingly consequential for consumer trust.
“Understanding what advice is coming from a consumer from a computer versus a person is going to be critically important and we have an authentic voice in that,” Albano said.
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France — Consumers increasingly bypass traditional product research across multiple websites, moving directly from AI-powered search engines to retail purchase decisions — a behavioral shift that compresses the marketing funnel while delivering higher-intent buyers to retailers.
“There used to be this process of searching for a product, researching it on different websites, and then coming to a retailer to buy. That’s all collapsed now,” Patrick Albano, chief revenue officer of Best Buy Ads, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at Cannes Lions. “People are going through AI search engines, they’re discovering and researching product and then coming right to the retailer. They’re coming with true intent. They understand the products they want and they’re purchasing.”
This compression creates new marketing imperatives where brands must establish awareness within LLM environments before activating mid and lower-funnel strategies directly at retail.
Physical stores anchor AI product education
Best Buy deploys its thousand-store footprint and in-store employee expertise to help consumers navigate AI product purchases, supplementing human interaction with dedicated partner spaces and original video content.
“One of the biggest values Best Buy has is our thousand stores across the US and what we call blue shirts, which are our employees in store that help people navigate product purchases,” Albano said.
Recent initiatives include Meta Labs in-store experience centers, staff AI training programs, and the company’s AI Vat video content series — all addressing a consumer upgrade cycle as new AI-embedded devices enter the market.
Predictive audiences identify purchase intent signals
Three distinct consumer electronics purchase motivations — broken product replacement, planned upgrades, and discretionary self-treats — require fundamentally different marketing approaches despite identical purchase outcomes.
“By using more predictive audiences and media planning capabilities, you can actually understand which journey a consumer is on and give them the right ad, the right brand experience and actually help them through their purchase journey,” Albano said.
Expanding predictive audience targeting capabilities enables Best Buy Ads to match creative and messaging strategies to specific consumer intent states rather than treating all potential buyers identically.
Human credibility becomes competitive advantage
As consumers grow more sophisticated about AI limitations and authenticity questions, brands with genuine human expertise embedded in their purchase journeys gain trust advantages that purely digital experiences cannot replicate.
“People are starting to get to the point where they understand how to use LLMs and AI, but also are starting to question how authentic it is,” Albano said. “Consumers either coming in store to ask questions or purchasing online and then picking up in store — that human interaction at some point in the purchase journey actually is a really helpful thing.”
Natural language interfaces will eventually reshape the entire internet, making the distinction between human and computer-generated advice increasingly consequential for consumer trust.
“Understanding what advice is coming from a consumer from a computer versus a person is going to be critically important and we have an authentic voice in that,” Albano said.
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
